Western Australian scientist Dr John Gladstones has received the biennial McWilliam’s Wines Maurice O’Shea Award, as presented at a gala dinner in Sydney last week.
Recognised as one of the most prestigious titles in the wine industry, the McWilliam’s Wines Maurice O’Shea Award memorialises the late McWilliam’s Wines winemaker and is presented every two years to an individual, institute or corporation that has made a historically significant contribution to the Australian wine industry.
Dr Gladstones’s work reaches back to 1965, when he released his first paper that touched on the advantages of Margaret River as a region, which he followed with a thesis on the area as an ideal region for viticulture.
His work has been credited with triggering a momentum of plantings, eventually establishing Margaret River as an internationally regarded wine region.
McWilliam’s Wines CEO George Wahby said Dr Gladstones’s work was far-reaching and had benefited generations of winemakers and viticulturists.
“The Margaret River wine region as we know it would knot have been possible without Dr Gladstones’s pioneering and exploratory work,” Wahby said.
“In addition, his subsequent research into the relationship between viticulture and the environment has presented the industry with incredible insight into this important relationship.”