Scott McWilliam
McWilliam’s Wines Senior Winemaker & Family Spokesperson

Sixth generation winemaker, Scott McWilliam was born into the Australian wine industry and it wasn’t long before he started working at the family wine company. In 1989, Scott was hired at the age of 14 by McWilliam’s Wines to clear tanks at its Griffith wineries.

Since then, Scott has completed both a Bachelor of Science degree at the Australian National University in 1998 and Post Graduate degree, in Oenology, at the University of Adelaide in 2000. He has also quickly established himself as one of Australia’s brightest and most promising young winemakers.

Scott joined the McWilliam’s Wines winemaking team, initially based in the Riverina, in New South Wales, in 2000. Today, Scott is the senior winemaker at the company’s super-premium Mount Pleasant winery in the Hunter Valley and family company spokesperson representing McWilliam’s Wines Group internationally.

Throughout his career with McWilliam’s Wines, Scott has been involved in developing innovative new programs to improve the safety and efficiency of winery and laboratory operations as well as developing environmental sustainability plans for the Mount Pleasant site.

Scott has continually diversified his skills by completing vintages in several regions throughout Australia and the world. His vintage and winemaking experience spans such regions as: Griffith (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004), Hunter Valley (2000, 2005 to current), and Coonawarra (2004) in Australia; Bordeaux (1994) and Beaujolais (2001), in France; and Sonoma (2002), Central Valley (2003) and Napa (2005), in the United States.

Scott has judged at many reputable international wine shows including the LA County Wine Show and the San Francisco International Wine Show. He also judges annually at Mundus Vini - Germany’s largest wine competition. Scott has hosted wine seminars for the Australian Wine Bureau and represented the Hunter Valley at Wine Australia tastings held in the USA.

Taking a keen interest in the Hunter Valley, Scott is involved with industry organisations and was selected to take part in the Winemaker’s Federation of Australia Future Leaders program which recognises he will be a key contributor to the future of the wine sector.

Scott counts the time he spent working vintages overseas as invaluable to him as a winemaker today. Scott also gained enormous experience during his time working in the Microbiology department of the prestigious Australian Wine Research Institute, in Adelaide.

Scott lives in the Hunter Valley, in Australia, with his wife, Nora and daughter Saffron. He enjoys the outdoors, fine wine and fine food, motorbike riding and sports cars, and has travelled to more than 45 wine regions throughout the world.