A generational approach to winemaking and Decarbonisation at Australia’s oldest family‑owned winery
25 August 2026
For 176 years, Hill Smith Family Estates (HSFE) has cultivated more than vineyards — they’ve cultivated a philosophy of sustainability, stewardship, continuity, and deep respect for the land.
As Australia’s oldest family‑owned winery, Yalumba sits at the centre of the Estate, a multi-brand operation that now spans South Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand, distributing wine to more than 52 countries around the world.
Louisa Rose, winemaker and head of sustainability at HSFE, has spent her entire 33‑year career with the business, and describes it not just as a workplace, but as a true generational legacy.
“The Hill-Smith family thinks in generations, not just financial years,” she says.
“Profitability is important – as without it you’re not sustainable in the most basic sense – but our philosophy is about influencing what happens in the very long term. We may not be able to control mother nature, but we can perhaps have some influence over it.”
“For us, sustainability is not just about doing what is right. But taking a risk lens to how our business operates. We must do our part to reduce a changing climate, so that we are future proofing our business [given how significantly we rely on a stable environment].”
A vertically integrated winemaking business
The breadth of the Hill Smith Family Estates operation is unusual in modern wine, and intentionally so, because the business maintains significant control over its processes, from grape growing to barrel making.
“We have our own cooperage that makes our barrels,” Louisa explains. “We’re the only winery in the Southern Hemisphere with a winery owned cooperage of this scale.”
It also runs its own commercial vine nursery – supplying both internal vineyards and other growers. Its distribution businesses, Samuel Smith & Son and Negociants, complete the loop.
This level of integration helps the business to have direct control over its processes, maintain quality, respond quickly to market change, and implement sustainability efforts more directly.
Sustainability: a long-term decarbonisation roadmap
“You don’t get to 176 years and six generations, if there isn’t something inherently sustainable about the business”, says Louisa.
HSFE’s
sustainability strategyOpens in new window
is centred around five key pillars designed to drive the business for future generations. They are resilient terroir, viable planet, prosperous community, thriving workforce and responsible governance.
Its strategy aligns with the United Nations’ Race to Zero campaign and the requirements of the International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA).
“On the emissions reduction front, we started our reduction journey in the 1990’s when we signed up for the ‘Greenhouse Challenge’. Then about 10 years ago we started working with an external company to help us to calculate our footprint in more detail. This really started us off in the right direction – measurement is vital to know where you are, where you want to get to, and what to focus on”.
“After that, we went for high impact and readily available solutions, such as installing solar on rooftops, LED lighting on site to reduce power consumption, as well as investing in hybrid vehicles, and upgrading our bottling facility and machinery.”
Joining the IWCA was where HSFE really started to gain momentum, according to Louisa.
“Collaborating with other likeminded businesses on an emissions reduction journey together has been hugely beneficial for us. We knew we needed a credible transition plan to be part of the group and having one encouraged us to push our progress each year” says Louisa.
“It also spurred us on to set targets. And while targets can sometimes sound generic,” she admits, “once you have one, it becomes possible to map the future.”
“Tangible targets also help us to turn our roadmaps and plans into real capital projects – where we take initiatives to the Board of Directors, cost them out, and build business cases.”
Some projects deliver strong financial paybacks. Others, Louisa says, are “necessary because of who we want to be, even if the numbers are harder. It’s also simple risk management in many cases.”
Louisa is clear though that the real power lies not in just what the business can do alone, but what it can do collectively to unlock it. The real challenge, she says, sits beyond the winery fence line.
Engaging suppliers in the transition
Much of HSFE’s emissions profile – like most manufacturing businesses – sits in Scope 3, with 80% sitting with suppliers, logistics and packaging. For these, progress depends on conversations, influence and shared investment.
“We’re in active discussions with glass manufacturers and transport companies,” Louisa says. “They’re considering biofuels, renewable energy, biogases – all things that are absolutely necessary, but currently costly to adopt.”
Suppliers are beginning to approach customers like HSFE with premium‑priced, lower‑carbon options. For example, transport companies moving to renewable fuels will offer certified low‑emissions freight – but at a premium.
Louisa is candid about the implications and the dilemma.
“How far is any business prepared to be at the forefront and pay for it? In wine, we don’t have a lot of ability to increase the price at the other end. Some premiums we can pay. Others we can’t.”
It’s a tension many industries face – the desire to move faster toward net zero, weighed against the economic realities of highly competitive, cost-sensitive markets.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years, as every business will have to make its own decisions about how to manage this”.
Advice for other businesses
Louisa’s advice for other businesses is to measure everything you're doing.
“Work out what you're going to have to do to reach your targets. Put a goal out there (as lofty as it might seem, now out to 2035 or even 2050) and then say “OK, we don't know now how we're going to do all of this, but here is what we know” and work your hardest to get there.”
Lousia’s other piece of advice is to connect with smart people.
“As straightforward as this may sound, there are plenty of experts out there available to help, who have access to the best technology or accounting systems. Use them. You don’t have to do it all yourself,” she says.
A culture of loyalty and long-term commitment
Beyond strategy and infrastructure, the HSFE’s culture is one of its greatest assets. Many employees build lifelong careers here, with Louisa among them.
“I started straight out of university and never left,” she says. But even her 33 years doesn’t place her at the top of the list. “Chris Gerhardy started on the bottling line in 1972 – he is now in his 54th year.”
This type of tenure is increasingly rare. But for HSFE, it reflects the generational thinking the family has carried since Samuel Smith first named the property “Yalumba”, a word from the local indigenous Peramangk language, when he from Dorset planted his first vines in 1849.
A legacy evolving with the times
Hill-Smith Family Estates is at a fascinating junction – a heritage business with a long view of the future, now navigating the complexity of climate action in a world where decarbonisation is essential.
But for Louisa, the direction is clear.
“Ultimately, we’re working towards a world where these renewable, non‑emitting options become the norm. We’re not there yet. But these next few years are going to be incredibly important and interesting.”
From the cooperage to the vineyards, from global markets to local partnerships, the business continues to grow – not just in scale, but in responsibility.
As they work toward a net-zero future, the same long-term lens that has guided Yalumba for nearly two centuries will shape how it adapts for the next.
HSFE has been supplying Coles Liquor for more than 25 years and is one of the suppliers within the boundary of Coles’ supplier engagement target.
