Based in the Reynella, South Australia, Lucy Clements is Operations Director for Premium Wineries ANZ for Accolade Wines. This means she is responsible for the operational, financial, people, safety and quality winemaking aspects of eight premium wineries across Australia and New Zealand including; St Hallett, Grant Burge, Bay of Fires, Petaluma, Hardy’s Tintara, Stonier, Houghton Nannup and Mud House.
From humble, glass washer days at the Barossa Vintage Festival, Lucy vividly remembers watching the winemakers and how much fun they were having. Soon after, she was convinced that she could combine her passions (Chemistry and French) and make wine in France. Lucy is a graduate of the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Oenology in 2002 and has made wine in France, USA, UK and Australia across 14 vintages. Furthermore, Lucy spent 7 years in the UK in various roles as product developer, winemaker and wine buyer for Waverley, Sainsbury’s and Tesco for myriad wine regions around the world. In 2015 she returned to Australia as Head of Wine Sourcing at Coles Liquor and then returned to full time winemaking in 2016 at Accolade. Lucy is now also half way through her Master of Wine qualification – the most prestigious title in the world of wine.
Lucy loves the combination of art, science, business and strategy that her role provides and it’s one of the key reasons she has stuck with it for so many years. Her greatest achievement to date is having blended wine in every major wine producing region in the world. Lucy says, “I am so proud of every wine I have either made or blended but blending and crafting wines in Burgundy, speaking French at the same time, is absolutely my highlight.” Lucy’s hopes for the future of the industry is that it continues to focus on what customers want by ensuring the wines that are crafted inspire and delight consumers. Lucy says, “We have to obsess over what they want and not always what we want and that’s at every price point. I also hope that we put more efforts into future proofing our industry. Climate change is real and working towards using less water, less power and adopting more technologies is the only way we will survive for another 50 years.”
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