The Riverina Young Achiever Award has been designed to recognise, celebrate, and develop emerging leaders within the Riverina wine industry.

Developed by the Riverina Winemakers Association and proudly sponsored by the De Bortoli family, the award has been named in honour of Deen De Bortoli, a second-generation family member whose contribution to the family's winemaking legacy helped shape the business into what it is today.

The award aims to acknowledge outstanding contributions made by young professionals across all sectors of the industry while creating opportunities for professional development, industry engagement, and leadership growth.

Beyond recognising individual achievement, the award seeks to inspire the next generation of industry leaders and demonstrate the Riverina wine community’s commitment to investing in its future.

2026 Winner - Jesse Smart

Jesse is a Graduate Engineer, working on the packaging line during his Mechatronics Engineering degree at the University of Wollongong. Since graduating, Jesse has become someone the business turns to when it needs to work smarter. He brought a failed reverse osmosis plant back to life with remote monitoring, helped move the packaging line towards paperless, and played a key role in bringing in automatic SSCC pallet labelling, so operators no longer have to climb off forklifts to label every pallet. Jesse also set up a work group across five departments to improve cask line compliance, and trained staff throughout the business on the new systems. Outside work, he’s applying AI to predictive maintenance for agricultural machinery. Jesse is a young engineer who shows how automation can build a stronger, more sustainable wine industry.

About the Award

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

• Be aged 18 - 35 years or under at the time of application.

• Work within any sector of the Riverina wine industry, including: Viticulture, Winemaking, Marketing, Sales, Export, Research and Development, Logistics, Hospitality and Wine Tourism, Industry Support Services

We welcome applicants from across the industry's full value chain, not just those working in vineyards or wineries. Professionals in marketing, logistics, hospitality, tourism, research and development, export, design, communications and many other supporting roles are encouraged to apply.

Riverina NextGen

The Riverina NextGen Wine Network is a community dedicated to connecting, supporting, and inspiring the next generation of people working across the Riverina wine industry, aged 18-35.

Our network brings together emerging professionals from every corner of the wine community. This includes those working in viticulture, winemaking, marketing, sales, cellar doors, logistics, administration, finance, hospitality, tourism, wine retail, packaging, label design, and the many businesses and service providers that support our wineries. Whether you work directly in wine production or play a role in the broader wine industry, Riverina NextGen is a place where you belong.