Irina Santiago-Brown

Dr Irina Santiago-Brown is a world leader in sustainable viticulture. She designed and implemented the first sustainability program for wine grape growing in Australia as part of her PhD, the Sustainable Australia Winegrowing (SAW), which became the basis of the current national Australian program. Her thesis was the first in its field in the world. 

In addition to her consulting work, Santiago-Brown is co-owner, viticulturist and winemaker at Inkwell Wines with her husband Dudley Brown in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Managed using regenerative principles, their vineyard is certified organic in Australia and United States (USDA) and was named one of the top 50 vineyards in Australia by the Young Guns of Wine in 2021.  

Santiago-Brown’s work has been acclaimed around the world. She was named the inaugural Women in Wine Viticulturist of the Year in Australia in 2015, one of the four global Green Leaders by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in the United States in April 2018, the expert judge for the international 2020 writing competition on sustainable vineyards organised by Jancis Robinson, and Viticulturist of the Year for Australia by delicious. magazine in 2023.    

Santiago-Brown loves making wines that express the ‘fingerprint of place' of the increasingly complex eco-systems at Inkwell Wines’ vineyard.