“It got me thinking, ‘maybe this could be a cool thing to do’,” she says of contemplating a life in wine. Four years on, Greystone Wines’ Vineyard and Winery Assistant is the 2024 Tonnellerie de Mercurey Young Winemaker of the Year, taking the title for North Canterbury.
Speaking from Canada, with her first overseas vintage hard on the heels of the national final, Georgia says people are what makes the wine industry special, with so many willing to share their time and expertise. “That’s what I noticed moving from law to wine,” she says, noting that in preparing for the Young Winemaker competition, in three regional competitions and two national finals, she was inundated with support. In the lead up to the 2024 national final, held at The Runholder in Wairarapa in late August, she received myriad calls from people all around the South. “I am really impressed at how caring people were... That’s really special.”
Georgia’s wine career has been centred on artisan organic production, relying on excellent fruit in lieu of a toolbox of solutions. But winning the competition meant looking beyond organics and North Canterbury, to ensure she could answer questions pertinent to conventional operations, large and small, and to wineries in other regions, she says. “Trying to get information from other people outside organics has been really helpful.”
The winemaker grew up in Christchurch and Wānaka, with home schooling allowing the family to move back and forth, “which was amazing”. She went to high school for her last two years, then moved to Laos for a year, where she taught English as a second language in a small village in the south. That led her to a law degree, “because I really wanted to help other people”. While studying, Georgia worked as a Community Law case worker and an emergency communicator for Police, answering 111 calls. That meant “taking on a lot of burden for a lot of people while also taking on a lot yourself ”, and she was exhausted by the time she finished her degree and set off for Europe, already dreading the thought of returning to law.
The Camino de Santiago provided something of an epiphany, and she researched the Post Graduate diploma at Lincoln University before setting out to learn whether wine was a good fit. She visited Greystone and found them “helpful and realistic at the same time”, and also volunteered at Silver Wing Wines, doing some days in the vineyard and helping over vintage. The experiences were the push she needed to begin her Lincoln studies in February 2020, just before the first Covid-19 lockdown. On graduation, she became a trainee at Amisfield in Central Otago, getting a taste of work in the vineyard, winery and lab, before joining Greystone early in 2022. Later that year Georgia won Tonnellerie de Mercurey North Canterbury Young Winemaker of the Year and became the first person to represent North Canterbury in the national competition. So she’s delighted to be bringing home the national trophy this year, repaying the support she’s been given along the way. Greystone Winemaker Dom Maxwell says Georgia has shown “enormous” ability and dedication during her time at the winery. “She’s such a positive team member with a bright future ahead and we’re really thrilled she’s a part of the Greystone team.”
Her goal is to eventually become head winemaker in a winery she is “super proud to work at”, that values its people and works with organic and regenerative methods. While she’s changed paths, she still likes to think she’s helping people, one way or another. “There are a lot of lawyers who drink wine!”
