Joe Stenberg was studying physiology at Auckland University when he opted for an elective paper in viticulture, delving a little deeper into the wines he was pouring in his part time bar job.
Nick McArthur grew up working the land on his family’s market garden in Outram, literally hands on in horticulture. By his early teens he was up at 4am each Saturday morning, travelling to Dunedin to help his parents sell their vegetables and berries at the Dunedin Farmers’ Market.
It’s a blue-skied, post-frost Central Otago morning as Owen Calvert drives through Bendigo and up to Tarras.
It says a lot about Paul Mooney that the most satisfying vintage in more than four decades at Mission Estate was the cyclonestruck 2023 season.
Watching her parents and their friends at dinner parties helped launch Kate Curd into a winemaking career she loves.
Grant Taylor’s winemaking career owes its genesis to a bunch of pesky worms. Without them, the fruit on his family’s apple tree might never have yielded such formative, jeopardy-rich beverage adventures.
From commercial salmon fisherman, camel trainer and philosophy academic, to wine writer, illustrator and sought-after speaker, is one of the less common career trajectories.
In the lead up to the Young Viticulturist of the Year National Final 2024, we meet the national finalists from around the country.
Jane Cooper has been Chair of Judges for The National Wine Awards of Aotearoa New Zealand since its launch in 2022.
Jane Cooper has a soft spot for wines with a point of difference, and there is no shortage of that in her brand Alexia, at home in the heart of Greytown.
Growing up in an English council estate, Aaron Jay had a simple life plan – join the army, earn some money, get ahead.
A self-confessed “nerd” with a penchant for policy and a passion for sociology has been recognised for his commitment to New Zealand’s wine industry.
When Nick Hoskins took up an apprenticeship with the Wellington Parks Department aged 17, he was simply keen on a job outdoors.
Nestled in the heart of Marlborough’s wine industry, with the likes of Dog Point, Te Whare Ra and Greywacke on its doorstep, Arbour has spent the past nine years delivering extraordinary dishes and a carefully curated selection of wines. Awarded Two Hats by the Cuisine Good Food Awards, which also named it Best Regional Restaurant in New Zealand in 2022, Arbour has attracted the devotion of many in New Zealand’s wine industry. Cofounder and owner Liz Buttimore talks of a labour of love.
What started as a conversation with her antenatal group has grown into a successful wellbeing business for Michelle Morpeth, and one she balances with her wine sales career at Central Otago’s Wooing Tree.
Capturing Sir George Fistonich in a few pages seems a fool’s errand.
Dr Jo Burzynska’s senses must cheer loudly when she falls asleep each night, for that’s the only time they get a break from their heavy workload.
When Dario Jerez started work as a vintage cellar hand at Indevin, he expected to stay a few months.
Nigel Tibbits was 16 years old when he accepted a job with Maté Brajkovich at San Marino Vineyards.
Chris Scott was driven by boredom when he picked up his dad’s copy of the Cuisine New Zealand Wine Annual in the 1990s.
Brood Fermentation is doing things differently.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a more glee-rich photo than that of Sarah-Kate Dineen holding the Heritage Rosebowl trophy at the 2023 National Wine Awards Aotearoa New Zealand.
When two Northern Irishmen born 50 years and 50-ish kilometres apart from each other fall for the same beguiling grape, 20,000km from home in Central Otago, the only decent thing to do is become firm friends. Claire Finlayson talks to Alan Brady and Brian Shaw about a company that’s name is a nod to their collective pluck.
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