Are you of legal drinking age in your country of residence?
Are you of legal drinking age in your country of residence?
The great stories and people that make up the New Zealand wine industry.
Suraj GC never planned to be a sommelier, and he didn’t just become one, but rather he became New Zealand’s best when he was crowned New Zealand’s Sommelier of the Year for 2024.
It says a lot about Paul Mooney that the most satisfying vintage in more than four decades at Mission Estate was the cyclone-struck 2023 season.
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.
Rowan Hoskins has found his niche in Wairarapa-based viticulture. He got started in the wine industry when he found himself at somewhat of a loose end and his father – distinguished viticulturist Nick Hoskins – suggested he try his hand at winter pruning. “I did a season and never left,” says Rowan.
Nigel Tibbits was 16 years old when he accepted a job with Maté Brajkovich at San Marino Vineyards. Fifty years on, Kumeu River’s Cellar Master is part of the fabric of the iconic, historic, and family-owned West Auckland wine company.
Chris Scott was driven by boredom when he picked up his dad’s copy of the Cuisine New Zealand Wine Annual in the 1990s. “I got the bug almost instantly,” says Church Road’s head winemaker 30 years later.
Offering work-based training opportunities at its vineyards and wineries is key to attracting more people to work in the viticulture industry, according to Aotearoa’s largest grower and producer of New Zealand wine, Indevin Group.
Karen McLeod wears many hats. Even she admits it’s hard to define her current role, because she’s often doing several at once – and that changes depending on the time of year.
