2014 Young Viticulturist of the Year set to be biggest yet

23 June 2014

2014 Young Viticulturist of the Year set to be the biggest and best yet

With just two weeks to go until the first regional rounds of Young Viticulturist of The Year 2014, this year’s competition is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet! Now in its ninth year Young Viticulturist of The Year will host a fourth regional competition for the first time with Wairarapa Winegrowers, joining Hawkes Bay, Marlborough and Central Otago.

Competition organiser, Emma Taylor said “Since the success of Braden Crosby from Borthwick Estate who was the 2012 national champion, it seems that many viticulturists in the Wairarapa region have been inspired by him and there is now enough interest for Wairarapa to hold their own round of the competition.” Braden Crosby will use his experience as a past competitor to shape the competition which will be held at Te Kairanga Winery on the 30th July alongside the regional Silver Secateurs competition.

Along with the growing scale of the competition, the prize package has gone up at notch too. The winner of the Young Viticulturist of the Year 2014 will not only leave the competition with a $5000 NZSVO travel prize, a Leadership week travelling around New Zealand meeting the industries established leaders, $2000 cash, and wine glasses supplied by winejobsonline but they will also be driving away in a brand new Santa Fe 2.2 CRDi A6 7 seater on a 12 month lease. “This now brings the prize package for the winner to over $20,000 worth of prizes. We are very excited that the prize package has grown this year, and think that this reflects the calibre of our competition. Many thanks to Hyundai and Fleetpartners for providing our competition with this prize.”

Five of the past competition winners have gone on to take out the title of the Young Horticulturist of the Year.

Previous winners:
2006: Marcus Wickham, Marlborough
2007: Emma Taylor, Hawkes Bay
2008: Simon Bishell, Marlborough
2009: Caine Thompson, Hawkes Bay
2010: Stuart Dudley, Marlborough
2011: Nick Paulin, Central Otago
2012: Braden Crosby, Wairarapa
2013: Matt Fox, Gisborne

Dates 2014 competition:
Hawkes Bay Thursday July 3rd at Te Awa Estate.
Central Otago Friday July 11th at Cromwell Polytech.
Wairarapa Wednesday July 30th at Te Kairanga Estate.
Marlborough: Friday August 1 at NMIT.
National Final: Tuesday – Thursday 26 – 28th August Blenheim.

ENDS

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