Cameron Trott, Associate Winemaker, Greenhough Vineyards, Hope Nelson

Born, Bred, Schooled:

Christchurch,  Mean streets of Mapua, Nelson.

First wine industry job – year:

2010 Vintage Cellar-hand Neudorf Vineyards.

First real (full time) job (outside of school/uni holidays):

Chef.

Career Highlight:

Pretty fresh off the boat so still waiting for the highlight. Inaugural winner of David Macintosh Memorial scholarship for Organics was a nice moment.

Cat? Dog?

Definitely dog, we tried a couple of cats, but they were pretty suspicious of me, before finally moving out. We have a new pup called King who is shaping up to be a top notch winery dog.

Desert island wine and food:

While on a family Fiji sailing holiday we stopped at an unpopulated island in the Yasawa group. We had a memorable meal of freshly caught yellow fin tuna cooked on an open fire, with some icy cold beers; it doesn’t get any better than that.    

Mentor/Influencer:  

There have been a few people in the Nelson scene that have influenced the way I think about wine. The Neudorf team, Shane Munn from Woollaston, Andrew Greenhough,  For viticulture, Colin Ross at Seresin Estates.

Dinner table companions, dead or alive…

Doesn’t matter who, more what they bring, hopefully the wines I want to try but am too stingy to buy.

Greatest achievement…

Well to date would have to be my two boys, Will and Jack.

New Zealand wine industry needs:

Co-op wineries would be nice. Young winemakers starting out can pool resources, collate new ideas, share the capital stress?

If you weren’t working in the wine industry, what would you be doing?

Tourism or Aquaculture.

One thing about you people might be surprised to learn?

I was raised as a vegetarian in a nudist Holiday park.

If you had the day off tomorrow what would you like to do:

Go fishing at Durville Island.

Connections: