Winejobsonline.com is all about people, and sponsorship is one way we love to celebrate the successes in New Zealand's wine industry.

Winejobsonline.com is pleased to support the New Zealand wine industry by way of several sponsorships. www.winejobsonline.com is all about people, and we love to celebrate the successes in our industry. That's why we have selected a few very special areas to become involved in by way of sponsorships.

Graduation Grant Winners 2007/08
March 2008 - EIT Graduation Grant winner announced - Congratulations Renée Dale.April 2008 - Lincoln's winner is Alice MacKenzie. Well done.

Scroll down about half way for more on these two happy ladies...

Young Viticulturist of the Year Award - 2007

AND THE WINNER IS:.............. Congratulations Emma Taylor, Villa Maria Viticulturist, on your achievement, and good luck for the Young Hortulturist of the Year award to be held in November 2007.

Emma Taylor, Young Viticulturist of the Year 2007 with Heather Battersby

L - R Regional Winners Nigel Sowman, Pip Wither, Emma, Charles Simons

www.winejobsonline.com was one of the sponsors for the regional and national finals of the 2007 competition and donated a trophy made from a vine kindly provided by Bruce Corban and planted by his late father Joe more than 20 years ago. Congratulations to Nigel Sowman (Marlborough), Pip Wither (Central Otago), Emma Taylor (Hawkes Bay) and Charles Simons (Wairarapa) regional finalists, as they battle it out for the National award on 25 August 2007. Grateful thanks to Spiegelau glassware and wotif.com for their sponsorship support of this event.

Young Viticulturist of the Year trophy

Battling it out in the Hortisport event Villa Maria Estate

L - R Emma, Charles, Nigel and Pip

More free Beer for Students... - 2007.

After the success of the beer tasting at Hallertau Brewery in 2006, www.winejobsonline.com sponsored the 2007 final year students from Lincoln University to a tour and tasting in August 2007. Brewer Stephen Plowman again showed off his finest beers - and brewery - and a good time was had by all. After visiting more than a dozen wineries in four days, the students were all wined out so a few ice cold beers hit the right spot.

Pictured enjoying a few quiet beers at Hallertau Brewbar in August 2007 are, L to R - Spencer Spetnagel, Alice MacKenzie,
Mike Morley-Bunker (Lincoln University Senior Lecturer) Stephen Plowman (Hallertau Brewer),
Heather Battersby (www.winejobsonline.com), Katrina Sutherland (Nobilo Wine Group), William Dean, Gavin Clements,
Angela Ronald (Babich Wines)

Lincoln University Visit to Auckland, Beer tasting at Hallertau Brewery - 2006.

It was Cheers and beers all round when final year students and tutors from Lincoln University's Viticulture and Oenology Department headed North on their annual tour of Hawkes Bay and Auckland wineries. And winejobsonline.com came to the party by sponsoring a visit to Hallertau Brewbar in Riverhead, West Auckland. Brewer Stephen Plowman conducted a tasting of his boutique beers and the students gave their palates a rest from a week's winetasting with a glass or two of their favourite. Who says there's no such thing as free beer? (And Hallertau is a fabulous place to drink it - Go there and try it for yourself!)

L - R: Vicky Bennett, Becs Cope, Stephen Plowman (Hallertau Brewer), Heather Battersby, (winejobsonline.com), Janey Fisher, Kirsten Creasy (Senior Tutor, Oenology, Lincoln University)

L - R: Janna Bulmer, Matt Barbour, Sarah Little, Nick Wright, Jessie Weaver

Young Viticulturist of the Year Award - 2006

(Shared generic sponsorship) Congratulations Marcus Wickham, inaugural winner of the Young Viticulturist of the Year Award in 2006

Wine Show Trophies

International Chardonnay Challenge - Trophy for top International wine - 2006

Jane Boyle from Cardmember Wines accepted the trophy from Paddy at the awards dinner in Gisborne October 2006. Cardmember represent Beringer in New Zealand and the winning wine was Beringer Private Reserve Chardonnay 2004 from the US.

 

The NZ International Wine Show - Trophy for best Chardonnay - 2006

Photo courtesy Lester deVere Photography - www.lester.co.nz

Awarded at a dinner in Auckland on Friday 22 September to Steve Voysey, Pernod Ricard Gisborne, for the Montana Terroir Series Stuart Block Chardonnay 2004.

 

Royal Easter Wine Show - Sweet Wine trophy.

The 2006 winner was the Saints Noble Semillon 2004. Brent Laidlaw was delighted with the trophy for what is a fairly rare varietal in New Zealand winemaking. This rich, full and flavoursome Noble Smillon is a French Sauternes-style wine, crafted using grapes grown in the Patutahi Estate in Gisborne and the Korokipo Estate in Hawkes Bay.

Won in 2005 by Villa Maria with their 2004 Noble Botrytis Selection Riesling, Paddy and Heather Battersby are pictured here with winemaker Corey Ryan at a black tie gala awards dinner in March.

Tertiary Graduation Grants.

Completing one's degree is another occasion to celebrate. By way of something completely different from the usual study scholarships, winejobsonline.com has sponsored two Graduation Grants, one for Lincoln University, Canterbury, and one for EIT, Hawkes Bay. These grants are non-academic and all eligible students may apply with an equal chance.

The grant is to assist with costs associated with attending graduation ceremonies, perhaps to help out with expenses that may otherwise have made it difficult to attend. We think that graduating should be a celebration of a great accomplishment so we designed this award to reflect the social side of the industry.

Response from both Lincoln and EIT has been positive since the awarding of the inaugural grants in 2005.

 

2007/2008 winners announced - March 2008

Lincoln - Alice MacKenzie

Alice MacKenzie thought the news of her win was "awesome" and "absolutely stunning" and was planning on treating her family to some very special wines at dinner after her Graduation on 4 April. She's working vintage for Nobilo in Gisborne and enjoying every minute.

EIT - Renée Dale

When Renée Dale heard the news, her response was: "Thats so fantastic thankyou so so so very much! It must feel pretty good being able to make someone feel as good as I feel right now! It's so very generous of you and thankyou again!!" So, we think she was pleased!!

Working at Villa Maria's Auckland winery for vintage (a job she got through winejobsonline.com), she headed to Hawkes Bay on 28 March to join fellow students for a day of celebration. Renee was planning on using the Grant for a family dinner after the ceremony.

 

The 2006/07 winners have been announced - March 2007.

EIT's Grant has been given to Ben Marx who said, "Wow, thank you! You've made this graduate very happy indeed." Ben, who is working vintage at Peregrine in Central Otago, took his parents to a fabulous lunch at Te Awa winery.

There were several wine/viticulture graduates from EIT on 23 March 2007 - here's a happy (good looking) bunch of new grads ready to join the wine industry!!

The lucky Lincoln recipient is Raj Singh who said, "I would like to thank winejobsonline for their generosity. It was such a pleasant surprise to be awarded the Grant. We had a wonderful day at graduation and it was great to catch up with some of the others who did the course."

Raj is shown above receiving his cheque from Jane Edwards, Sponsorship Manager, Lincoln University, April 2007 and below with his wife and baby son. Congratulations!!

 

The Lincoln winner for 2005/06 was Duncan Gibson.

Having worked vintage at Esk Valley, Duncan was delighted with his win which helped with the graduation day costs - "The winejobsonline graduation grant helped out big time when it came to covering the costs of graduation day; with these worries off my mind I was free to relax and enjoy the day. Thank you winejobsonline for making a special day extra special." Cheers Duncan.

EIT's lucky recipient for the 2005/06 year was Gordon Forshaw

who was enjoying his first harvest at Marlborough's Framingham wine company. When told of his win, Gordon was thrilled to be able to use the grant to pay his airfare back to Hawkes Bay to attend the ceremony.

"Thanks heaps for the grant - it was a real treat and a great day." And a bit of advice for students? Gordon says, "Chase your dreams, be the best you can be and surprise yourself of the power you have within. And remember if it is to be its up to me."

Good one, Gordon!

The winner for 2005 from EIT is Elske-Sanne Hunt

Elske is working at Goldwater Estate on Waiheke Island. She was delighted at her win and described it as being the cream on the cake to graduation.

Megan Watts is the inaugural recipient from Lincoln

She's back studying again Commerce at the Graduate level. Here's how Megan persuaded us that the grant should be hers:

She is leaving the safety of the warm family nest.
A naive first year wine student,
There is no time for rest.
She grows nervous and stressed, with each passing test,
But with support from family and friends, She is achieving her best.
Balancing workload, with the occasional ale.
She studied so hard, No option to fail, her work paying off, great results in the mail.
Graduation draws near, Mum as proud as can be,
and I would like to thank her, For all the support she gives me.
Advancing ahead, towards a challenging time, I look forward to the future, A Future in Wine.

Megan Watts seen here receiving her Graduation Grant from Jane Edwards, sponsorships co-ordinator, Lincoln University.

Marlborough Harvest Party

Winejobsonline.com was one of the sponsors of the inaugural Marlborough Harvest Party 2005 in Blenheim. Held to celebrate the end of harvest and to bring all those involved together in a non-competitive environment. 900 hardworking people celebrating the successful crop harvest requires some organisation, and winejobsonline.com sponsored Heather Battersby's time and expertise to assist with the event arrangements.

The organisers hailed the event as a great success and everyone who attended looked like they were having a good time.

About winejobsonline.com

www.winejobsonline.com is owned and run by Paddy and Heather Battersby, New Zealanders with personal experience in the wine industry, recruitment and human resources. Read more about us here.