Sarah Crowe first woman named top winemaker
Former nursery manager Sarah Crowe has been named the nation’s new Winemaker of the Year.
There was a time in Sarah Crowe’s life when her opinions on indoor ferns, droughtproof plants and which is better for a vegie garden — chook poo or cow manure — dominated her working day.
“I was the nursery manager at an independent store, and it would be a case of people coming in and saying to me, ‘Oh, I want something for a shady spot, easy to look after and I want it to grow about a metre, what do you recommend?’ and I would suggest a few options for them.’’
Now she has the ear, and attention, of the winemaking fraternity, after a conversion during a trip through France’s Champagne region saw her walk away from gardening to take up the vine.
That decision culminated in Crowe being named Winemaker of the Year at the Halliday Australian Wine Companion Awards in Melbourne last night. With no family connection to the wine industry, her feat is made all the more impressive by the fact that in a male-dominated industry she is also the first female winemaker to win arguably the nation’s most prestigious wine award.
It is estimated that only 10 per cent of winemakers are women. Not bad for someone who, on returning to Australia from that trip through France, got her first job at a winery answering phones.
“I had quit my nursery job and went overseas, and when I was travelling around France I guess it was autumn, and the vineyards looked really beautiful. And by then I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll have to get a job when I go home,’ and I thought ‘Maybe I could work in a vineyard — it’s got leaves and dirt, I get that’,’’ Yarra Yering’s winemaker told The Australian.
“So I phoned Brokenwood — it was my favourite wine — and they gave me a job on the phone.’’
That was 15 years ago. Crowe now sits atop the nation’s wine industry and, from her perch in Victoria’s glorious Yarra Valley, leads her team at Yarra Yering.
Working her red wines from one of Victoria’s oldest and most revered vineyards, she managed to pull out of the 2014 vintage two Yarra Yering reds that scored a remarkable 99/100 and four wines that took out 98 points in wine industry doyen James Halliday’s 2017 Wine Companion.
Crowe’s first vintage in charge was in 2010, in the Hunter Valley. “All of a sudden you don’t have somebody to double-check … your decisions with: it was … quite stressful in that respect, although it was a relatively easy harvest … as the weather goes.’’
Halliday ponders whether Crowe has a method of seeing the future, as she trended towards shiraz from her early days, with Yarra Yering ultimately the perfect home to hone her love of the red wine variety.
“I was in the audience at the Hunter Valley Legends and Wine Industry Awards in 2009 when she was named Rising Star of the Year,’’ Halliday said. “The emotion in the room was palpable, as was the pleasure with which her award was received.
“My mouth dribbles at the thought of the Yarra Yerings. I’m sure that Sarah’s experience will grow exponentially over the coming years as she accumulates knowledge about the strengths and weaknesses of the blocks within the vineyard.’’
Crowe laughs off the romance around winemaking. “Most of the time it’s hard work … (rolling) barrels around, cleaning out barrels, dragging hoses around and pumps … climbing ladders and carrying heavy buckets … Everyone thinks it’s nice and glamorous, that you have the best job in the world, but really a lot of the time you are a glorified cleaner.’’