By JESSE GRAHAM
GRUYERE’S Sarah Crowe is the first woman to be named wine critic James Halliday’s Winemaker of the Year, with the Yarra Yering winemaker receiving the top honour in a ceremony on 3 August.
Ms Crowe, 41, received the honour at a ceremony launching the 2017 Halliday Wine Companion, where top wines and winemakers from around the country are acknowledged with awards from the famed writer.
This year’s awards mark the first time a woman has won the Winemaker of the Year Award, which Ms Crowe said was an “inspirational” moment.
“First of all, winning it because of somebody respecting your work is a great personal achievement, and it’s an amazing achievement for everyone here at Yarra Yering – particularly the guys who work in the vineyard,” she said.
“They work hard and deliver beautiful grapes – and I can’t make good wine if I don’t have good grapes.
“But, for women in the industry as well, I guess it’s inspirational. Anything’s possible if you love what you do.”
She said that women made up about “10 per cent” of the industry’s winemakers, and that she would like to see those numbers shift.
“Often, when I do wine dinners and even last night (at the wine awards), you’d be surprised at how many women will come up to me and say, ‘It’s so refreshing to see a female winemaker. Are there any others?’ – it’s a bit of a novelty,” Ms Crowe said.
“A lot of people don’t think about it, but it happens all the time.
“I have a lot of amazing female winemaking friends and … possibly because it is a male-dominated industry, I think we probably work harder to try and compensate and, I guess, to prove that we can hold our own a little bit.”
The Winemaker of the Year Award comes in Ms Crowe’s 15th year in the industry, after starting out at Brokenwood Wines in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley.
She came to the Yarra Valley after 12 years of working in the vineyards and then as a winemaker, and has been at the helm of Yarra Yering for the last three years.
The process for making wines at the winery, she said, is intensive, with the grapes harvested and sorted by hand, before placing them in half-tonne fermenters and hand-plunging the wine as it is made.
Mr Halliday congratulated Ms Crowe on her award and for the results of the winery’s wines, with the releases being her first vintage at Yarra Yering.
“She has made red wines of the highest imaginable quality from her first vintage, and to the delight of many, myself included, has offered all the wines with screwcaps,” he said.
The winery scored strongly in the Companion, with the Yarra Yering Carrodus Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, named after winery founder Dr Bailey Carrodus, receiving scores of 99/100.
“She has done a fabulous job with what was her first full vintage. Just an amazing, amazing job,” Mr Halliday said.
“And made a wine I always thought was impossible – a Shiraz Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley. She was the very first to do it and it’s just a beautiful wine. A marriage made in heaven.”
The James Halliday 2017 Wine Companion, which features all the award-winners and notes on more than 1300 Australian wines, was released on Thursday, 4 August.
