By Chelsea Szabo
Upper Yarra Secondary College students have finished harvesting their fifth and biggest crop of grapes for the high school’s unique Junction Street wine label.
The vineyard was planted around 2019, and with the help of Oakridge winery, has introduced students to the art of vinedressing, and a potential job at one of the many wineries in the Yarra Valley.
VET teacher Marcus Cook, who leads vineyard operations at the highschool, said this year they have harvested over three tonnes of grapes.
“Previous years have been up to two [tonnes], so this is really a bit of a bumper crop for us,” Mr Cook said.
He says the ripper harvest can be attributed to the season, their effort to continually improve their pruning processes and the lack of frost damage.
Coldstream’s Oakridge Wines will take this year’s pinot noir grapes and turn them to wine at no cost to the secondary college.
Senior viticulturist at Oakridge Wines Steve Faulkner has been working with the highschool vineyard and said it is about showing students that viticulture is an industry they can enter into.
“I work with Marcus about teaching the students how to prune, teaching them how to weed, teaching them about vines and how they grow and how to get the best out of them for quality,” Mr Faulkner said.
“This whole program is about letting local kids know that the wine industry is a viable career opportunity in this area, because it’s vital to our industry that people keep coming through and keep having an interest.”
UYSC student Oliver did a taster of the course last year and decided to get involved this year.
“It’s interesting,” he said.
Seth got involved this year because his mates were doing it and a family member was involved in its construction.
Both students say they will probably continue with vinedressing after they finish school.
They also said the best part is getting out of school.
Last year, their Junction Street & Co 2023 Pinot Noir won the Best Small Batch Red Wine award at the 2024 Endeavour Group Yarra Valley Wine Show.
Marcus Cook said they are “just excited to, I suppose, continue with this brand, because it’s a good feel for the community that we have a product that comes from our school that ends up on a shelf”.
UYSC would also like to level up their offering from a certificate II in wine industry operation to a certificate III.
He thanks Oakridge for all their assistance.
