SARAH CROWE

ROLE

Winemaker/general manager, Yarra Yering, Yarra Valley, Victoria

FORMER CAREER

Horticulturist, working in garden centres

EARLY CAREER GOAL

Accountancy

THE EPIPHANY

While pondering her future, Sarah was reminded she had previously wanted to work in a vineyard, and it all fell into place. DESPITE A steady career in horticulture, Sarah Crowe had become restless. She had already returned from six months backpacking overseas and was 18 months into a Bachelor of Arts degree – while still working in garden centres – but didn’t know what lay ahead. “I was loving the English and history subjects, but couldn’t really see myself becoming a teacher. It felt like I was just filling in time,” Sarah recalls. Then Sarah’s sister reminded her of how enchanted she’d been of the vines on her travels through France two years earlier, and how it had made her want to work in a vineyard. It was a pivotal conversation. Sarah’s sister worked in a bottle shop, so she suggested Sarah call Brokenwood for a job. “She said, ‘I hear they’re all really nice and apparently Iain Riggs answers the phone. Call them, you’ve got nothing to lose!’” As crazy as it sounded, Sarah did just that.

Iain did in fact answer that call and passed Sarah on to their vineyard manager, who not only gave her five weeks’ work on the spot, but also let her stay in the bunkhouse above their office. So Sarah drove from her home in Wollongong, south of Sydney, to the Hunter Valley, wondering what was up with all these incredibly nice wine people. It wasn't long before Sarah knew she could only work among the vines, so after that initial stint at Brokenwood, she found other work in the region. “Vines just made sense to me from the beginning,” Sarah says. “One of my favourite things to do [in horticulture] was prune roses because you’re setting them up for the next season, and it’s the same with grape vines. There was an immediate understanding and appreciation of what was going on there.”

With harvest looming and vineyard work soon to dry up, a friend suggested Sarah find some winery work to tide her over. Again, Sarah threw herself into something new and, in doing so, found her true calling. Sarah has now been at Yarra Yering for five years, achieving an incredible amount in this short time, including being crowned Winemaker of the Year by James Halliday. “I’m just really proud of the way we’ve been able to reengage the brand with wine lovers,” Sarah says, reflecting on the legacy of winery founder, the late Dr Bailey Carrodus. “I also want to highlight and promote the vineyard, not the winemaking, and I feel like you can taste that in the wines now.”

“One of my favourite things to do was prune roses because you’re setting them up for the next season, and it’s the same with grape vines.”