Wine industry women do Marlborough proud

Marlborough’s representative Young Winemaker and Young Viticulturalist have proved themselves the country’s best for 2025, with both titles travelling to the same region for the first time.

Ruby McManaway from Yealands won the 2025 Tonnellerie de Mercurey Young Winemaker of the Year, while Anna Kelland from Constellation Brands was named 2025 Young Viticulturist of the Year at the New Zealand Wine 2025 Wine Business Forum Celebration Dinner in Christchurch on August 28.

Ruby, who was involved in her fourth Young Winemaker of the Year campaign and the first in which she qualified from the Marlborough regional competition, said last week’s victory was based on her ongoing lessons and learnings from past shortcomings.

“I’ve been determined to get to the final and eventually win, so it was so great to take out the win and achieve a massive goal of mine.

“It’s been an incredible, technical and challenging couple days at Lincoln, against two other great competitors from Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay but a lot of fun and great to put my knowledge and techniques to a competitive testing day.

“The preparation from my Yealands colleagues, as well as the knowledge and feedback provided from past Young Winemaker competitions really helped me focus on where I needed to spend more time and take better care.

“Once we’d finished our speeches at the Wine Business Forum, I felt 10 times lighter and could enjoy a wine after and reminisce a bit with my competitors.”

Ruby won the Constellation Brands Laboratory Section, the Indevin Wine Judging section and Fruitfed Supplies speeches at the Celebration Dinner.

Her prizes will, among others, send her to Burgundy to visit the Tonnellerie de Mercurey cooperage, judge the New World Wine Awards and contribute reviews to Drinks Biz Magazine.

While she will celebrate her win, Ruby expects to be kept busy over the next few months.

“There are some amazing prizes and a beautiful trophy to travel with, but I’ll still need to catch up on work.

“I’ve had amazing support from the Yealands team, especially on the lead-up to Nationals, allowing me to have “tunnel vision” on achieving this win.

“Having both myself and Anna bring trophies back is a reflection on Marlborough being a nurturing place for learning these crafts.”

Anna’s victory was one of consistency – placing well but not winning any of the Ecotrellis Best Trelliser, research report and presentation or BioStart Hortisports competitions.

However, she was equally as pleased as Ruby to be “bringing both titles home” to Marlborough.

Her prizes included a $6000 Ecotrellis Travel Grant, a Leadership week, Infaco Electrocoup secateurs worth $3000, tickets to the Cool Climate Symposium in January and an invite to the Young Viticulturalist 20th anniversary dinner in September.

“I’m still buzzing, I actually don’t think it is sunk in that I’ve won yet and it was so great to see Ruby do her thing at the Forum and win”, she says over the phone from the airport.

“She’s actually driving my rather fragile trophy back up for me for display in the office.

“Last week was a busy few days for us competitors in North Canterbury at Greystone Winery, where we got to catch up and know one another over a lovely day ahead of the competition.

“It’s the middle of winter but digging 100ml holes in the North Canterbury soil warms you up quickly. I felt my theoretical modules were strong and that must have carried me to the win.”

As part of her win, Anna also wins an entry into the Young Horticulturalist of the Year in 2026 – but for now she says it’s “back to business”

“There’s even more to do with preparing for Young Hort, but having each of us enter takes effort, time and support to compete. I’ve benefitted from lots of time and expertise from the Constellation team across all the different aspects within the Young Viticulturalist competition as well as the wider Young Viticulturalist community because celebrating 20 years is testament to the support and strength of this competition.”

The national finals represent a step up in skill and accuracy required from the qualifying regional finals, with competitors tested on the knowledge required to be a winemaker or viticulturist.

“It’s exciting to see so many talented young people coming through in both winemaking and viticulture”, said Nicky Grandorge, Leadership and Communities Manager at New Zealand Winegrowers.

“Ruby and Anna are passionate, talented and excited about being part of the New Zealand wine story. It’s very reassuring to know the future is in great hands.”