Sam Bain holding his 2021 young viticulturist of the year trophy after his win at the competition. Photo / Supplied
Sam Bain holding his 2021 young viticulturist of the year trophy after his win at the competition. Photo / Supplied
Hawke's Bay's Sam Bain has won the 2021 Corteva young viticulturist of the year.
He won the accolade on Thursday, after being Hawke's Bay's young viticulturist of the year in both 2020 and 2021.
Bain said it was great to finally win the prize in his second year ofcompeting .
"It's been on my bucket list for a while"
As well as cash, his prizes include a trophy, a Hyundai Kona for a year, an Ecotrellis travel grant, an educational visit to Australia and a pair of golden secateurs.
He said the car would be a nice upgrade to his Mazda 2, while they will still have to work out how the travel grants will work with Covid.
He said he will likely frame the golden secateurs.
"We talked about it last night, we'll just frame those and probably have those at home or in the office, something like that so they can be seen by everybody."
Bain is the vineyard manager for Villa Maria's Central Hawke's Bay Springhill Vineyard.
Sam Bain has worked in the wine industry for nearly seven years, and currently works in Central Hawke's Bay for Villa Maria. Photo / Supplied
He said he has been in the industry for nearly seven years working for different vineyards.
He said on the day of the competition there were six segments to complete, including machinery, pest, disease, irrigation, interviews and the Hortisport section which, he said, was a race that is supposed to emulate your worst half an hour in the vineyard.
"It has different components which test you on what you could come across on the vineyard in a day."
Prior to the day, the competitors had submitted a research report entitled "Assess various pruning options during a labour shortage" and at the end of the day they had to give a speech promoting the best new varietal or clonal option for their region.
