16 November 2012
MEDIA RELEASE
Young viticulturist wins national horticulture title
For the fifth time in almost as many years, a viticulturist has been named as Young Horticulturist of the Year.
Braden Crosby, aged 30 and a winemaker and viticulturist for Borthwick Estate in Wairarapa who had taken out the
national Markhams Young Viticulturist title this year, won the New Zealand Horticulture Industry Training Organisations
competition held over 14 and 15 November in Auckland.
He competed in a series of practical and theoretical tests against six of the best from other horticulture sectors,
including fruit growers and landscape gardeners.
Mr Crosby is the fifth successful viticulturist to win this national horticulture competition since the competition
started seven years ago.
Judges’ comments on Braden’s winning performance included “astounding – an encyclopaedic knowledge of the wine industry…
with an amazing vision not only for his own future but also for the future of the industry as a whole”.
The overall prize package included $7500 travel money, to travel to a wine region of his choice, $4550 worth of vouchers
from Everris, Fruitfed and Yates plus a one-year magazine subscription to a New Zealand horticulture magazine of his
choice.
He also came second for his Agmardt Business Innovation project, which featured frost fans being hooked back into the
electricity grid, and received $2500 cash for this project. In addition, Mr Crosby scooped the Leadership prize of a
further $2500.
Coupled with his prizes as winner of the Markhams Young Viticulturist of the Year, which included $2000 cash, $2000
national travel, and $5000 NZSVO international travel, Mr Crosby has come away with over $26,000 in prizes.
ENDS
BACKGROUND – ABOUT THE COMPETITION
The Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust in conjunction with the New Zealand Horticulture
Industry Training Organisation and other key sponsors organise the national competition to inspire and acknowledge the
talents of the young people employed in the horticultural industry.
Participants enter the competition via one of the horticultural sectors:
• NZ Arboriculture Association
• Fruit and Vegetable sectors of Horticulture NZ
• Landscaping NZ
• NZ Flower Growers, Florists NZ Incorporated
• Nursery and Garden Industry Association
• NZ Recreation Association – Amenity Horticulture
• NZ Winegrowers –through the Markhams Young Viticulturist of the Year competition.
Participants must be 30 years of age or under and currently working full time in the horticultural industry.
Participants must have worked in a practical, hands-on position for the last three years in the sector in which they are
entering the competition.