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Wine Graduate Backs ‘Girls Can Do Anything’ Belief

March 4, 2015
Hayley Young with wines from her Young Estate range.

Hayley Young with wines from her Young Estate range.

Hayley Young has springboarded a multifaceted career having studied winemaking at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke’s Bay.

The 30-year-old works with winery clients for a health and safety consultancy, launched her own wine brand, is developing a wine club business and is a project manager for an Australian-based engineering company whose services include the design and build of wineries.

Born and bred in Invercargill, Hayley gained a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) and worked as a chemical and process engineer and a marine engineer before moving to Hawke’s Bay to study EIT’s Graduate Diploma in Oenology.

The “brilliant thing” about the delivery of the programme, she says, is the flexibility it provides. Starting in 2013, she studied part-time and online which also allowed her to build her wine-related business ventures.

“I didn’t feel I was taking a massive step backwards to study,” says Hayley, who also gained hands-on experience working successive vintages at two wineries in Hawke’s Bay.

Her Young Estate brand is “about having fun,” she says. “It’s a wine company specialising in good quality wines with feminine spirit, class and gumption!”

Each wine style is assigned a fictional female character based on a real woman.  There’s fashion designer Bettie Bubbles, for example, aviator Penny Noir, events manager Ruby Rose and the one Hayley feels is most like herself, geologist Savannah Blanc, whose work takes her to remote locations.

“I looked at the way women are represented in the media and felt a lot of the time they were objectified. These women are allowed to be feminine but they are empowered images of women.”

Ultimately, Hayley’s plan is to feature 10 characters on her labels and to perhaps bring them to life with a YouTube film series. “I want to celebrate women’s contribution to society,” she says.

The wine club business is a spin-off, with clients signing up with a group of friends to receive three bottles of wine each month. The aim is to develop their taste and understanding of wine by highlighting different styles and regions.

Although Hayley can see that her business ventures will mean more travel, she doesn’t intend leaving the “paradise” she has found in Hawke’s Bay.

“It’s got the best climate, there’s so much to do, it’s beautiful, the food and wine is amazing, it’s a nice size and there are no traffic jams,” she says.