Young Viticulturist of the Year Nina Downer to compete for Young Horticulturist of the Year title in November

Nina Downer will always be grateful to her high school teacher Mr Barker. If not for him she wouldn’t be doing the job she loves.

The then 15-year-old had always thought she would become a veterinarian until she realised the job would need her to euthanise animals, something she couldn’t face. So her New Plymouth Girls High School teacher recommended viticulture.

“I had never really seen grapes before, never seen vineyards. So it was something completely new,” the Young Viticulturist of the Year, says. “Now I definitely eat a lot of grapes!

“I wasn’t naïve about animals. My mum said when I first got a pet lamb, it was only maybe day two into the early morning feeding when I asked when I could eat it.

“I still love working with animals, we’ve got goats and chickens in the vineyards,” the Felton Road Wines supervisor says.

Nina shifted around a lot as a child of dairy farmers who started off share milking in South Taranaki. When they moved to the Wairarapa, she did her last high school year in Masterton – and hasn’t had the opportunity to thank Mr Barker for the career switch, completing her viticulture and oenology degree at Lincoln University.

Nina has won her region’s Young Viticulturist of the Year for the past three years and took out the winner’s title this year.

“I was 22 the first year I did it, I think back to what I knew back then, and how shy and awkward I was with public speaking, and my confidence in myself and what I’m doing now. It’s changed so much, it’s really pushed me.”

Nina will now compete in the prestigious Young Horticulturist of the Year, a competition involving six horticultural sectors, in Auckland in November.

Nina loves that her role is varied: “Jobs are constantly changing throughout the year, it’s quite diverse in what I get to do. And every season is different, with no two days or two seasons the same. We got frost this spring, so that’s brought in new challenges this year, and learning opportunities as well. So it keeps me interested.”

As a machinery operator her main duties are cultivating, mulching, mowing, and “lot of spraying and tractor work”.

“When I’m not in the tractor, I’m normally supervising, running a team of people with canopy management that we do throughout the summer, and pruning in the winter. Or we’re doing any maintenance with irrigation.”

She marvels at the pace of automation in her industry so early in her career.

“There’s been a rapid increase of technology. Covid really amped that up, especially in Marlborough, because they have such a large area and there was the struggle of bringing people into the country. That really pushed along a lot of technology, like the pruning tools, to fill that labour gap.

“If you told me when I first started in viticulture that we’d be spraying with drones I would have found that pretty out there. With any new technology, everyone’s a little bit sceptical. I’m sure when the first machine harvesters came in, people probably were shocked.”

One focus for Nina is a replanting project, with the team slowly removing own-rooted vines that are susceptible to the soil infestation Phylloxera, and replanting using grafted vines that are tolerant.

“I get a lot of satisfaction in knowing that I am trying to improve what’s there and ensure sustainability, as giving back is really important to me.”

And she loves that Felton Road employs overseas workers who bring a wealth of varied knowledge.

“You meet so many cool and interesting people throughout the year. We’ve got quite a few people in the vineyard and viticulture wasn’t their first job, and they have different ways of looking at what we do. It can bring new ideas.

“We have a very big contingent from France this year and a couple Germans, a girl from Israel. You get to learn a lot about how they do things differently.”

So on days off, Nina returns the favour, by taking them on runs or hikes around Central Otago, or cooking pot luck dinners. And she is building a group of contacts for when she ventures offshore.

“I am still learning quite a lot at Felton Road, but it is in the long term plans to go overseas and see Europe and Canada.”

About The Young Horticulturist of the Year

The Young Horticulturist of the Year (YHOTY) is an intensive two-day competition for talented young professionals from a range of horticultural sectors.  Run by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust, the YHOTY was launched in 2005 and culminates in choosing a supreme winner at a prestigious annual awards.

There are six finalists vying for the supreme title and a prize pool worth more than $50,000 at the grand final, held in Karaka, Auckland on November 5 and 6.

The sectors are:

• Young Grower of the Year (Horticulture New Zealand Fruit & Vegetable Sectors)
• Young Amenity Horticulturist (New Zealand Recreation Association)
• Young Viticulturist of the Year (New Zealand Winegrowers)
• New Arborist (New Zealand Arboriculture Association Inc)
• Young Florist/Flower Grower (FLONZI Florists and Flower Growers NZ Incorporated)
• Young Plant Producer of the Year (New Zealand Plant Producers Incorporated)

The competition’s valued Official Partners are Woolworths, Fruitfed Supplies and T&G Fresh. Young Horticulturist of the Year celebrates 20 years in 2025 and is managed by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust.

For tickets to the awards dinner on Thursday, November 6, 2025 and further information go to younghort.co.nz

About the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust

The Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture Education Trust is a volunteer group of industry professionals passionate about investing in future sector talent, through developing leadership and self-development capability.