grape to glass
CENTRAL OTAGO
“I
think this invoked my innate interest in wine so while attending Ohio State University I started a wine club with a friend (who also happens to be a winemaker now too). It grew organically from a handful of friends to over 400 members by the time we graduated,” explained Willner. “At that time it only focused on the sensory side of wine, but as it grew in volume we were able to have valuable educational tastings quite regularly with industry professional
Winemaker Anika Willner comes from a very non-traditional background when it comes to wine. She grew up in Ohio in the United States, far from any decent wine country, but she has vivid memories of her father, a wine enthusiast, sitting at the dinner table teaching her to smell and appreciate his wine, the seed was planted. 32
restaurantandcafé.co.nz
and they would always suggest I take my passion to the next level and do a vintage.” At 22 years old and coming from the middle of America, Willner didn’t really understand what that meant but decided to give it a go anyway. She set her sights on South Africa as her first vintage and after applying, with literally no experience, to nearly 200 wineries, she landed a job in Stellenbosch. “Although I only received one job offer in total, it was a decent winery and from that experience I realised
