Winepress - July 2024

From wine to vine

KAT PICKFORD

Bar work in top restaurants eventually led Jayden Earea to the Seresin vineyard

LONG BEFORE Jayden Earea arrived in Marlborough to start working on the production-side of wine, he learned about the region’s flagship Sauvignon Blanc as a bar manager in some of Sydney’s swankiest restaurants.

Jayden hadn’t decided on a career path after finishing high school in Auckland, so he did a diploma in hospitality with the intention of becoming a bartender while he pondered his options. To begin with, he worked at a series of nightclubs and restaurants including The Carpark and Kermadec in Viaduct Harbour, the hospitality hub at the heart of Auckland’s waterfront.

It wasn’t until he picked up a job at the lauded Japanese eatery MASU in SkyCity, that he began to understand alcohol at a deeper level. “I really enjoy the social aspect of hospitality, but at MASU I started to learn that alcohol was so much more than a drink,” he says. “At its essence, alcohol is an expression of flavour characteristics that represent the culture, history and people that produce them.”

Wanting to deepen his understanding he moved to Sydney and worked his way through a number of highly acclaimed restaurants, including Mercado, where he become a bar manager.

“It was a great restaurant with really good people, and with their encouragement I changed direction and shifted into bar management, putting drinks lists together, ordering and stocking beverages and from there I got into wine.”

The endless expressions of wine intrigued him. “Every bottle of beer or spirits tastes the same every time — the goal is literally to make the same product every time,” he says.

“Wine is never the same, the next vintage will always be different, every region has its own unique characteristics, and every winemaker has their own philosophy and approach in the vineyard.” From there his deep dive into wine began. When the “magic” of hospitality began to wear thin, he decided to investigate the production side of wine and picked up a job as a cellar hand for Pernod Ricard Winemakers in Marlborough for the 2020 vintage.

During the tumultuous Covid years of international border closures and lockdowns, returning to Sydney was out of the question so Jayden decided to stay put in Marlborough with a full time position at Pernod Ricard Winemakers. A year ago he embarked on a bachelor of viticulture and winemaking through Te Pūkenga/NMIT, studying part-time while continuing his work in the winery.

Six months into his study, realising all wine begins in the vineyard, he felt compelled to shift from winemaking to viticulture and successfully applied for a full-time vineyardhand role at Seresin Estate.

“I recognised the brand, which was in about half the restaurants I’d worked in,” he says. “It’s got a great reputation and ticks a lot of boxes in terms of its sustainability and approachability and pairs beautifully with a wide range of foods - the Chiaroscuro for example is a fantastic match with Asian-fusion flavours.” While he’s only been in the vineyard since February, the 33-year-old is enjoying the contrast of manual labour and working outdoors.

“It’s awesome to be working right at the start of the wine’s journey, understanding the cycles, seeing the seasonal changes in the vineyard and how the weather and soils affect the flavour profiles of the fruit. I’m not sure if I’ll remain in the vineyard forever, but right now it’s exactly where I want to be.”