It's Over...

So my internship is finished at Kosta Browne and back to the reality of being a wine science student. What an amazing ride - three months of hard yakka, intense learning experiences and amazing friendships.

So what did I learn? I learnt that the skills that made me a good advertising sales person are not necessarily the skills that make you a good wine maker. In advertising sales, creativity is king. In winemaking, being able to carry out a task the same way, every time is the most important thing. In advertising sales, very few mistakes are uncorrectable - it is pretty easy to re-submit a proposal if you put an extra zero in the wrong place. In winemaking, an extra zero can ruin tens of thousands of dollars of wine that can not be replaced. In advertising sales, attention to detail helps. In winemaking it doesn't help -- it is EVERYTHING.

I also got to see a few myths exploded. For example, it has been said that being a good winemaker is like being a good chef. It couldn't be further from the truth. A chef has twenty or more times a night to get a dish right; a winemaker has only one chance a year to get it right. To top it off, he will often not know for sure if he got it right or not for a year or so as the wine evolves in the barrel.

What I really learnt was that I love this job and I definitely made the right decision to pursue this career. I am already chomping at the bit for my next harvest, starting in April, at Felton Road in New Zealand.