Women in Wine NZ to open mentoring scheme to men

Women in Wine New Zealand, a sub-group of New Zealand Winegrowers, is set to open up its successful mentoring programme to men for the first time, prompted by industry demand.

Speaking to the drinks business earlier this month, Nicky Grandorge, NZ wine’s leadership and communities manager, outlined how the group’s motto – ‘connect, inform, change’ – is helping to improve diversity within the New Zealand wine industry.

“Women in Wine New Zealand came about in 2016 when no women put themselves forward to be on the board. With the industry pretty much 50:50 men and women, we wanted to find out what was going on,” she said.

The group formerly launched in 2017 aiming to both give women more confidence and support in order to succeed in their careers, and also to inform companies in the sector and help them to improve their business structures in an effort to attract more women to apply for higher-powered positions.

“It’s been a slow moving process, and that’s because we wanted to get it right,” says Grandorge.

“It’s important to say it’s not an anti-men thing. NZ Wine is all about being inclusive and men are invited to some of our events.”

With a national committee which has since spawned regional networking groups, last year Women in Wine NZ launched a mentoring programme, matching one women in each region.

Grandorge added: “What we were thrilled with was that several pioneering women put themselves forward as mentors. We thought how great is that – they’ve worked really hard to get to a position but still want to give something back and encourage other women in the industry.”

The scheme has the support of Natalie Christensen, chief winemaker of Yealands; Jane Hunter, owner, viticulturist and managing director of Hunter’s Wines; Kate Radburnd, winemaker and director of Radburnd Cellars; and Erica Crawford, founder and CEO of Loveblock Wine.

“We’ve launched another programme at the beginning of the year and we’ve got even more matches this year,” said Grandorge. “Mentoring is teaching a person to draw on their own initiative and skills – it’s not a coaching or a training session.”

Prompted by the scheme’s success, it has now also been opened up to men.

“We’re really thrilled people are getting a lot out of it, and although this was originally a Women in Wine initiative, we’re now going to be opening it up for men the next time. A lot of people were asking for it and we’ll now ask people if they want to be mentored by a male or female or they don’t mind.”

Developed by business professional and vineyard owner Fiona Fenwick, the bespoke mentoring scheme consists of six hour-long sessions delivered over six months. Participants are paired up according to their region and are invited to meet up and set themselves targets and goals.

NZ Wine has also recently conducted a diversity and inclusion survey, sponsored by Constellation Brands and Pernod Ricard and conducted by a neutral third party researcher.

With a high responses rate, the survey was evenly answered by both men and women.

“One fact that came back is that most people do want to stay in the industry, although a few said to progress they’d have to move,” Grandorge said.

“We did find at the senior level it is male dominated at the moment, but what we did see was a lot of younger people and a lot of younger women coming into the industry.”

They’re also organising seminars in order to promote diversity within businesses.  

“Lion is really leading the charge here,” she said. “They’ve spent three years setting up a diversity and inclusion policy and are now sharing their findings with other businesses. This includes flexi-time, parental care, equal opportunities and mental health and wellbeing.”

“NZ Wine is writing it’s own policy, it is just a guide, but it’s really got people talking about it.

“If you’re exporting, you need to be understanding about different cultures. Also when you’re contracting temporary oversees workers to help with harvest and vineyard management, it’s things like at the beginning of the day they really appreciate five minutes in order to be able to pray.

“Businesses are now putting up hazard signs in around three languages. It’s about thinking a bit further.”

Constellation Brands has also signed up with the Diversity Works scheme.