Ultimately, I oversee the day to day running of the vineyards and estate.

This includes organising the teams work and jobs efficiently. We have a small but hardworking team at the vineyard and everyday there are different jobs to be doing from pruning to planting – making sure all of our time is used effectively is imperative to the smooth running of the vineyard.

Another aspect is monitoring the vineyard to make sure everything is healthy and tidy. This is a huge task due to the size of the vineyard. The weather can make a huge difference, if there are storms, we’ve seen trees come down and vines need to be re-secured. It’s also important to be vigilant with the vines and how healthy they are, checking for any parasites or diseases and nipping it in the bud before it worsens. I also keep an eye on soil health and requirements to get the best out of the vines and therefore the most delicious wines and gin.

I also arrange contractors and agency for specialist jobs. There’s a few jobs on the vineyard that we’re not able to complete, this is mainly based on machinery we’re able to keep on the vineyard so sometimes we outsource that work and I arrange the extra hands on deck.

I oversee the maintenance of estate trails, we want to make sure the trails through the vineyard are well-kept and easily accessible. This includes through the vines and around our BBQ area, lake house and other places of interest.

It’s imperative that our machinery and equipment is handled with care. I make sure all of our machinery and equipment is used only by trained professionals and that they’re constantly monitored and serviced.

We’re always looking to innovate at Wildshark, part of my role is planning out and setting up new projects to keep things fresh and exciting for the customers. This could be new ideas to increase our bio-diversity, or appropriate signage as well as planting trees and wildflowers as well as put up owl boxes to encourage local wildlife. We’ve plated over 4,000 trees and we’ve sewn wildflowers in every other row of the vines.

The final push of the year includes planning out harvest and delivering grapes to the winery. We love having all the help we can get when it comes to harvest and it can be a really great time to bring the community together to pick the grapes ready to be sent off the begin the wine-making process. I organise these days based on the weather and how ripe the grapes are. We all celebrate with a well earned drink afterwards!