Canberra winery owner named finalist in the Australian Women in Wine Awards

Four Winds Vineyard owner Sarah Collingwood is one of the finalists in the Australian Women in Wine Awards.

Sarah has Four Winds Vineyard for the last six years and has taken the opportunity over the last 24 months to expand the winery using a crowd-funding campaign, re-design the packaging and branding for the business, secure a new distributor, oversee the continued financial growth of the vineyard, employ more staff members and improve guests’ experience at the cellar door, resulting in three consecutive visitor experience awards. Alongside her business responsibilities she has run the 4Tonne Project which raised over $46,000 for refugees and asylum seekers in Canberra and is the treasurer for the Canberra District Wine Industry Association.

Four Winds Vineyard is a micro-winery located 30 minutes from Canberra in Murrumbateman. The Australian Women in Wine Awards acknowledges and rewards the work of women in the Australian wine community.

Sarah said that she was thrilled with the news this morning.

“We have had our heads down recently working on building the business and it is fantastic to look up and see good news.”

Sarah Collingwood is one of the directors/co-owners of Four Winds Vineyard with her husband John and parents Suzanne and Graeme Lunney.

AWIWA Advisory Board member, wine writer, and long-time advocate for women in wine Jeni Port, said she found it heartening to see such an outstanding response from across Australia in this, the second year, of the awards.

“The number of entrants has increased considerably from last year. We have had entries from those working in big wine companies and small, in isolated regions and wine areas that roll a little easier off the tongue, then there have been those contributing to truly world-class research and science that places Australia at the forefront of international wine knowledge and, importantly those women — and men – actively striving for gender equality and fairness in the workplace,” said Ms. Port.

“Our finalists announced today represent the cream of what is truly a magnificent bunch of Australians in wine.”

The winners will be announced via a live stream broadcast on Tuesday 15 November at 7:30pm.

Details at http://womeninwineawards.com.au/2016-australian-women-in-wine-awards-finalists-announced/

Media contact: Tania Paschen 0423 644 069
Sarah Collingwood 0402 278 371