Wine Options Challenge

Date: 15/09/2010 05:30 pm
Venue: WECC, Level 28, The Majestic Centre, 100 Willis Street

Wine Options Challenge is a unique and fun way to entertain your clients and reward your staff. Put together a team of four and come along to test your team’s palates against other Wellington businesses. There will be several great prizes and a trophy for the best team to win.

The event will be run by Raymond Chan from Regional Wines & Spirits with assistance from Nick Picone and Kirstin O'Brien from Villa Maria.

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Raymond Chan is one of this country’s most knowledgeable wine lovers having developed a passion for all wines in the 1970s while in the hospitality industry in Dunedin. Coming to Wellington in 1989, Raymond has worked for Wilson Neill, Liquorland, O’Reilly’s, Glengarry Hancocks, and for Regional Wines & Spirits where he has found his home.

Raymond is very much an integral part of the New Zealand wine scene, having served at all the major New Zealand wine judging competitions such as the Air N.Z. Wine Awards, Royal Easter Show Wine Awards, Bragato Wine Awards, the Liquorland ‘Top 100’, the N.Z. International Wine Show, and the International Chardonnay Challenge since 1988, and is a regular senior judge and panel leader at these wine shows. He is also a multi New Zealand Wine Options champion having participated in these competitions since the mid 1980s.

Fascination in all facets of wine have taken Raymond to practical winemaking with vintage experience at Benfield & Delamare and Te Mata Estate. Wine and food judging for the Corbans Wine & Food Challenges plus several terms as Wine Master at the Beefsteak and Burgundy Club of Tinakori have given valuable experience in cuisine matching. Recent challenges have included the total logistics role in event management as Wine Director for the 2001 and 2004 Pinot Noir conference industry showcases and consultant for the Pinot Noir 2007 event

Kirstin O’Brien is Villa Maria's National Corporate Manager and has been working for Villa Maria with the corporate sector for nearly 10 years and has been involved in the wine industry for over 15 years. An avid wine enthusiast and traveller, Kirstin has been to many wine producing areas in NZ, Australia, USA, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Nick Picone is Villa Maria Estate's Senior Winemaker at the company's Auckland winery. Nick is responsible for overseeing the production of Villa Maria's North Island wines including coordinating harvest, formulating wine styles, and assembling blends to tie in with the company's busy bottling programme.
He has been with the Villa Maria Group for thirteen years, beginning as a teenager at Esk Valley Estate in Hawkes Bay where his natural ability and passion for winemaking were recognised.
After working at Esk Valley, Nick transferred to Villa Maria's Marlborough winery to take up the role of Assistant Winemaker and was promoted to Winemaker a year later.
In 2006 he spent six months in the UK with Villa Maria's international distributor Hatch Mansfield, followed by a vintage of G.D. Vajra in Barolo, Italy. He has also worked two vintages at California's Deloach vineyards.

This event is supprted by:

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Please Note: Payment is required before the event.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellations must be received 2 full working days prior to the event. Cancellations after this time and ‘no-shows’ on the day will be charged the full invoice amount. Substitutions are permitted if you can no longer attend.