News | Coal Pit Wines

Through her Scott Richardson Memorial Scholarship travels, our Winemaker, Anika Willner built on her existing knowledge of organic and regenerative farming, regional identity and the connections between land, food, wine and community, returning to Gibbston with fresh insights and ideas to bring to Coal Pit.

 

Last year, Anika was honoured to receive the Scott Richardson Memorial Scholarship. At the recent Gala, she shared some of the knowledge and experiences she brought home from the journey.

 

Through the generosity of everyone who supports the Trust, Anika travelled to Groundswell in the UK, the world’s largest regenerative agriculture festival - before continuing to Piedmont in northern Italy to explore organic viticulture, winemaking and the Slow Food movement.

 

The journey allowed Anika to further explore ideas already central to her work, while learning from farmers, researchers and winemakers in other parts of the world. She returned with new knowledge, practical insights and a wider network of expertise to share and apply at Coal Pit.

 

- The Future of Farming

 

Groundswell brought together 10,000 farmers, scientists, researchers, authors and thought leaders for two days of open conversation. One of the things Anika found most valuable was honesty. People spoke candidly about what had worked, what had failed and what decades of experience had taught them.

 

Some speakers had doctorates; others had spent their lives learning directly from the land. What mattered was whether their knowledge could help someone else. There was a shared understanding that farming is not simply a commercial industry. It shapes our landscapes, waterways, food, health and communities.

 

Anika also came away with a renewed sense of optimism. If a system no longer works for farmers or the land, it can be questioned and improved through shared knowledge and a willingness to create something better.

 

Groundswell offered a glimpse into the future of farming and gave Anika the opportunity to consider how these ideas could be developed further in her work at Coal Pit.

 

- Generations Devoted to Place

 

From the UK, Anika travelled to Piedmont, where she visited vineyards and wineries and spent time around Bra, the birthplace of the Slow Food movement.

 

While most modern businesses are expected to grow each year, progress in Barolo and Barbaresco is measured across generations. Success means improving what has been inherited and passing it on so the next generation can take it further.

 

The value of these vineyards today is the result of that sustained attention, generations devoted to understanding what is unique about their land and learning how to express it. That same commitment to the place extended beyond the vineyard.

 

Throughout Italy, the wine list changed with the landscape. In Piedmont, Piedmontese wine was served alongside Piedmontese food. It did not feel limiting; it demonstrated complete confidence in what belonged to the region.

 

Local dishes had evolved alongside local wines. These were not recently created pairings, but relationships refined over centuries. The food elevated the wine, the wine transformed the food, and together they told a richer story about the place and the people they came from.

 

- What This Could Mean for New Zealand

 

Food and wine are often presented as separate industries, but they share the same origin: agriculture.

 

Anika’s time in Piedmont gave her the opportunity to further explore what could be possible here in New Zealand.

 

What might happen if we celebrated our regional food and wine with that same confidence? If our growers, winemakers, chefs and communities worked together as connected parts of a shared regional identity?

 

Our individual stories do not become diluted when placed alongside one another, they become stronger. Our food elevates our wine, and our wine elevates our food. Together, they can express a place more completely than either can alone.

 

At Coal Pit, our story begins with our own piece of land in Gibbston. The opportunity is not to recreate what exists in Piedmont, but to bring that same attention and confidence to our region, to continue developing our understanding of what belongs here and express it truthfully.

 

- Bringing Knowledge Home

 

The purpose of the Scott Richardson Memorial Scholarship is not simply to travel and learn, but to bring that knowledge home and share it.

 

At Groundswell, Anika connected with one of the festival’s headlining speakers, who will now travel to New Zealand to address 400 winemakers and viticulturists at the next Organic and Biodynamic Winegrowing Conference in Queenstown, which Anika chairs.

 

This is the ripple effect of the scholarship: an experience given to one person becomes a conversation shared by hundreds, with those ideas then travelling into vineyards, wineries, kitchens and communities throughout New Zealand.

 

Through this scholarship, Scott’s memory continues to be a blessing. It lives on through his family and friends, through Lee, and through every person given the opportunity to learn something valuable and pay it forward.