Media Release

Tuesday, 11 December 2001

A 23-year-old Adelaide University student is preparing to spend a year in New York promoting Australian wine to North American consumers.

Ms Pippa Hoare, who has just completed a Wine Business Graduate Diploma, is the winner of the 2002 Australian Wine Bureau (AWB) Scholarship. From 14 January, she will be based in the Bureau's New York office where she will work with the AWB team promoting Australian wine in North America (our second biggest export market). As part of her duties she will be required to design a promotional program for Australian wine. It is the third consecutive year that an Adelaide University student has won the AWB scholarship.

Ms Hoare said she was thrilled at the prospect. She said her aim was to make wine less threatening and more accessible to everyone, "not just people in the know".

"There is a huge awareness of Australian wine in New York, and the majority of the people who drink it tend to be connoisseurs," she said. "Then there are the people who buy by brand names they know, and there is potential to develop their knowledge and enhance their experience. I would like people to embrace drinking Australian wine in their everyday lives and not feel threatened by past perceptions."

Dr Johan Bruwer, senior lecturer in wine marketing in the Department of Horticulture, Viticulture and Oenology, said scholarships such as the AWB internship opened up exciting opportunities for students.

"The winner of the AWB scholarship is in a unique position in relation to employment prospects in the Australian wine industry," he said. "No other graduate competing for a position during that particular year can match the experience of the person who has worked and interacted with people in the USA for a full year. The choice of an Adelaide University graduate for the third consecutive year is testament to the quality of our graduates and to the valuable mix of research, education and state of the art facilities at the Waite campus."

Note: Pippa Hoare is currently in Griffith, New South Wales. She can be contacted at tel. (02) 6963 0001, or mobile 0409 444 498.