Sarah Yeates is a familiar name to anyone in the Mudgee Wine Industry.
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Not only did she win this year's "Young Achiever Award" for contribution to the industry, as awarded by the Mudgee Wine Association, she is also the Secretary for the Mudgee Grape Growers and Wine Association.
"If there's anything I've learned from moving back to the Mudgee Region eight years ago, it's that Mudgee is a community that thrives from volunteering," Ms Yeates reminisced.
"From sporting groups to the Lions' Club and Rotary... the wine industry is no exception. All the representative and executive committees are 100 per cent volunteers."
Ms Yeates also attends the Australian Grape and Wine Association and Wine Australia industry forums to represent the Mudgee Region.
Ms Yeates grew up on a cattle station in Rylstone, before heading to Sydney to finish her education. She then completed her Occupational Therapy degree specialising in pediatrics before eventually settling in Melbourne.
Upon returning to Mudgee, Ms Yeates was eager to contribute to the wellbeing of children in the community and established a children's occupational therapy business called "Tread Brightly." Despite being a full-time business owner and operator, Ms Yeates also participated in her family's vineyard and cellar door 'Yeates Wines.' Ms Yeates is now additionally doing a diploma in Viticulture to support her family's work on the Craigmoor Rd property.
As part of the Mudgee Wine Association, Ms Yeates is focused on networking creative solutions to current industry challenges- the lower consumption of local wine in Australia and worldwide, the increasing cost of production, as well as the effect of large wine tariffs in one of Australia's biggest export markets in China.
"There is a domino effect of the current oversupply of wine and wine grapes in the Mudgee Region and no-one in the wine industry is immune," Ms Yeates said.
"It's a tough industry that requires unique solutions and we're working hard to unify our goals with other hospitality and tourism industries to find solutions as a whole for all Mudgee businesses."
Ms Yeates believes that Mudgee is in a unique position, as a smaller wine-producing region, to maximise its manoeuvrability and flexibility in what it can offer - including adjusting to changing wine trends and consumption.
"There's a large movement in no-low wines (no alcohol and low alcohol wines) organic wines and natural wines and we have the opportunity to remain relevant to new wine drinking demographics," she said.
Ms Yeates is encouraged by the continual flow of new people who move to the Mudgee region, bringing with them new skills, energy and ideas.
"We're so lucky in Mudgee to have such a talent pool of locals with cross-generational skills. It's a melting pot that creates incredible resilience to face future challenges," she said.
One of the hurdles facing all NSW wine producers is the lack of NSW wines being offered by Sydney restaurants, bars and tourist hotspots, which favour wines from overseas. According to a report by Wine Business Solutions, only 11.2 per cent of the wines on Sydney wine lists are from NSW, with 46 per cent being imported from overseas.
"An easy solution we can promote is #drinklocal" Ms Yeates said.
"Let's support our local industries, our talented local wine makers and let's celebrate our fabulous Mudgee wines by buying locally."
