Mon Dieu! How could it be! A New Zealand winery has beaten the French at their own game, taking the award for the world’s best red wine.
Judges at the International Wine Challenge in London sipped and spat their way through about 10,000 entries, including quality drops from the hallowed fields of France, before they announced that the winner of the world’s best red wine was the Wild Earth 2006 pinot noir. The wine trounced 31 other red wine trophy winners from around the world.
There was worse news to come for the French. The winning wine is just the third vintage for the vineyard in Central Otago in New Zealand’s South Island. And it also carried away trophies for the top international pinot noir, top New Zealand red wine, top New Zealand pinot noir and top pinot noir for Central Otago (a region increasingly recognized for its fine wines).
In an article in Australia’s The Courier-Mail, the young winemaking couple, Avril and Quintin Quider, acknowledged the efforts of their workforce.
“The trophies belong to our vineyard and winemaking teams who put in an amazing effort into each and every vintage,” they said.
Founder and CEO of ActionCOACH, Brad Sugars, says that recognition of a fledgling business such as this is a reflection not only on the team’s hard work, but also on the fact that, with a winning game plan and quality products, smaller operations can still triumph over huge, established players.
Sugars can point to a similar record of success. In 1993, he launched ActionCOACH from a small room in Brisbane, Australia, at a time when business coaching was still in its infancy. He also set goals and relied on the talents of his team to work with small-to-medium sized businesses to bring his company into international prominence.
Today, Sugars estimated the business coaching industry is a $1 billion business and growing, with ActionCOACH securing around 20 per cent of that amount. Even so, his business still relies on one-on-one interaction and close working relationships.
“Your team is all important,” Sugars said. “As a boss, you need to lead, inspire, motivate and challenge them. You have to develop systems, checks and balances that your people can implement and run – without your presence, if that is what you want. Success is usually very much a team effort.”
