Spotlight on Twelfth Night Vineyard Manager Julien Alexandre
This month we spotlight Twelfth Night’s intrepid Vineyard Manager, Julien Alexandre. Julien is French and is from the Loire Valley, a region renowned for its cool-climate wines and medieval chateaux. His hometown is Loir-et-Cher which is about two hours southwest of Paris. Julien came to New Zealand in 2012 on a working holiday visa and has never gone back! Prior to settling in Central Otago, he worked in vineyards in the Barossa Valley of Australia and also in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Julien says that he decided to settle in New Zealand because it is a beautiful place to live and work. He especially enjoys all of the outdoor activities that he can partake in such as fishing and hiking.
Julien started with Twelfth Night Wines as an irrigation specialist and was promoted to Vineyard Manager overseeing all aspects of the vineyard. He cites the beautiful Pinot Noir wines of the region as a key reasons as to why he loves working in Central Otago. Julien is a very hands-on vineyard manager. You will often see him driving the tractor through the rows spraying or applying the bird nets.
He acknowledges that there are both challenges and rewards to managing a vineyard. He says that the weather in Central Otago as one of the biggest challenges; he has to deal with frost in the spring, heat in the summer and wind pretty much all year long. There is no way to control Mother Nature so you have to adapt to whatever she throws at you! Julien says that the reward for all of this hard work is a successful harvest with beautifully ripe grapes and the excellent yields. Julien was especially pleased with the 2019 harvest and was happy to have the best harvest crew ever which made his job all the more enjoyable.
For Julien, working at Twelfth Night vineyard is also a family affair. His wife, Miran Park, who is originally from South Korea, is the Seasonal Staff Supervisor. Twelfth Night is lucky to have both of them managing our vineyard.
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