Head winemaker for the award-winning See Saw Wine label, Orange's Monica Gray is officially one of Wine Australia's Future Leaders.
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Lover of regional dining, an avid Pilates goer and human mum to Milly the cat, the 37-year-old wine boss applied for one of 15 spots in the "highly competitive" two-year program.
A first-ever submission for Ms Gray, from the nation-wide cohort she's also the only one from Orange.
"I felt really honoured and excited to be recognised, it was great to get in because I absolutely love the wine industry; I put my heart and soul into it," Ms Gray said.
"I've also never met the other 14 people before and we're already communicating with each other, so I get to be a big wine geek."
Moving from Canberra to Orange three-and-a-half years, Ms Gray felt drawn to the region for its cool climate wines and industry buzz.
In her role with See Saw Wines for the past 18 months, she's been loving working alongside a "really great team".
She's also secretary with Orange Region Vignerons Association and has grown a solid professional and personal network.
Feeling inspired by many likeminded wine buffs around her, part of her industry passion is also driven by a passing-on of knowledge.
Ms Gray's hopes are to see more numbers of youth climbing aboard and rise up through the ranks.
It's a region that's really exciting and innovative and it's a small community, but really driven and friendly.
- See Saw's head winemaker, Monica Gray on Central West industry perks.
"I help with organising our wine festival and wine show, and another part of that is mentoring and encouraging young people in our industry to both join and stick around," she said.
"It's just a really fun industry which is also really diverse, so you can be involved in different aspects of it from the production side, like myself, or in the vineyard growing grapes.
"The other aspect is that wine's made in beautiful parts of the country and all around the world, so there are some great opportunities to travel and it's really fun to be able to do that."
Which has been the case for Ms Gray's own career, taking her work abroad to France and Germany in the past.
Many people also work in marketing and sales roles for cellar doors, with variety in the Central West that's also made up of a lot of smaller businesses.
It means that often peoples' roles "can be a bit of a lot of those things", which Ms Gray said makes for a consistently interesting industry to be apart of.
Though, like any sector, it has its own set of hurdles to knock over; but that's part of why she's eager for the program to kick off.
"Like any industry, the wine industry has some pretty big challenges that it's being faced with, so I'm hoping I can make a solid effort in addressing some of those challenges," Ms Gray said.
"There's an ageing workforce, particularly in grape growing, and certainly the economic climate at the moment. Wine is a discretional item and people are feeling the pinch, so it's something they may not want to engage with.
"Companies also lost a lot to the large export market, so there's a lot going on outside of our daily work. That's why [the Future Leaders program] will be such a unique experience and opportunity to unpack things across that broader scope."
CEO for Wine Australia, Dr Martin Cole said the panel of nominees was a hard batch to select, given the amount of high-quality applicants who entered.
Dr Cole confirmed the process was certainly a highly competitive one, with long hours of scrutinising to choose those making the final cut.
"The selection panel all volunteered a significant amount of time to ensure that this cohort was not only the best of the best, but that it reflects the diversity within and the range of roles across our sector," Dr Cole said.
"The Future Leaders chosen demonstrated exceptional thought leadership to address immediate challenges facing our sector especially around business restructuring, diversification of our export markets, innovation in products, and in sustainability and [Environmental, Social, and Governance strategy]."
With a number of Ms Gray's friends and colleagues having completed it before, she's looking forward to getting a taste of what they've said was "a lifechanging program".
All 15 people selected with "embark on a tailored, six-month program" coordinated and funded by Wine Australia.
The goals are to achieve impactful change across all levels - personally, professionally, and in the industry - to hone in on supporting the sector to thrive well into the future.
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