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Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Producing port with a smile
What started as a small hustle on the side of her wine-making business has grown to be the main focus for Bannockburn's Debra Cruickshank. Business editor Sally Rae pays her a visit. She is the undisputed Queen of Port. Not only in her adopted home town of Bannockburn but now also nationally as New Zealand's largest producer of port. Debra Cruickshank is a force of nature; the one-woman show behind Tannacrieff Wines, producing port with a smile in the heart of Central Otago. Behind the smile has also been much pain, with an eventual diagnosis of the chronic inflammatory bowel condition Crohn's disease in 2021, and fears she might have to close her business. But being accepted for a Singapore-based clinical trial has seen her regain her life and allow her to continue to operate her boutique winery. An undisputed work ethic and life skills had its roots in her childhood on a farm in the Catlins where Ms Cruickshank, 45, would help her father with lambing, milk the pet cow before school, make hay huts for pregnant pigs and then stay up all night to watch the sows deliver their piglets. The farm was named Tannacrieff, after the ancestral Dickie farm in Ayrshire, Scotland — Ms Cruickshank's maternal great-grandmother was a Dickie — and several members of the Dickie family emigrated to the lower South Island in the early 1860s. In 2000, Ms Cruickshank caught the eye of the winemaker at Akarua Winery in Bannockburn and started her winemaking journey, working from the bottom up initially in the vineyard and then into the winery. That culminated in formal recognition from the Eastern Institute of Technology and Massey University. She spent eight years at Akarua and, after a year in Western Australia, she returned home to make wine for a very small winery in Cromwell. Never particularly keen on working for others, the time finally came to open her own boutique winery. She started a small contract winemaking facility in March, 2012, which was the start of DC Wines Ltd, and later moved to Bannockburn where she also produced her own wines. A pivotal moment came in 2017 when she won the supreme award in the Rural Women New Zealand Enterprising Rural Women Awards. It thrust her into the spotlight and the resulting publicity ensured people knew exactly what she did — "not just a chick who makes wine for everyone". It was also a turning point for her to concentrate on her port and slowly phase out the winemaking, where she was making up to 30-odd different wines for small-batch wineries. People started to know her for her port and yet she did not have enough time to make it. It was January, 2018, when Ms Cruickshank got her first "painful tummy" and knew something was wrong. Initially, having been recently to Samoa, doctors thought it was parasites. Both her parents had bowel cancer, yet she said it took three years of pleading with doctors for a colonoscopy. "I knew something was wrong. My motto is always the squeaky wheel gets the grease." By the time she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease three years later, it was severe. "The pain and fatigue and brain fog really did stop me being a normal person," she said. Around the same time, she needed back surgery and much of 2022 was spent in bed. Through the public health system, she was unable to access funded medication for Crohn's disease. In September that year, she was accepted for a clinical trial and "instantly felt like a new person". "I had my life back." Since then, she has travelled to Dunedin every two months for treatment and she has a colonoscopy every year. Ms Cruickshank knew things had to change — stress was the main trigger — and the decision was made to concentrate on port, keeping it manageable and what her health would allow her to do. Tanacrieff specialised in small-batch, handcrafted ruby, white and tawny ports which had gone from "just a little hustle on the side" to now being the focus. She recognised her passion was making port, leaving winemaking to others. "There's some amazing winemakers out there making wine, so why not stick to a niche market that's doing really well?" Port had shrugged off its old-fashioned image and had become a very popular drink, particularly with young people. It was also versatile and could be used in cocktails. The process of making it was also more fun than making wine and it was easier on her body. Her port was stocked throughout the country, and often sold through word of mouth, and her aim was to continue to grow the domestic market. "I don't want to go overseas, there's enough people here. I want to keep it big enough to handle," she said. While there had been offers of investment in Tanacrieff Wines, Ms Cruickshank preferred to keep total control, saying she had worked too hard to give it away. She particularly enjoyed having a stall at the likes of Wānaka A&P Show and catching up with customers and seeing people enjoy her products. She also did tastings by appointment and enjoyed showing people what she did. Even horses were welcome at her rustic base while their riders sampled a drop. That was the beauty of Bannockburn and open spaces, she said. A rose port was scheduled for release in October and, by the interest shown already in it, she expected it would sell out quickly. During the winter — her quieter time — Ms Cruickshank enjoyed travelling and she had been to Porto, Portugal, from which port wine was named. Port was one of Portugal's most famous exports and it was an "eye-opener" to see the home of port and also the quantities produced, making her contribution just a drop in the ocean.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Not just any port in a storm: trials, success for port queen
What started as a small hustle on the side of her wine-making business has grown to be the main focus for Bannockburn's Debra Cruickshank. Business editor Sally Rae pays her a visit. She is the undisputed Queen of Port. Not only in her adopted home town of Bannockburn but now also nationally as New Zealand's largest producer of port. Debra Cruickshank is a force of nature; the one-woman show behind Tannacrieff Wines, producing port with a smile in the heart of Central Otago. Behind the smile has also been much pain, with an eventual diagnosis of the chronic inflammatory bowel condition Crohn's disease in 2021, and fears she might have to close her business. But being accepted for a Singapore-based clinical trial has seen her regain her life and allow her to continue to operate her boutique winery. An undisputed work ethic and life skills had its roots in her childhood on a farm in the Catlins where Ms Cruickshank, 45, would help her father with lambing, milk the pet cow before school, make hay huts for pregnant pigs and then stay up all night to watch the sows deliver their piglets. The farm was named Tannacrieff, after the ancestral Dickie farm in Ayrshire, Scotland — Ms Cruickshank's maternal great-grandmother was a Dickie — and several members of the Dickie family emigrated to the lower South Island in the early 1860s. In 2000, Ms Cruickshank caught the eye of the winemaker at Akarua Winery in Bannockburn and started her winemaking journey, working from the bottom up initially in the vineyard and then into the winery. That culminated in formal recognition from the Eastern Institute of Technology and Massey University. She spent eight years at Akarua and, after a year in Western Australia, she returned home to make wine for a very small winery in Cromwell. Never particularly keen on working for others, the time finally came to open her own boutique winery. She started a small contract winemaking facility in March, 2012, which was the start of DC Wines Ltd, and later moved to Bannockburn where she also produced her own wines. A pivotal moment came in 2017 when she won the supreme award in the Rural Women New Zealand Enterprising Rural Women Awards. It thrust her into the spotlight and the resulting publicity ensured people knew exactly what she did — "not just a chick who makes wine for everyone". It was also a turning point for her to concentrate on her port and slowly phase out the winemaking, where she was making up to 30-odd different wines for small-batch wineries. People started to know her for her port and yet she did not have enough time to make it. It was January, 2018, when Ms Cruickshank got her first "painful tummy" and knew something was wrong. Initially, having been recently to Samoa, doctors thought it was parasites. Both her parents had bowel cancer, yet she said it took three years of pleading with doctors for a colonoscopy. "I knew something was wrong. My motto is always the squeaky wheel gets the grease." By the time she was diagnosed with Crohn's disease three years later, it was severe. "The pain and fatigue and brain fog really did stop me being a normal person," she said. Around the same time, she needed back surgery and much of 2022 was spent in bed. Through the public health system, she was unable to access funded medication for Crohn's disease. In September that year, she was accepted for a clinical trial and "instantly felt like a new person". "I had my life back." Since then, she has travelled to Dunedin every two months for treatment and she has a colonoscopy every year. Ms Cruickshank knew things had to change — stress was the main trigger — and the decision was made to concentrate on port, keeping it manageable and what her health would allow her to do. Tanacrieff specialised in small-batch, handcrafted ruby, white and tawny ports which had gone from "just a little hustle on the side" to now being the focus. She recognised her passion was making port, leaving winemaking to others. "There's some amazing winemakers out there making wine, so why not stick to a niche market that's doing really well?" Port had shrugged off its old-fashioned image and had become a very popular drink, particularly with young people. It was also versatile and could be used in cocktails. The process of making it was also more fun than making wine and it was easier on her body. Her port was stocked throughout the country, and often sold through word of mouth, and her aim was to continue to grow the domestic market. "I don't want to go overseas, there's enough people here. I want to keep it big enough to handle," she said. While there had been offers of investment in Tanacrieff Wines, Ms Cruickshank preferred to keep total control, saying she had worked too hard to give it away. She particularly enjoyed having a stall at the likes of Wānaka A&P Show and catching up with customers and seeing people enjoy her products. She also did tastings by appointment and enjoyed showing people what she did. Even horses were welcome at her rustic base while their riders sampled a drop. That was the beauty of Bannockburn and open spaces, she said. A rose port was scheduled for release in October and, by the interest shown already in it, she expected it would sell out quickly. During the winter — her quieter time — Ms Cruickshank enjoyed travelling and she had been to Porto, Portugal, from which port wine was named. Port was one of Portugal's most famous exports and it was an "eye-opener" to see the home of port and also the quantities produced, making her contribution just a drop in the ocean.
NZ Herald
30-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Hastings man who has sold watercress on the street for 30 years told by council to stop, pay registration fees
In an email to Jake, the council said under the Food Act he had to cease trading until he was registered as a National Programme 1 business with the Hastings District Council. Council said a rough estimate of the set-up cost was around $619, with ongoing annual fees. Jake says he questions why he's only being asked to do it now after more than three decades of sales, and fears the domino effect registration could bring down upon him. 'All I've ever wanted to do was supply cheap, nutritious kai to whanau and friends. 'I like being legal, and the community has been amazing offering to help me pay [to become a legal operator], but what comes next?' Brought up in a shearing family, Jake says his uncle got him into picking watercress. 'I was about 13 or 14. I was from a big family and money was tight.' He said his watercress gained popularity rapidly over the years, to the point he was supplying shops and some supermarkets. 'And then Covid hit and things changed. Everyone was selling it on the side of the road.' These days Jake sells on the side of the road outside the Flaxmere shopping centre. 'I was parking in the carpark but was told by the council I wasn't allowed to do that.' Flaxmere ward councillor Henry Heke said the man had been harvesting and selling watercress for years, and the community wanted it to continue. 'The question now is how can council officers support him? How can they help him understand why there are regulations in place regarding the sale of food?' Heke said he had previously worked for an organisation that had helped and supported Ted Pardo, the fried bread man, through the same thing. 'It's all about supporting local and supporting homegrown.' The council says it has an obligation under the legislation to ensure foodstuffs that are sold are safe and suitable for people to consume. But Jake says he knows his stuff and has an Eastern Institute of Technology certificate to handle raw and cooked food. 'I've been doing this for years. I have access to farms. I never pick if there has been spraying nearby or if there are any dead animals nearby. 'No one has ever got sick from eating my watercress." He donates produce to local tangihanga and marae and says he's by no means making large profits. 'It's not all about the money. I have overheads as well and with a big family myself whatever comes in goes out fast. 'After working hard, it's not easy work, including weekends and holidays and living cheaply for 30 years I have finally been able to afford a truck. 'I've wrecked several cars driving over farm tracks. 'I'm trying to better myself by learning te reo Māori and all I want to do is look after family and make the community happy by providing good kai.' Registration to be a produce seller doesn't apply to those selling produce at their gates but is otherwise required, the council said. Eggs sold at the gate need packaging that complies with the Australia New Zealand Food Safety Code to meet labelling requirements.
South China Morning Post
12-04-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
After decades in the US, star Chinese mathematician couple returns home
Mathematician Chen Min has left Purdue University's maths department to join the Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo as a full-time faculty member, the latest Chinese academic to return home from the US. Advertisement The professor took up the role at the new Chinese university 's College of Science in March, according to its website. Chen joins her husband, Shen Jie, at EIT after he accepted an offer to become the new dean of its School of Mathematical Science in 2023. He was previously director of Purdue's Centre for Computational and Applied Mathematics and a distinguished professor. The couple met back in 1978 at Peking University's Department of Mathematics, after universities began enrolling students again following the chaos and turmoil of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, when admissions had been suspended for more than a decade. Both Chen and Shen had sat the college entrance exam when it resumed in 1977, along with millions of others hoping to secure a university place. Advertisement Mathematician Zhang Yitang – known for his groundbreaking work on the 'twin prime conjecture' in number theory – was among their classmates.
