Volunteer grape-pickers harvesting Ostler Winery's grape harvest this year were joined by leading executives from the New Zealand Spinal Trust, as the vineyard's annual charity harvest moved into its fourth year.
Ostler chief executive Jim Jerram and his wife, Anne, who works in the field of spinal injury rehabilitation, said that in the past three years the scheme had raised $16,000 for the trust.
The isolation of the area and the lateness of the vintage meant that when it was time to harvest it had to be done quickly, and that required a speedy mobilisation of a labour force, Mr Jerram said.
Mrs Jerram added that the initiative had now gained its own momentum and was pulling in more volunteers each year.
"Instead of accepting free help from friends and family to achieve this, as happened for the first few years, we decided to donate the equivalent wages of volunteers to a charity and formalise the arrangement," she said.
This year NZ Spinal Trust patron Sir Tim Wallis and chief executive Ben Lucas, both of who are wheelchair dependent, joined the regular North Otago volunteers.
The last of the Ostler Riesling is scheduled to be harvested next weekend.
