Unlocked - the wine event of the year
That’s how it was advertised and that’s pretty much how it turned out. On 17th June 2012 in the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney of the order of 200 guests arrived to an absolute smorgasbord of Australia’s best wines.
The event was hosted by Australia’s First Families of Wine, a marketing group of 12 long established family wineries. We arrived to find the ballroom set up theatre style with 12 Riedel glasses in front of us, one from each winery. Up on the stage were the 12 patriarchs of each of the wineries.
Under the guidance of the MC for the night, Russell…, each owner talked about their winery and the wine we were tasting. Highlight of the first round was the Jim Barry Armagh.
After tasting those 12 we all left the room and had a light finger food dinner accompanied by a range of lesser wines from the families.
We then moved back into the ballroom, which had been completely reset with another 12 wines in front of each of us. This time they were newer generation wines. Up on stage were 12 younger members of each of the families. They talked us through their roles in the family businesses, their hopes for the future and the wine that we had to taste.
It was a big night finishing near midnight and with at least 24 wines tasted. An amazing opportunity to hear about the history of these icons of the Australian wine industry and the future and where the next generation will take. The future of the Australian wine industry is in very good hands.
For more information go to: http://www.australiasfirstfamiliesofwine.com.au
