Every year around Australia Day at the end of January the Australians have staged a massive wine tasting for the trade and media in the UK stretching over two days in London and increasingly elsewhere in the British Isles too.
This year they are throwing all these bottles, tables and leading wine people from Australia open to the public on the evening of Wed Jan 31. Tickets are £35 and the event runs from 6 to 9pm in the Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria.
A slightly smaller but similar event is being staged at Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh on Tue Jan 23will be open to the public Tickets just £15.
To book tickets for either of these events, go here. To find out more about the events see www.wineaustralia.com/uk.
After some complaints that this annual tasting, which was a major event in the UK wine trade calendar in 1990s, had become a bit boring and commercial, the Australians claim that the themes of this year's tastings will be 'innovation and authenticity' which certainly sounds promising. Let's hope that lots of those smaller more interesting producers' wares will be well represented. The full catalogue for the events is promised online from a week before.
Royal Horticultural Halls
Victoria
London SW1
Wed Jan 31, 6-9pm
£35
Prestonfield House Hotel
Edinburgh
Tue Jan 23, 6-9pm
£15