UK wine trade delight in Australia Day Tastings

We kicked off the New Year in style with our headline Australia Day Tastings which, alongside our annual blockbuster event in London, included Dublin and for the first time Edinburgh.

Our Australia Day Tasting in London has long been the pre-eminent tasting for Australian wines in the UK, and its success prompted extension to Ireland and Scotland.

At these dynamic events, attendees embraced the opportunity to taste the latest vintages and releases from Australia and to talk with many of the winemakers and principals behind the labels. We were delighted to have so many winemakers and principals in market with us to share their stories.

More than 1230 people attended our Australia Day Tastings in the three cities and the enthusiasm for Australian wine was palpable.

London’s event, held on 26 January, featured an impressive line-up of more than 1000 wines across 80 tables together representing 240 wineries. We also introduced a unique food and wine pairing element –The Great Aussie Taste-Off – which set a Master of Wine against a Master Sommelier to choose the wines that best matched fine Australian dishes. Congratulations to the Master Sommeliers who were pronounced by the audience to be the winners of two of the three contests and thank you to all our Great Aussie Taste-Off participants, Natasha Hughes MW, Clement Roberts MS, Xavier Rousset MS, Justin Knock MW, Jo Aherne MW and Isa Bal MS.

The Dublin event, which has been held annually since 2014, took place on 27 January and offered more than 200 wines. A consumer tasting was also included for the first time and Chardonnay and Shiraz were featured at two focus tables.

Then it was on to Edinburgh on 28 January where we held our first tasting in seven years. This tasting featured more than 250 wines and also put Chardonnay and Shiraz in the spotlight at our focus tables.

Wine Australia Chair Brian Walsh and Chief Executive Officer Andreas Clark attended all three events, with Mr Walsh also co-hosting master classes in Dublin and Edinburgh, alongside Australian wine expert John McDonnell for the History and Evolution master class in Dublin and Shaw and Smith’s Dan Coward for the Riesling and Pinot Noir master class in Edinburgh.

Head of Market EMEA Laura Jewell MW said that the Australia Day Tastings provide the most comprehensive opportunity for UK and Ireland trade to experience premium Australian wine.

‘This was our most successful Australia Day Tasting ever and the feedback from exhibitors and guests attests to a renewed enthusiasm for Australian wine which we will continue to champion,’ she said. 

‘We now need to ensure that we as a category build on what has been a very positive start to the year.’

Click here to read our media release from the Australia Day Tastings.