Wine Australia steps up foodie focus

Food matching and regionality will provide the major focuses for next month’s annual Australia Day Tasting in London.

Taking place at Lindley Hall on 27 January, the trade event will feature over 1,000 Australian wines from 213 wineries and 53 exhibitors. There will also be a number of wineries seeking distribution in the UK market.

As an extension of the “Restaurant Australia” campaign run by Tourism Australia earlier this year, the tasting will feature four pop-up food and wine matching stalls. Each of these will offer two dishes that have been specially created for the event by Michelin-starred chef Roger Jones from The Harrow at Little Bedwyn.

Among the food and wine pairings on offer will be Gatt High Eden Riesling 2013 from Eden Valley with crab and avocado sales, caviar dust and crème fraîche; Ten Minutes by Tractor Estate Pinot Noir 2012 from Mornington Peninsula with seared fillet of Northumberland venison and Puy lentils; and Wakefield Jaraman Shiraz 2013 from Clare Valley and McLaren Vale with chocolate spheres and spiced salt.

The initiative builds on the food-oriented focus that was introduced for the first time at this year’s event as part of an overhaul of the generic tasting. “The feedback we received confirmed that guests were impressed by the new-look Australia Day Tasting earlier this year,” said Emma Symington, Wine Australia UK events & education manager. “There was renewed energy and excitement in the room about the future of Australian wine from both guests and exhibitors and we want to continue that momentum in 2015.”

Noting that the UK remains the largest export market for Australian wine, Symington added: “the Australia Day Tasting is one of our key opportunities to demonstrate the diversity of Australia’s 65 wine regions. There really is no such thing as a typical Aussie wine, each region has its own expression and we produce the widest range of styles in the world.”

For more information about the Australia Day Tasting or to register, click here. Wine Australia is also planning a smaller second event, which will be held in Ireland on 29 January and feature 16 producers. Further details about this are due to be announced in the coming weeks.