Hanging out in the Hunter Valley… with Kids

Once upon a time weekend escapes to the wine regions of Australia were the top of our destination list. My husband, friends and I loved to spend all day sitting tasting wines, talking to the cellar door staff or winemakers and eating out at the regional restaurants.

But when the kids come along that all came to a grinding holt and weekends became full of zoo visits and park play dates…. We have a three and a five year old and since they were born we’ve had the odd escape to the wineries but not really done the tasting circuit – the thought of keeping the kids entertained with their 2 minute attention spam and the temptation for them to run and explore in an environment where others are trying to seriously taste makes the scenario far from relaxing.  So when our good friends (also with a one year old) suggested a weekend in the Hunter Valley to go wine tasting we were nervous. It’s easy for a baby in a pram to be entertained, but with our little rebels, not quite so simple.

So off we ventured…

Given I work in the wine industry my kids are exposed to wine daily – they know what vineyards are, see regular deliveries of wine to our door and I’ve even had an instance of my daughter foot- stomping strawberries in the kitchen after she saw a Youtube video I was editing for a client.  They are curious and as kids growing up in the city a trip to the winery is a great opportunity for us to talk about agriculture – the process of growing a product and the process of which it’s made whilst reinforcing that until they are older this is something for adults.

We came prepared (although never factored in torrential rain all weekend!). There were new ipad games downloaded, drawing kits in the handbag and even lollies for bribes as a last resort if we needed it.  We had a great base to stay in at The Vintry – perfect for 2 families so that everyone had their own bedroom and bathroom and the kids were so excited to start the day with Kangaroo’s feeding on the lawn out the back.

Thanks to the kindness of a few Hunter Valley locals we had a lot of fun and managed to visit the Small Winemaker Centre, Tyrrell’s Wines, Scarborough Wine Co, Audrey Wilkinson, McWilliams Wines, Lindemans, De Iuliis and Tulloch’s – about all the ipad battery would allow. A few more photos up on my Pinterest Board of the Hunter Valley

We came home with four cases of wine after doing a speed tasting and sampling a small part of the best wines the Hunter Valley had to offer. Here are some of the stand out favourites that we enjoyed and some tips of places to go and see in the Hunter Valley if you are visiting with young children:

Wineries to visit: 

• Scarborough Wine Co  

I’ll be upfront and disclose that I work with the fabulous team here but their cellar door team had no idea who we were and the service was exceptional. The Cellar Door staff made sure that the kids were given poppas, and something to do before they took us through the range of wines.  You really are made to feel welcome in a fun and relaxed environment where the whole family had a great time.

Sally Scarborough had also kindly given the kids a book called “George the Clever Grape” by Peter Healy which explained the winemaking journey through characters such as ‘Henry the Harvester’ or ‘Bertie the Barrel’ and it was a great way to contextualize what was happening in the cellar doors and wineries around them. They were excited to see the tanks, the barrels and understand a bit more about the winemaking process.

Wine Highlights – Scarborough 2010 Yellow Label Chardonnay, Scarborough White Label Chardonnay 2010 and the new release of the 2011 White Label Shiraz.

• Tyrrell’s Wines

The kids highlight of the weekend – the Tyrrell’s Cellar Door team were quick to find some paper and pens and make sure that the kids were busy drawing away whilst they took us through the range.  Wines were exceptional and the kids enjoyed the tour through parts of the winery.

Chris Tyrrell then earned himself “hero status” in my 5 year olds eyes by allowing her to be his assistant and the mere job of turning an on/ off button on the pump and tasting one of the ferments will be something she talks about for years too come – I hate to think about what she tells the teacher for news this week! Thanks Mr Tyrrell – future vintage worker happily in training.

Wine Highlights – 2009 Vat 47 Chardonnay, 2011 Johnno’s Shiraz and Johnno’s Basket Pressed Semillon.

• Audrey Wilkinson

This winery has one of the most spectacular views of the Hunter and wines to rival the views! You can feel the energy of the cellar door team who genuinely looked like they were having a ball passionately telling the stories of the wines they were showing.  Fabulous Semillon, Shiraz and some great Chardonnay too.  Worth taking the time to explore the museum to explore some historical artifacts from a brand that goes back to 1866.

Wine Highlights – Audrey Wilkinson 2009 The Ridge Reserve Semillon, Audrey Wilkinson 2010 The Lake Shiraz, Audrey Wilkinson 2010 Winemakers Selection Merlot Cabernet.

• De Iuliis Wines

A visually stunning cellar door with well-informed and friendly staff. Whilst we were impressed with the consistency and quality of all of the wines, the kids loved climbing up to the top of the top of the Belltower (thinking they were Rapunzel).

Wine Highlights – 2011 Cellar Release Tempranillo and 2011 Cellar Release Sangiovese. If you want to splurge and find something for the cellar then we loved the 2009 Limited Release Hunter Valley Shiraz 

• Tulloch Wines 

A speedy visit to Tulloch’s on this trip on our way back to the accommodation so we only tasted a small amount of the range. Always a great winery to visit full of history.

Wine Highlights – The 2012 Pinot Gris from Orange and we stocked up on some Hector Shiraz 2009 given it was my son’s year of birth and we know this will last for some time to come.

Places to see and eat:

• Hunter Valley Gardens 

A must stop destination if you’ve got younger children. The Storybook garden is lots of fun and my children always ask to go back.

• The Beltree 

We’d not been to the Beltree before but had been highly recommended and worth the visit.  The salt roasted pork belly and home style Roast Chicken were superb and small touches to accommodate the children and make sure they were well looked after also greatly appreciated.

• Café Enzo

Fabulous coffee and let’s face it – if you have little kids with you there’s no sleep in going to happen so by 8am in the morning you’ll be in need of a good coffee and they serve Campos coffee and great breakfasts.

We did not get there on this trip, but the Hunter Valley Chocolate factory is also a fun place to stop with the kids.

Where we stayed:

• The Vintry 

Luxurious and the perfect venue for 4 couples or families. There are 4 bedrooms each with their own ensuite and host Greg Mincher goes out of his way to make sure you feel welcome.

A fabulous kitchen and dining facility means that you can sit back and enjoy a bottle of wine with friends without having to venture off the property.  The kids loved being able to get up in the morning and see the Kangaroo’s feeding on the lawn outside and despite it being pouring rain they had an absolute ball.

If you’re looking for somewhere to stay check out the Wine Country website that has lots of great options – . There’s also a new wine country app that you can download with suggestions on places to see and where to go

So that’s our weekend of indulgence….

FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR WINERIES… 

Families may not be the core target market for wineries, but those who think about how they look after the children so that the parents can taste will definitely reap the rewards. There’s a large market out there to cater for and whilst most families are unlikely to visit the number of wineries that we visited, many are keen for a getaway.  If you’re a winery reading this, worth thinking through what small steps you might be able to make to cater for all types of visitors as something as small as a poppa or something to colour in will mean parents have more time to appreciate your product and no doubt purchase more wine.

We’re off to Mudgee and Orange over Easter weekend so if we survive the trip in the car with little people, will report back with some more great options.

Making the most of the Rose Revolution in bars, restaurants and retail

GET ON BOARD THE ROSE REVOLUTION – CELEBRATING DRY, PURPOSE MADE ROSE WINES

There’s a real movement happening to educate consumers about dry, purpose made Rose: The Rose Revolution! A great wine style, appropriate all year round but for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s a particularly exciting wine as we come into Summer.

There’s been lots of information circulated about how producers can come on board, but probably even more opportunities for bars, retailers and restaurants to come on board and grow your rose sales at a high margin.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

There’s a range of activities planned to help spread the word about dry rose over the next few months. Kick off is 10 November with a global tweet up promoting dry, textural Rose wines. This is not just a one day event though, the momentum will continue until the end of April 2012 with a range of fun events being planned.

Some ideas on how you can make the most of the Rose Revolution in your venue:

• Organise a tasting or rose dinner on 10 Novemberto taste and tweet – join in all the fun and pour some great rose whilst watching the tweets with #roserev. A great way to get people along to your venue, put up a big screen, encourage people to come dressed in pink and get involved in the fun.
  • There will be free tastings held from 5-7pm at many venues and then Rose Soiree Parties and an Australia wide tweet up from 7.30pm AEST. If you’re holding a tasting and want to accept samples, let me know and i’ll add you to the list of addresses
  • Promote dry Rose by the Glass– talk to consumers about this style of wine – put on some by the glass specials.
  • Use geo-location programs like Four Square to set up a four square check in special for your venue using a glass of dry rose as an incentive
  • Host a Rose dinner or function – the versatility of dry rose lends itself to tapas plates, paella,  charcuterie plates, seafood – almost anything matches well with rose, particularly Spanish and Mediterranean styled foods.
  • List your event up on Meet up so we can drive consumers along to participate http://www.meetup.com/Rose-Wine-Revolution/events/32266682/
  • Serve flights of rose wine – rather than a standard glass, why not think about offering tasting selections of different dry roses to help consumers explore this style.
  • Take some photos and get social. The Rose Revolution facebook page has over 1200 fans and we’d encourage you to post your photos up on the page, or tweet about what you’re hosting using #roserv.

There’s a range of purpose made point of sale designed to help draw attention to the campaign in your venue – post cards, decals, banners, posters.  Have a look at some of the examples here. Our core supporters have all this information for you to use.

If you’re really serious about joining the Rose Revolution, you can also get your logo up on the Rose Revolution website as a core supporter for a nominal cost. Details here

If you’re holding a rose event or special, email Rose_revolution@debortoliwines.com.au and we’ll get the information posted up on the facebook page and website.

REVOLUTIONARY WINERIES

Have a look at who the core supporters are, talk to your wine reps about any special offers they might have and other ways to get involved.

Vive la Rose Revolution!

And the #pinotsmackdown title goes to… New Zealand!

Pinot Noir lovers all over the world united last Thursday 18^th August for the second annual #pinotsmackdown. It was country vs country in a flurry of tweets that sought to identify the best Pinot Noir producing region or nation. Pinot Noir lovers used twitter as a medium to taste and tweet about a range of Pinot Noir, many at specific events being hosted to allow consumers and the trade to sample different wines and then used a regional hashtag to vote.

Whilst there’s always a competitive rivalry between Australia and New Zealand, and a win for Australia would have been nice (especially given the recent Rugby Union results), it was exciting to see the New Zealand wine industry, spurred on by @Jayson_Bryant  and @nzwine, get behind a social media event and collaboratively come together to talk about the great Pinot Noir wines being produced from numerous New Zealand wine regions. According to organizer Ed Thralls, the votes were super close with only 23 votes separating New Zealand from Oregon who came in at a close second followed by California and then Australia in fourth place. Full results posted here . Well done to New Zealand wineries!

I discovered and subsequently have sought out and purchased a number of different Pinot Noir wines that I tried on the day with the notable Australian stand outs from my perspective being the Hoddles Creek Pinot Noir 2010  (exceptional value), Heemskerk Tamar Valley Pinot Noir 2010, Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009 and the Dalrymple Pinot Noir 2010  from Tasmania. Whilst direct sales may not always correlate immediately from these varietals days, it certainly raised awareness of some of the brands and regions producing great Pinot Noir globally.

From the Tweetreach tracker that I set up two days prior to the event, the final numbers taken on 20^th were as follows:

• Reach – 451,404
• Exposure – 9,051,004 impressions
• 5,237 tweets from
• 1,092 different contributors

There’s always debate about what these numbers mean and different reporting systems will show various results. What is important to note is that when a global community comes together, brands who leverage can help to raise awareness and trial of their product.

What you can take out of this – Learnings for future events:

Unlike days like #chardonnay day and #cabernetday – we always expected #pinotsmackdown to have a more specialized audience, but that does not mean it wasn’t worthwhile to get involved. Some learnings for wineries new to these sorts of tweets ups to consider:

• There’s value in participating – Even submitting a sample, it can help to facilitate trial and future purchase of your wine. You never know who will turn up at a tasting to try your product and comment and there’s often cases of new distributions being gained after positive feedback from varietal days like #pinotsmackdown. It’s also a good way to build a two way dialogue to get some feedback on what people think.

• Spread the word to your own followers and get them involved - Don’t just leave it up to the venue to promote different tastings being held, help to build an audience and promote to your audience (or twitter followers) where people can go to get involved. These days are not about a specific brand, but an opportunity to tell a varietal or category story and the success depends on how the wine community comes together.

• Host a Tweet Up at your venue – those venues who got behind the initiative and organized a function, promoting to their own audience well in advance found benefits. If you’re a retailer, bar or winery, why not consider hosting one of these events and getting people along to try a range of different wines.

• Use the opportunity to build a community – following the twitter stream of tweets using the relevant hashtag highlights wineries, influencers and consumers who are highly involved in the topic. It’s an opportunity to find new people to follow and interact with. Start to engage in a dialogue with them and get to know new people

• Prepare in advance – those brands and venues who thought about how they would leverage the opportunity were the ones that got the best results. With so many upcoming events, think about which ones are relevant to participate in and start to think about how you can engage your sales team, distributors, and consumers. This may mean including in your next eNewsletter, organizing special packs to sell to consumers or talking to some of your customers and helping them get involved.

Get ready for the next events:

If you enjoyed the fun of the #pinotsmackdown, there’s more in store over the next few months – get involved in:

• Cabernet Day – 1 September – http://cabernet.eventbrite.com/
• Grenache Day  – 24 September – http://www.grenachesymposium.com/GrenacheNews/
• Rose Revolution Kick Off: 10 November - http://rosewinerevolution.com/

Related Articles

• All the run down from the host Ed Thralls of WineTonite

• Pinot Unearthed Wrap up of what tasted