Oh dear. It could have been brilliant...but it wasn't.
I'm not sure if Melbourne's weather caught the organisers of this event off-guard or if it was always going to go somewhat wrong.
Held in the basement car park at Circa, we were lucky enough to score a pair of free tickets. Thanks goodness, because if I had coughed up the $60 I would have been p*ssed - and not in the good 'too much wine' kind of way.
Turns out it was 26 degrees on the day of this event - turning the car park, coupled with a few hundred people, into an instant sauna. The free bottles of water and fans provided gave small relief, but nowhere near enough.
The stall holders looked like they were struggling with the heat and to top it off, they had to yell over the music that was far too loud given they were trying to tell us all about their beautiful wines. Because they were beautiful - all that gorgeous pinot that I'm not too much the wiser about now because after about 40 minutes I had to get out of there.
The layout wasn't great meaning people all bunched up at one end making it difficult to move around the stalls - especially the NZ section down the back. Which also happened to be hiding a Tasmanian winery I wanted to try. Tasmania is in Australia guys...
Compared to a couple of other wine events i have attended over the last few months this one just didn't hit the spot. Hope it gets sorted for next time around because a few of the wines I tasted were down right amazing. read more