When you're rhite, you're right

During the planning stage of our first wine based event to raise money for breast cancer research we did have a few concerns. Would we get support from the industry? Would anyone want to come along? Would we be able to organise a worthwhile event? Well weren't we the worry warts.

Given the quality of the people we have met over the last year from the Tassie wine industry we shouldn't have doubted for a moment that they would be willing to support such a worthy cause. Despite the fact that most wineries and vineyards receive requests for wine donations every day, Michelle was overwhelmed with the willingness of the people she approached to help. 

We also feel bad for underestimating the enthusiasm all our friends have for wine .... and charities. Some unkind people have referred to us and our friends as functioning alcoholics. We resent being referred to as functioning and request that in future you use terms like 'effective' or 'fun loving'.

Organising events is also not that hard if you are motivated and Michelle has first hand experience of the devastating effect breast cancer can have on a family. Her mother Gloria passed away from this disease in 1995 at the age of 49 so she has always been keen to support efforts to eradicate breast cancer. In the past this support has involved dragging PJ along to stand outside shopping centres in very ordinary weather selling badges on Daffodil Day and during Pink Ribbon month. 

Please, please tell us more!

Ok no need to beg we were going to tell you anyway. The event was part of the Cancer Council of Tasmania's 'girls night in' campaign. So, only punters of the female persuasion were allowed to attend. Some exceptions were permitted however to provide slave labour. So it was that PJ worked some 12 hours nonstop on the day and didn't complain once! He was ably assisted by punter Paul and expensive UK import, punter Mike.

The event started with a wine tasting. Due to the generosity of the supporting wineries and vineyards we had some 20 bottles. This meant that the punters of the female persuasion could choose from two sparkling, four sav blancs, three dry rieslings, a reserve chardonnay, three off dry rieslings, one rose, five pinots and an iced riesling. We haven't seen such a quality lineup since the 1996 and 1999 North Melbourne AFL Premiership sides.

The punters of the female persuasion were impressed. Not only did the range of wines fall under the 'shock and awe' category, but all of them were excellent. The punters of the female persuasion also enjoyed nice touches, like the fact that the Milton "Laura Rosé" sparkling had only been labelled two days prior to the event. Being the first punters in Tassie to wrap their laughin' gear around it made them feel just a wee bit special.

Due to the fact that we are huge supporters of the 'responsible serving of alcohol' and other very important alcohol safety initiatives we didn't want our punters to simply stand around drinking and enjoying themselves. No, for their own good we restricted their ability to drink through the presentation of 'entertainment'. In this case a 'hilarious' quiz.

The punters of the female persuasion were divided into three teams. The 'real hornbags','more talented than spice girls' and 'betch'a wish your girlfriend was hot like us' did battle to see who could triumph in this gruelling combination of wine related questions and lame exciting activities. The winner had the honour of being the inaugural champion of this prestigious quiz.

The teams were neck and neck heading into the final activity. Along the way they had demonstrated a complete lack of knowledge regarding the Winepunters site, a belief that brettanomyces was the latest recruit for the Carlton Football Club, and an unwillingness to dance around their handbags like girls used to do when we were younger. Not only that, during the 'beauty tips for PJ' activity his own sister turned on him suggesting that a paper bag over the head would go a long way to beautifyin' the PJ scone (just statin' the obvious - Ed).

The final task facing the teams required that the punters of the female persuasion get in touch with their inner wine wanker. Under a cover were three glasses, each containing a liquid. All that was known at this point was that the liquids weren't wine or poison.  Each team had to pick a glass and then talk about it's contents using their best wine wanker impersonation.

The 'more talented than spice girls' chose the glass containing milk and did a great job in very trying circumstances. Seriously, what can you say about milk? The 'betcha wish your girlfriend was hot like us' team got the glass of orange juice and proceeded to amaze the rest of us with their French accents and authentic gestures. Finally, we were left with the 'real hornbags', who had to wax lyrical about worm wee.

Due to the earthy nature of the stuff, and to reassure everyone, PJ drank some of the worm wee. Asked for a comment just afterward he said "absolutely, positively the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. But since worms have no known diseases I am pretty relaxed -  excuse me I feel a little queasy!".

Some punters are born great, some become great and some have greatness thrust upon them. Punter Julia demonstrated the power at the heart of all punters. She not only displayed an awesome knowledge of wine wankerisms but won the quiz for her team by drinking some worm wee and delivering the killer line "hmmm not quite as good as last year" (Ladies, we have a winner - Ed).

At the conclusion of this epic battle all that remained was to thank the supporting wineries and vineyards and to finalise the silent auction. All the items in this auction were rare or unique. Punter Jaye provided a hand made piece of jewellery, Punter Anita provided a therapeutic massage, Puddleduck vineyard donated a bubbleduck gift pack, Neil Snare gave up one of his 2002 pinots and Andrew Hood finished it off with 6 bottles of his 2003 Wellington Iced Riesling.

Having dispensed with the formalities it was time for everyone, except PJ, to sit back and relax and enjoy the bbq. We would like to thank Di from the Wursthaus in Cambridge for supplying some of their fantastic sausages to us at a huge discount. Folks, if you are a real Aussie you love snags and if you love snags go and try the Wursthaus ones. Our favourites are the Lamb and Rosemary or Chicken and Leek (sooo hungry right now! - Ed).

So how did it go?

Since you ask, quite well thanks. We raised nearly $1,000 for the Cancer Council. We introduced punters to wines and labels they hadn't heard of and we sold over $2,500 worth of wine for the supporting wineries/ vineyards. 

Since the event we have received a number of emails from the punters who attended saying how much they enjoyed the event and that we should do it again (and we are! - Ed). We haven't received so much happy mail since we threatened to take down this website. Our inbox overflowed with 'yes, please do' emails.

What do you think?  Send us a comment

The supporting wineries and vineyards

The following vineyards and wineries supported this event (in alphabetical order). Thanks guys - we couldn't have done it without you

	Andrew Hood provided the 2003 Wellington Iced Riesling from his own cellar for our silent auction
	Fred Peacock provided sauvignon blanc and his VGR Riesling for tasting
	Paul and Louise Stranan provided pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, dry riesling and the TGR riesling for tasting
	The fine folk at Frogmore Creek Wines provided a sauvignon blanc, FGR riesling and pinot for tasting
	Nick Glaetzer provided his Uberblanc and Reveur pinot for tasting
	Michael Dunbabin and his family provided the new rose sparkling for tasting. We also used a bottle as the prize for the quiz
	Matt Pooley and the rest of his family provided a pinot sparkling and riesling for tasting
	Jackie and Darren Brown provided a rose for tasting and the bubbleduck gift pack for our silent auction
	Dave Cush and Tim Lyne provided a sauvignon blanc, reserve chardonnay and pinot noir for tasting
	Neil Snare provided a riesling and pinot for tasting and his 2002 pinot for the silent auction

Top