While we were able to let you know that the Tasmania Unbottled event for 2009 was coming up we can't give you a first hand account of how it went. Unfortunately we were unable to go, something that we will be correcting for next year, so we thought we could find out how it went by asking WIT, some exhibitors and some punters.

For the official view we went to Stuart Nettlefold Executive Officer from Wine Industry Tasmania. He was very pleased with the event. Particularly how it went in Melbourne. It was the event's first time in the home of AFL and despite the weather and competing events "the numbers were better than similar events held by other wine regions". (In your face who ever you were! - Ed).

He also felt that it succeeded as a business development exercise with Derwent Estate, and others, landing significant sales contracts.  We asked him if he had any concerns and he mentioned that while online registrations were good "we have to drive the trade side of things" with an aim " to reduce the no shows". 

So far so good, but what did the exhibitors think? Fred Peacock (Bream Creek Wines) was at all 3 events and said that "Sydney and Brisbane were tremendous ... there were lots of people there who had comeback". He thought that Melbourne needed more work but wasn't too concerned since similar issues had arisen the first time the event was held in Sydney and Brisbane.

We wanted to know if there were any differences in the way people behaved at the various events. "Sydney had a more formal atmosphere and they (the Trade) were very interested in fitting the Tassie wines to the Sydney scene ... they were mainly interested in the chardonnay, pinot and riesling". "In Brisbane they were more likely to look at new or different wines like the schonburger"

"Punters (in Sydney and Brisbane) were very knowledgeable and wanted to ask questions of the winemakers" but in Melbourne "they were thin on the ground and didn't really know the wine ... it was more about fun" for them.

Fred's comments were echoed by Matt Pooley (Pooley Wines) who attended the Melbourne and Brisbane events. He also mentioned the good feedback he got on the Tassie wines "better than New Zealand!" and was pleased that the master classes were full. 

So it appears that the exhibitors appreciated the exposure for Tasmania as a whole but was the event any good for their individual businesses?

Matt thought so. "We got on the spot sales and new members for our mailing list" he said. This is a good achievement considering he didn't exhibit all his range.  Although we note that he did take the Late Harvest Riesling so it doesn't seem that surprising an outcome to us.

Fred was also very impressed with the event's impact on his business. "Our distribution reps got to speak to major customers and open additional doors". He was also able to set up distribution reps for Bream Creek in Queensland and Northern NSW.

We wondered if the event was really for 'large' labels and that it may be too expensive an exercise for smaller operators. Matt agreed that it was "relatively costly" but that reducing the range you exhibit was one method for addressing that issue. Fred thought it was a good idea to attend since "you can get direct orders from restaurants and so on". "There is no need to have a distributor" he added.

But what did the punters think? Normally we would point you to some audio we had recorded but as we said we couldn't attend. However looking at some of the wine forums (for example Auswine) the comments from punters who attended was favourable. There were a number of complimentary references to various Tassie wines and it seems that they enjoyed the event and are looking forward to attending in the future.

The judgement of whether these types of events are successful or not ultimately comes down to sales. Based on the responses from Matt and Fred, as well as the forum posts, there is a strong indication that Tasmania Unbottled 09 generated sales and so was successful.  If, like us, you missed out don't despair. You will get an opportunity to sample some of the wines exhibited at Tasmania Unbottled at the upcoming White Wine Weekend (10th and 11th October at the Atrium in the Henry Jones Hotel)

What do you think?  Send us a comment