Apparently, and this has come as something of a surprise to me, it’s been over 12 months since the very first Cellar Door Wine Festival in Adelaide, which I first wrote about here. I’m completely bamboozled as to where that chunk of my life has vanished to as it truly doesn’t seem that long since our hugely successful Cellar Door Wine Festival debuted at the Adelaide Convention Centre in 2011. However, the facts speak for themselves – we’ve just celebrated our second Cellar Door Wine Festival and what a brilliant success it was. If you missed out you’ll have to wait another 12 months but, as the rate at which time passes appears to be accelerating in direct proportion to how much (or little) time I am likely to have left on this earth, that will speed by in the blink of an eye and in the meantime you will have to content yourself with this snapshot of 2012’s event.
If you read any of my previous posts on this fantastic celebration of South Australian wine, you will know this festival was created as a way for as many Adelaide locals and visitors as possible to take the opportunity to experience our uniquely broad range of wines from diverse regions all in the one place at the one time. Using the very striking Adelaide Convention Centre in the heart of the city as a venue, the attending wineries are grouped in their respective regions and the (very happy) wine-tasters can pick and choose from a broad range of wine producers within each region under the one roof. Many of those wineries who represented themselves last year chose to attend again, like Paulett Wines (above) and not only did more wineries from the various regions grab the chance to strut their stuff, but this year the wineries from Kangaroo Island brought their goodies over so we could all take a look at what is going on there.
This year’s Cellar Door Wine Festival included about 170 various stalls, 153 of which were wine stalls – a significant increase on last years numbers. Many of the local food regions were also represented, offering tastings and sales of their local specialities – again, an increase on last years food stalls. There was a kids corner offering face paintings, live entertainment all weekend and delicious local specialty platters to enjoy when a sit down and snack was in order. Before the doors were opened on Friday night the pre-sale bookings were double those of last year and 30% of those bookings were actually interstate sales – a very gratify state of affairs for those who aim to show the rest of the country what we do best – and there was an overall increase of visitors of 30-35%. All in all, anyone would call the Adelaide Cellar Door Wine Festival a resounding success, so South Australian wine and food producers take a bow – you’ve done us proud once again. I can’t wait to see what next years festival brings.
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Hotly Spiced
I love the look of that tasting plate. So many delicious flavours there.
InTolerant Chef
You go to such awesome events! Great way to sample the treasures of some great producers indeed!
Jennifer (Delicieux)
Looks like a wonderful event! I always love going to wine events and learning more, and more importantly, tasting some really fabulous wines. I always find I discover new varieties that I’d never thought to try before.
That tasting plate looks fabulous too. Food and wine really do go hand in hand.
Kate
Lucky you living in South Australia !!!!
Barbara
These events are great fun as a learning experience. My wine selling career involved working many of these promotions. I miss it.
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
I’m excited to be heading down your way soon-not in time for this though alas!
Cakelaw
Love, love – attending this festival is definitely on my bucket list.
Lizzy (Good Things)
Oh, that’s it… I’m coming over! I adore Adelaide and the food and wine in SA. One day, Amanda, we are going to break bread together!
Celia
Sounds like a wonderful event, Amanda! You do get some goodies over in SA.. 🙂