Sydney: Tasting Events to Look Out For

[asajoseph]

All,

Being a fairly new arrival in Sydney, I was wondering if anyone could recommend any particular regular / semi-regular tasting events worth looking out for? Coming from London, I have previously attended 2-3 Decanter events every year, which have 100+ producers from around the world, the Wine Advocate Matter of Taste Series (irregular, but about once a year), and Wine Society walk-around tastings every couple of months. Do similar events take place in Sydney that I should look out for? All I've managed to find so far are the regular tastings at Wine Ark, though these have now stopped.

Asa

[winetastic]

Annually there is:
Rootstock - natural wines from Australia, NZ and beyond
Italian wine and food festival - coming up in august, was some good producers on the floor last year and generally the masterclasses are pretty good
The good food and wine show - very commercial but sometimes some great producers lurking around

For more frequent events, Mike Bennie from The Wine Front hosts one pretty much every month.

Here on the forums there will generally be a Sydney offline organised every few months at least.

[asajoseph]

Thanks - are the Wine Front events generally for subscribers? If so, might be something I have to look into.

[winetastic]

Thanks - are the Wine Front events generally for subscribers? If so, might be something I have to look into.

No, although they have an events calendar as part of the website now, generally the events themselves are in partnership with retailers or importers. There are often adverts on the site from retailers promoting events as well.

A subscription is definitely worthwhile if you want to keep across the more... modern leanings of the Australian market/industry. If you have an interest in Italian wine, I don't think there is a better resource in the country.

[cleanskinlover]

The usual tastings and wine show around the city are always good. Usually the one that cost a few dollars are worthwhile as they scare off the free-drinkers and the tyre kickers. I'm sure the forum will keep you up to date.

[Ozzie W]

A couple other good ones:
- Pinot Palooza
- Game of Rhones

[pc79]

Hi Asajoseph and welcome (back?) to Sydney.
As mentioned, keep an eye out for discussion about offlines on here.
Events to keep an eye out for
Revel (formerly bottleshopconcepts) runs good events each quarter or so incl game of rhones, vindiemen, pinotpalooza, And a couple of others through the year.
The Royal Sydney wine show is a massive event in about July each year, hosted in one of the halls at Olympic Park. Consists of pretty much every wine entered in to the Sydney wine show.
Vinosphere - is a tasting on this May (7th) at town hall. Check eventbrite for details.
Thewinefront is a great resource of tasting notes, community and upcoming events.
United cellars host events monthly, and the occasional large tasting
Best cellars also do tastings at their bottle shop in Darlinghurst
Annandale cellars do tastings most Saturday’s, usually one producer and a couple of wines, but does have the occasional ‘festival’.
Happy hunting!

[asajoseph]

Thanks guys - I'll definitely keep an eye out for a few of these - appreciated!