Wine Australia Tasting 2006

Radisson Miyako Hotel Tokyo (Friday May 12^th 2006)

Last night I attended an Australian wine tasting event at the Radisson Miyako Hotel.  It was a great event and amazing to see the amount of people interested in Australian wine.  There were a great number of wineries that already have distribution in Japan, but also a large number of wineries looking for distributors. 

Some of the highlights for me were; Sally’s Paddock, Skillogalee Wines, Bass Phillip Wine, King Island Cheese, Wild Duck Creek, Cullen, Leeuwin Estate and Wynns Coonawarra Estate.  I also lucked out at a stall serving Maggie Beer Quince Paste, I was telling some Japanese people what a wonderful product it was and the rep gave me a free Quince Paste for my “excellent sales pitch”.  Little bit of wine and I’m gushing I guess.

It was interesting for me to see the wines looking for representation and the number of people interested in (and aware of) Australian wine.  I have long been interested in starting an Australian wine shop (with tasting bar) or an Australian food purveyor here in Tokyo.  If I won the lottery tomorrow it would be my business of choice, so it was interesting to see that it could be quite successful.

If you missed this year’s event, then I suggest you keep an eye on the Australian Wine Office site and hope that they run the event next year too.  It was a great event and enjoyable for amateurs (like me) as well as connoisseurs.