Vines & Wines: a new Canberra business sniffs out the district's wineries | HerCanberra

Everything you need to know about canberra. ONE DESTINATION.

Vines & Wines: a new Canberra business sniffs out the district’s wineries

Posted on

wine2The Canberra wine district has been getting a lot of attention in recent years. In 2011, Gourmet Traveller’s Nick Stock wrote,”The routine question asked of anyone in the know about wine is what’s hot or what’s new, and the Canberra District is now a routine answer. With the cycle of winemaking effectively turning at one revolution per year, potential is often talked about for many years before the results catch up – but not so with Canberra. In fact, it has mostly been the other way around, as Canberra’s steep trajectory has caught many observers by surprise. Most remarkably, the number of great wines coming out of the region is disproportionately high when compared with most regions. These folks are punching above their weight.”

And while the region has some amazing cellar doors, most of the experiences are ‘self-drive’…which, when you’re a dedicated swallower-not-spitter, is not ideal. But new business Vines & Wines is set to shake things up. The creation of husband and wife team Scott and Elouise Calabria, Vines & Wines will offer a series of tours of Canberra District wineries which will focus on wine appreciation and learning about how grapes are made into wine.

“Our tours will be much more than a coach service,” Elouise said. “We love wine and want to share that with people. Like with most things, the more you learn about something – whether it be art, science, or wine – the more you appreciate and enjoy it. Our tours are about thinking and drinking!”

Having lived in London for several years, Elouise and Scott visited many of the great wine regions in Europe including Burgundy, Champagne, Tuscany and Rioja, and will use their knowledge to show how Canberra wines compare and contrast to European styles. But their experience extends further than just travelling around drinking wine; in 2009 they worked for several months in the laboratory for Casella Wines in Griffith NSW, where they had hands on experience testing wine from the early stages as grape juice to the more refined finished product.

“Working at Casella’s was a great experience and we learnt so much about the wine making process, including the science and words such as Baume and malolactic fermentation,” Elouise said.

“I wasn’t particularly interested in science at school but with wine as the focus, it was suddenly much more interesting. It was also hard work, we did three straight weeks of night shift which meant starting at 10pm and working through to 6am but there was something quite special about ‘babysitting’ red ferments at 3am – you start to feel responsible for the wellbeing of the wine.”

elle at Bar du Vin BordeauxVines & Wines will begin their first tours during the Murrumbateman Moving Feast which takes place over the October long weekend. The annual festival is a celebration of food and wine in the region and V&W’s tour will include a variety of tasty treats as well as plenty of wine sampling. Tours will then take place at least once a fortnight but as demand grows, Elouise and Scott will increase their offerings.

As well as their regular tours, Vines & Wines can also cater to private groups and encourage beginners and experts alike to get in contact.

“We are working very closely with the wineries and our tours will provide guests with extras that are not available to the general public. Some of the wineries will open special vintages not usually on offer while others will take us behind the scenes to observe some of the wine making processes,” Elouise (pictured at right) said.

“After travelling around Europe for several years, we understand that food and wine is a fabulous way to learn about the culture of a country and we plan on doing justice to the wonderful wine and local food the Canberra region has to offer.”

the essentials

What: Vines & Wines
Phone: Ph: 0432807316
Email: info@vineswines.com.au
Web:www.vineswines.com.au

Closeup portrait of young female customer drinking red wine with eyes closed by www.shutterstock.com

Related Posts

2 Responses to Vines & Wines: a new Canberra business sniffs out the district’s wineries

Suzanne Barnes says: 10 September, 2014 at 1:01 pm

Oh thank goodness and hooray! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed tours like this in the Hunter Valley. It’s definitely something that’s been missing in this area: we would definitely visit more wineries if we didn’t have to worry about driving.

Leave a Reply

© 2024 HerCanberra. All rights reserved. Legal.
Site by Coordinate.