365 Days Of Wine and Food, Sounds just like my kind of thing!

Today I thought I'd write a quick blog to give everyone a bit of a heads up on some cool things going on in Adelaide.

The South Australian Wine Industry Association and the South Australian Government have launched a new initiative called 365 Days of Wine and Food. The idea is that there is a food and wine event on every day of the year. To help promote these events they have created an iPhone and Android app available to be downloaded for free via your mobiles app store.

You can browse day by day to see what events are going on. You can even add events that you would like to go to on a planner.

It's at this point I would like to say that in no way or form am I associated with this event or app at all. I just think its a brilliant idea and a great way to showcase the food and wine culture in Adelaide.

Friday night I wondered down to a free tasting they held on Leigh St in the CBD. It was great to see so many winery's big and small attending. It was also great to see despite the weather the amount of people that turned out. I tasted at Elderton Wines of the Barossa, Pennalane from the Clare Valley, Oliver's Taranga and Beach Rd Wines from McLaren Vale. For me the highlight was Beach Rd, they are doing some really different things and its good to see. The Greco and Nero D'Avola is a must try for the serious wine lover!

So download the app like the Facebook page and get along to a few events I know I will.

P.S. This works even better if you keep an open mind, go somewhere you haven't, try something you haven't heard of. You never know you might find a new favorite!

For now Ciao,

B

365 Days of Food and Wine Facebook Link

Is Penfolds headed the same way as other Aussie Icons? An open letter to Penfolds

Well It's been a while since I've posted here on ThePour, a lot has been going and I've been headed down a few other avenues but I'm back! That much awaited Gruner Veltliner review is in the works and expect to read it early next week.

But for now I have this for you.

Well as you probably don't know the 2013 Penfolds Bin Release has just happened. As I was putting away some of the allocation I noticed a few things, which got me thinking. I compiled a few ideas in regards to the Penfolds name / brand. Right now I'm going to write an open letter to Penfolds to express these.

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is......... I'm 27 years old and I work part time in a wine shop in Adelaide, South Australia.

I’m just writing to share some of the observations I’ve made over the past year or so. Working on a shop floor selling wine has been a pretty interesting experience and I have noticed many changing trends when it comes to the general public consuming wine.

The retail shop I work in is primarily focused on wine and our sales would be 65% wine on average. Our customer base is a good mix between the “savvy” wine drinker and just your everyday wine drinker. What got me thinking is our 2013 Bin allocation just got delivered and I noticed that we still have the 2012 and 2011 in our store. I wouldn’t say that we order in excess or to put away for museum releases either.

I see the wine drinker becoming younger and younger, a lot more people my age and younger drink and appreciate wine. I have noticed that your brand doesn’t appeal to people my age at all. I see that as time goes on the Penfolds brand following is growing smaller and smaller as my generation and the next come through.

I asked a lot of my friends recently again who are good mix of savvy wineo’s and people who just like wine but don’t think about it as much, if they would buy Penfolds and ¾ responded no. Whilst working the shop floor I have ask at random what people think about Penfolds and they believe the wine doesn’t represent good value for money anymore. Other comments suggested that you are currently trading on a name that represented good quality wine 10 years ago and that your current Bin range isn’t as good as it used to be.

Another experience I had recently with the general public was I was tasting at the Bremerton stand at the cellar door festival in Adelaide. A women approached and asked to try the Old Adam Shiraz, she mentioned that she had just come from the Penfolds stand and had just paid $50 to do the Grange tasting. She was amazed at how well the Old Adam drank compared to Grange and that she would be only a few dollars short of being able to buy a bottle for the money she had just paid for the Grange tasting.

I must admit myself out of the 250 odd bottles I have in my cellar (which may not be that big in the grand scheme of things), it only contains one bottle of Penfolds, of which I didn’t purchase myself.

I was wondering if you have any marketing plans to appeal to a younger wine drinker, and how to grow the brand appeal?

I mean no offence by this letter and are only wishing to share my thoughts and ideas
with you. I look forward to hearing back from someone. You can contact me at.........

Hills Hoist, Holden, Penfolds next? only time will tell.........

Well I will see how well this goes down and will post any reply I get from Penfolds.

So for now Ciao,

B