Would you like the opportunity of getting together with a group of family, friends or work colleagues and enjoying a Wine Tasting Session in your own home or even in your workplace?
At the ACT Wine Industry Network we specialise in organising such functions.
Our professionally trained staff are happy to come to your premises and make available a number of wines for you and your friends, to taste and to enjoy.
How Do You Organise A Wine Tasting Session?
Simply call us on 02 6231 6997 to arrange a booking. Remember that Friday and Saturday evenings are the most popular time slots; have an alternative day available if possible. We suggest a 7.00pm start for the evening sessions and a 10.00pm finish (although weekend afternoons are quite popular with midday starts).
What You Need To Do
Simply provide us with an indoor venue ie a room with a table/bench/bar for us to display our wines and chairs/seats for your guests
Invite up to 20 of your friends (NOTE: numbers less than 15 are not desirable as there are always non-attendees)
Ask them if they would like to bring along a plate of nibblies or something more substantial to eat during the night
Supply wineglasses for each of your guests. One glass is sufficient although you may also want to have some flutes for any sparkling wines
To assist us all in making the evening an enjoyable one:
Please provide us with easy access to the house (wine are heavy to carry)
Have other wines/drinks available for after the wine tasting
Provide some non-alcoholic drinks or tea/coffee
Encourage your visitors not to drink and drive
And please ensure that all guests who are tasting/drinking/ordering alcohol are at least 18 years of age
Format
We will turn up at your premises approx. 20-30 minutes prior to guests arriving.
Our staff will serve a tasting amount of each of the wines (we prefer that people do not help themselves).
We will assist your guests with some knowledge of tasting techniques (if they wish) and relate some information pertaining to the Australian and local wine industry.
If your guests wish to order any of the wines that are being tasted we will have Order Forms available for them at the end of the evening.
All wine orders are formally processed at our licensed premises in Fyshwick and are sent out with Registered Australia Post ($15 per case or part thereof in Canberra)
The wines that we select for your tasting are put together based on a combination of what we stock from small boutique wineries across the country (not just exclusively the Canberra region), what you like to drink, and what you think your guests might like to sample.
There are lots of prizes and give-aways including some fun wine option games for your guests to participate in.
Costs
Unless your Wine Tasting Session is the result of a voucher (ie a gift - purchased by someone and given to you) or a voucher (free) from one of our promotions, we do have a small charge per person to cover costs. Currently that charge is $30 per person with a minimum fee for a Wine Tasting Session of $600 (ie allowing for up to 20 people @$30 per person). This fee is paid in advance by the host/hostess when the booking is made.
Note:
The $30 per person charge is FULLY REFUNDABLE per person by means of a deduction from any wine order made by the individual at the conclusion of the Wine Tasting Session. The above deduction only applies to in-home tastings and not to business tastings.
The wines at the Tasting Sessions will be made available for sale at greatly reduced prices for orders taken at the time of the Wine Tasting.
Finally,our Wine Tasting Sessions are a fun and enjoyable way of entertaining family, friends or work colleagues. We consider the sessions more productive if all attendees are involved.
There are no hard sell tactics employed to entice you to buy wines from us although we think that once you have tried our products they will sell themselves. We do ask please that our sessions are not used as a supplement to earlier parties ie lunchtime barbecues or fundraisers - unless we have specifically agreed to it.
Under no circumstances will we serve wines for tasting if people are drinking other alcohol based products during our presentation.
As a small ACT family business we offer the Wine Tasting Sessions primarily for people who enjoy wines, want to learn more about wines and who are seriously attending with the view to purchase.
We enjoy our work and we love the opportunity of meeting people and sharing some terrific wines with them. It is a hard job, but someone has to do it.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss any aspects of our Wine Tasting Sessions including our concessions and discounts for fundraising organisations.
Additional Notes for Wine Tasting Sessions (in-home)
Over the years we have conducted many Wine Tasting Sessions in peoples’ homes.
The handy hints as per listed below (additional to our brochure) will ensure (in our experience) that your Wine Tasting Session runs smoothly:
Time of commencement: in warmer weather, the later the better please! ie 7.15/7.30pm. Whenever we have earlier starts we find 100% of the time that people tend to turn up late
Numbers: our sessions are designed for 15-20 people. If there are over 20 people we will need to open additional bottles – there is a cost for this. Please advise us at least 1 week in advance if your numbers will exceed 20 people and we will advise you of the additional cost
Pre and Post Wine Tasting Session drinks: as host please provide additional drinks. We suggest either a dry white sparkling or a clean ale prior to the Wine Tasting Session (afterwards it doesn’t matter as much)
We find that if the event is used as part of another event ie new job, promotion, graduation, birthday, anniversary, move of house, overseas travel etc that the Wine Tasting Session brings together people who may not necessarily be interested in wines
Under no circumstances will any of our staff conduct a Wine Tasting Session or continue with a session if there are people present drinking other alcoholic beverages (other than Pre and Post Session) or if the group splits into different factions/rooms ie those who drink wine and those who don’t
Our sessions are intended for people to “taste wines” not to drink glasses of wine
Our staff will conduct the serving of all the wines and we ask people not to help themselves
General items of comfort: believe it or not but we have conducted Wine Tasting Sessions in homes where no food is provided, no chairs have been made available and neither tea/coffee has been offered after the event! And we will not conduct Wine Tastings in outdoor areas during the colder months
Cancellations: last minute cancellations are of no use to us. We request that in the case of Wine Club Memberships/Vouchers that at least 3-4 weeks notice of cancellation is given if the recipient wishes to transfer dates. Outside of these times I am afraid that you simply lose the free Wine Tasting Session. Businesses are required to give us at least 2 weeks advance notice or their deposit is forfeited.
Our Wine Tasting Sessions are an integral part of our business. We rely on these sessions to support our business income and livelihood. We therefore ask that only people with a keen interest in wine are invited. Similar to a winery, we find it a waste of time to have people attend a Wine Tasting Session who neither like nor drink wine. Believe us, it does happen!
And lastly, please assist us with your Wine Tasting Session by contacting us at least one week in advance of your Session to confirm numbers attending, any preferences for wine, availability of glasses, details of food items being served, pre and post wines, and most importantly an address and parking arrangements.
Like any business we do need to roster staff and make wines available. Unless we get this advance notice then we often need to cancel the event!