Tasting Australia during Vintage

Tasting Australia, Australia’s premier food, wine and beer festival held in Adelaide will now be held in Autumn instead of Spring, from 6 – 13 May 2010, allowing visiting media, food and drink professionals and the public at large a chance to experience the best South Australia has to offer at vintage time.

In the eleven years since its conception, Tasting Australia has become one of the nation’s most influential and best attended gastronomic festivals. The event has hosted hundreds of Australia’s and the world’s top chefs, sommeliers, restaurateurs, food, wine and travel media and has attracted a wide cross-section of the food-loving public to Adelaide and South Australia.

It regularly attracts celebrity chefs of the calibre of Rick Stein, Antonio Carluccio, Nick Nairn, Rachel Allen, Paul Rankin, Sophie Grigson, Madhur Jaffrey and Claudia Roden, Stephanie Alexander, Serge Dansereau, Neil Perry, Shannon Bennett, Paul Wilson, Chris Taylor, Cheong Liew and many more.

Tasting Australia has now grown to such an extent that the last event comprised 70 events, of which 65 were aimed at the general public. 50,000 people attended over eight days. A major feature of the 2010 event will be a focus on South Australia’s local heroes – those food and drink producers, chefs, writers and educators who have raised the bar in gastronomic excellence, according to South Australian Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith.

“Over the past six events, Tasting Australia has shown the world’s food, wine and beer lovers that Adelaide and South Australia form a hub of gastronomic excellence,” Dr Lomax-Smith says. “We are not just an exporter of premium food and beverage. Our great chefs have been exemplary ambassadors for the state, with professionals such as Christine Manfield, Tim Pak Poy, Maggie Beer, Cheong Liew, and Simon Bryant, among others, making a big impression around Australia and overseas. “There is no doubt that Tasting Australia will continue to boost tourism numbers to South Australia, as well as encouraging further markets for the State’s food, wine and beer products,” says Dr Lomax-Smith. “I believe that a move to vintage time will add to the positive media coverage afforded the event.”

For more information see www.tasting-australia.com.au