The four-day National Wine Festival of Australia will be held in June, celebrating Australian winemaking and marking the 50th anniversary of the National Wine Show of Australia. Wine writer RICHARD CALVER reports from the launch event.

I was recently invited to a function that introduced participants to a new annual tourism event to be based in Canberra, the National Wine Festival of Australia. 

The four-day festival will be held in June, celebrating Australian winemaking and marking the 50th anniversary of the National Wine Show of Australia. 

The function was attended by media representatives, embassy staff and a bucket load of Canberra wine people. Also present were staff from the Canberra Glassworks, who were commissioned to produce the lovely trophies that the winners receive, a distinctive feather in Canberra’s cap. 

Federal Tourism and Trade Minister Don Farrell gave a speech where he emphasised the re-growth of Australian wine exports, especially to China, that followed on from five meetings he has had with his Chinese counterpart. 

The senator also lauded the re-opening of the export market for Australian crayfish and gave an optimistic spin to growth of future quality wine exports. He said the new festival is well positioned to become a flagship event on the national calendar.

The Minister’s optimism was confirmed by figures released by Wine Australia in late January. It reported that in the 12 months to the end of December, Australian wine exports increased by 34 per cent in value to $2.55 billion and by 7 per cent in volume to 649 million litres. 

The increase in value was a result of high levels of shipments to mainland China between April and December, after tariffs on Australian bottled wine were removed at the end of March. In those nine months, 83 million litres of wine, worth $902 million, were exported to mainland China. 

However, the outlook is not all wine and roses. Australian wine exports to the rest of the world during the 12 months to December declined by 13 per cent in value to $1.64 billion and 7 per cent in volume to 565 million litres. The decline in exports to the US was especially noticeable, with a decline of $38 million to $325 million. 

In the face of these statistics, events that showcase Australian wine are a positive. 

National Wine Show of Australia chair Andy Gregory said the June festival would occupy a unique position in the tourism landscape: “It is the only true representation of every Australian winegrowing region – a one-stop shop to taste and learn about the very best of Australian wine,” he said. 

“We see the National Wine Festival as a powerful platform on which to strengthen Australia’s global reputation as a world-class wine producer. It’s a natural evolution of the National Wine Show in our 50th year.”

At the function, we were lucky enough to taste some former National Wine Show winning wines.

My favourite on the night won the Cabernet Blends Trophy for 2023: the Yarra Yerring 2021 Agincourt Cabernet Malbec. This is a 80 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 20 per cent Malbec blend that currently sells for $115 a bottle. 

It is everything I look for in a red wine: it has a distinctive nose of violets and red fruit and wonderful complexity on taste. 

I tasted blueberries on the palate, a match for the blueberries with whipped ricotta served as one of the snacks at the function. 

The finish was spicy and had enough acid to know that this wine would last for quite some time, at least for another two years. This wine is deserving of the numerous medals it has won and shows that the processes adopted by the National Wine Show picks some outstanding winners.