One of the busiest times on the Coonawarra calendar, the Coonawarra Cabernet Celebrations, has been officially launched.
A crowd of around sixty people gathered at Rymill Estate last week for the ‘Raise a Glass to Spring Session’ which was held to celebrate the launch of the celebrations and learn about what’s on in neighbouring council regions.
The Celebrations are a highlight for the region with a huge number of events on to suit everybody.
The first weekend, which coincides with the October long weekend and the start of SA’s school holidays, has a family friendly vibe, with lots of wineries offering events for the whole family.
The month will feature more than 70 unique food and wine experiences designed to showcase and celebrate the Coonawarra wine region’s beautiful signature red wine – Cabernet Sauvignon.
Kicking off the month is the Coonawarra Cabernet Celebrations Golf Day, which always attracts a large number of entries.
Entries are now open, so be sure to book in before they fill up.
This year, each weekend has a theme.
First weekend is the Long weekend Family Fiesta, weekend two is Blend It Up, weekend three is Back to our Roots, which will showcase heritage wines, weekend four is En Primeur (barrel to Glass and the final weekend theme is It’s Showtime, as the weekend coincides with the Penola Show.
Joy Bowen from Coonwarra Vignerons shared the history of the Coonawarra Cabernet Celebrations and how what started as one weekend morphed into a whole month event.
“The Cabernet celebrations started as an idea that we needed to lift up the country’s perception of Cabernet sauvignon,” she said.
“This area produces without a doubt, some of the world best cabernet sauvignon wine, and we need to be able to champion that.
“We also felt that we needed to drive more people into our cellar door and into the area.
“So they were our two underpinning reasons for holding a weekend. ”
The popularity of the event meant one thing was clear – they need a bigger committee.
“We relied on a winery per year to clear out their cellar of barrels so we could hold and everything was based around that dinner,” she said.
“It worked brilliantly, we were all booked out, we were all very tired and we decided it had to change and the committee needed to grow.
“We decided to put it back on the individual wineries, and run it for the whole month.”
Now, the event has grown to one of the premier wine events in the state, attracting people from all around Australia.
Events & Marketing Officer Heidi Guyett encouraged everyone to take part ion the celebrations.
There will be a hop on-hop off shuttle service available on weekends between 10.30am and 4.30pm.
Tickets can be purchased from the Penola Coonawarra Visitor Information Centre or the shuttle driver by calling 0418 838 643 or upon pickup.
Visit https://coonawarra.org/ccc-october-2022/ to see the full list of events.
