New Wine Festival for Southern Highlands

Destination Southern Highlands (DSH), in conjunction with Southern Highlands Food & Wine (SHFW) will launch an exciting new festival ‘WINE TIME’ to run from 26 February to 23 March 2014.

This festival will promote the Southern Highlands as a key food and wine destination via a range of new trade and consumer events.

WINE TIME will commence with the Dan Murphy’s Australian Highlands Wine Show to be held on 26 and 27 February 2014, the third annual national wine show for wines produced from grapes grown at over 500m in Australia, and the inaugural Australian Cider Awards on 28 February, a new national competition for ciders produced in Australia.

“The introduction of this new festival in March will strengthen the now annual Southern Highlands Food & Wine Festival in September, continuing to reinforce just what a major contributor the food and wine industry is to the Southern Highlands region and tourism sector,” said Steve Rosa, Group Manager, Destination Southern Highlands.

WINE TIME’s program of events already taking shape include:

• Sunday 9 March: the Southern Highlands will welcome Australia’s leading wine and travel writers for a ‘Wine & Wickets’ event to be played at Bradman Oval and hosted by the Bradman International Cricket Hall of Fame.
• Saturday 15 March: the ‘Australian Highlands Wine Show’ Top 40 Public Tasting will return to the Bowral Memorial Hall. Entry fee includes wine tastings of all the wines, which received awards at the Dan Murphy’s Australian Highland Wine Show. There is also the opportunity to meet the wine-maker and enjoy delicious canapé-style finger food, featuring local produce.

“We want March to celebrate the harvest season and signify WINE TIME in the Southern Highlands and we want to be able to include as many events as possible throughout this month. The SHFW Association and Destination Southern Highlands are encouraging the region’s tourism industry to be part of WINE TIME and to create events that can be included in the Festival Program,” Mr Rosa said.

If you have an event which you would like to feature in WINE TIME, March 2014, please contact Destination Southern Highlands to express your interest – call (02) 4871 2888 or email trish.bow@wsc.nsw.gov.au