Returning to Perth last weekend for its sixth year, UnWined is a two-day celebration of wine and food held in Subiaco’s picturesque Market Square Park.
UnWined is always a popular event, and a great opportunity to sample a wide range of WA wines. This year’s event featured 37 wineries, and of course some local food.
I was invited to attended UnWined – presented by Wine and Food Events WA – on behalf of the Australian Good Food & Travel Guide.
Each entry ticket ($30 at the gate) included a souvenir glass, access to all wine sessions and cooking demonstrations and – most importantly – complimentary wine tastings, with no need to purchase extra “tokens”. Saturday attendees were also given tickets for cocktail tastings at five local bars, valid on that evening only.
Additional benefits including entry to an exclusive “Club Lounge” were available for an additional cost.
Thankfully the rather ominous grey clouds present at the festival’s opening disappeared to reveal a glorious Perth weekend.
Wineries represented at the festival included After Hours Wine, Arlewood Estate, Bellarmine Wines, Bunn Vineyard, Cape Grace Wines, Castelli Estate, Clown Fish Wines, De Bortoli Wines, Dukes Vineyard, Faber Vineyard, Flying Fish Cove, Frog Choir Wines, Grace Farm, Happs Wines, Harmans Estate, Houghton Wines, House of Cards, Howling Wolves Wine, Lange’s Frankland Wines, Latitude 34 Wine Co, Merum Wines, Moojelup Farm, Oakover Wines, Pandemonium Estate, Peos Estate, Picardy, Redgate Wines, Settlers Ridge Organic Wine, Silverstream Wines, Sittella Winery, Streicker Wines, Talisman Wines, The Lake House Denmark, Willow Bridge Estate and Woodgate Wines.
Hopefully you got a taxi home if you tried all of those ;)
A “wine locker” was available to hold purchases for collection on the way out, which is a clever idea.
This kind of thing would be great – although I realise completely impractical – to store all that cheese you buy at food festivals :)
The Wine Theatre provided guests with the opportunity to sample some unique wines, focusing on sparkling, rosé and other wine styles.
The informative and well attended sessions were presented by Blair Hill and Maria Murphy from the Wine Education Centre, which has been providing wine education to WA consumers and trade for over 40 years.
Live music set the scene very nicely, and kept the crowds entertained on both days.
Perth favourite Cocktail Gastronomy offered some of their unique liquid-nitrogen fueled cocktails, including this take on the Espresso Martini.
The Food Theatre, hosted by former ABC television and radio presenter Verity James, featured cooking demonstrations from Subiaco establishments Meeka Restaurant, the Subiaco Hotel and Refuge Small Bar.
Local artisan food businesses – including condiment queen Sublime Spices – were also well represented at the event.
It wouldn’t be a Perth event without great food, and a selection of stalls and food trucks were present to keep the guests well fed.
Plenty of seating and shade was available throughout the event, which gets a definite tick from me.
This magnificent beast is “The Cooper” with pecorino, caramelised onion, truffle oil, rocket & aioli from confit-duck-burger merchants Twin Beaks…
…although my favourite bite of the day was the super-crunchy “Potato Bravas” with tomato jam and crispy bacon from Tapas Man.
Shak Shuka serve some of he best Moroccan food in town.
Saigon Eats served Banh Mi and other Vietnamese street food.
UnWined is a great example of the kind of event that Perth does really well – a relaxed afternoon of great wine and food in the sunshine. What more could you want?
That’s all for this year…roll on 2017!
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