Graze on the grape

By Kath Gannaway
The Yarra Valley Grape Grazing Festival will move permanently from its summer timeslot of more than two decades.
The Yarra Valley Wine Growers Association, which owns and manages the event, said the date change was brought about by the need for it to move away from the bushfire season which last year saw it cancelled and rescheduled to April.
YVWGA general manager Richard Howden said last week the association would meet with wineries soon to select a new date, but there were fears among some tourism operators that dropping a major Summer festival could send the wrong message to visitors that the Yarra Valley was a no-go zone in summer.
Also open for discussion will be the format of the festival.
Mr Howden said Grape Grazing had become a benchmark regional food and wine festival in Australia and that the YVWGA was determined to continue to improve it to ensure it kept that status.
He predicted a change, saying “We are looking at moving in a new and exciting direction to offer the ultimate fine wine and food event for the Yarra Valley.”
While some winery operators support change, others are keen to maintain the status quo.
Gavan Oakley, owner of Acacia Ridge in Yarra Glen and secretary of the YVWGA, said he was speaking as a grower, not on behalf of the association, when he told the Mail he supported retaining Grape Grazing in its traditional format.
He said some want the festival run in the traditional way, which has been highly successful in drawing thousands of mainly young visitors to the valley.
Others want the festival taken upmarket, with more emphasis on the food and wine and less on entertainment.
“In my view you’ve got to have a good band to get people there. People won’t come just for the food and wine,” Mr Oakley said.
But Dianne Curtis of Yileena Park Winery in Yarra Glen says a new direction is needed.
“I think over the last few years it has become not about good wine and food, but more of a rock festival with lots of people coming just to get drunk,” she said. “I believe a lot of wineries have been thinking it’s not the right sort of image,” she said.
Ms Curtis also supported a move away from the February timeslot, saying there were several factors apart from the bushfire threat, including the fact that many of the wineries are in the middle of their harvest.
Mr Howden encouraged people to visit the Yarra Valley and support the community and wineries hit hard by the bushfires … but not for Grape Grazing.
“We think that February will be a time that people will want to reflect and remember Black Saturday,” he said.
“At some stage we would like to see a small community-based festival in February, but it would be a low-key event that honours what people in the Yarra Valley have gone through,” he added.