By JESSE GRAHAM
SMALLER wineries across the Yarra Valley will be opening their gates for two days of tastings and dining next month, with the annual Shortest Lunch coming around again.
The Shortest Lunch, held on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 June, will see 15 small wineries host visitors and serve matched food and wine over two days.
Visitors will pay $15 for entry, which includes a souvenir wine glass, and receive a map of wineries around Seville, Yering, Steels Creek, Healesville, Chirnside Park and Woori Yallock to visit.
From there, they will be able to indulge in meals with matched wines, have coffee and tea, talk with winemakers and taste the specialty wines, with scenic views of the valley from the cellar doors.
Seville Hill owner and winemaker, and spokesperson for the Shortest Lunch, John D’Aloisio said the event had been running for 17 years, with its annual attendance growing from 600 in its first year to about 2800 in 2015.
This year, he hopes to get more than 3000 people coming to wineries over the weekend.
But, unlike the event’s larger cousin, the former-Yarra Valley Grape Gazing Festival, Mr D’Aloisio said the Shortest Lunch was about the pairing of food and wine – not necessarily about the entertainment.
“It’s not any of the attraction – it’s just there for the ambiance of an event,” he said.
“The whole idea is for them to understand that the experience they get at this event is an experience they’d always have, any time they visit a smaller winery.
“It’s also the understanding that people realise that food and wine are a match – it’s not food and wine, it’s food with wine.”
He said the event was also a way for the smaller wineries, which run most of their sales through the cellar door, to showcase their products and encourage people to buy bottles to take home – and to visit again.
“Most of us boutique wineries are non-commercial, in regards to selling our wines out there at supermarkets, so we rely heavily on our cellar door for visitation,” Mr D’Aloisio said.
“The more people we can get out and the more people we can get to re-visit us, the better for all of us.”
The Shortest Lunch name comes from the fact that the event falls on the weekend closest to the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.
The food on offer at the wineries varies, with pulled pork sliders (at Payne’s Rise), Canadian pancakes (Five Oaks Vineyard), sweet potato Ravioli (Boat O’Craigo) and Hungarian meat balls (Whispering Hills), among others, being served up over the weekend.
Mr D’Aloisio said the food would be “boutique, but refined”, with vegetarian options and desserts at each winery.
“We’re allowing all of the wineries to have an entree, a vegetarian option and a dessert, whereas before it was just the entrees only, and the place that had the dessert would be the place that gets smashed at the end of the day,” he said.
He said the feedback each year had been “fantastic”, and that the smaller serving sizes allowed people to visit multiple wineries to have their fill.
“Everyone enjoys the event, they like the wines, they like everything – but you get the odd person who says the tastings aren’t big enough; the food’s not enough, that sort of stuff,” Mr D’Aloisio said.
“If you went to a restaurant and you went and purchased a three-course meal, you’d probably spend upwards of $80, if not more.
“Here you’ve got the option of going around to all different wineries, tasting different wines and then experiencing different types of food with those wines – so at $15 average, you can have a four-course meal, you’re paying $60, and at the same time, you’ve got an array of wines to taste at the same time.”
Money raised from the Shortest Lunch weekend will go to the CFA.
For more information, visit www.shortestlunch.com.au.
