Wine tours are awesome, except if you’re the designated driver. So swap your wheels for heels and set out on a meandering trail through Adelaide’s favourite bars, sampling wines from across the state.
The Urban Wine Walk Adelaide is a festival to celebrate our homegrown talent and modest city footprint. It’s a series of pairings between city venues and local wine producers: NOLA + Alpha Box & Dice, Cantina Sociale + By Jingo, Mr Goodbar + Hither & Yon, La Buvette + Frederick Stevenson, and so on.
The couplings are facilitated by matchmaker Josh Starick – a West Australian with a soft spot for SA. His company, Neighbourhood Events Co., is also hosting walks in Perth and Melbourne, both of which are sold out. Adelaide’s is happening on Saturday October 28 and you can register here.
“The one thing that the Urban Wine Walk is trying to do is to reverse the trend of what the pop-up scene does,” says Starick. “Pop-up events are great, but I wanted to create something that allows venues to still participate, rather than drag people away from existing venues that are there every other day of the week.
“The [Urban Wine Walk] concept began from having a conversation with some small bar owners over in Perth and saying, ‘Here’s the challenge you guys face, what can I do as an event business to support you?’ Over a couple of beers and glasses of wine, we came up with this.”
It’s also an opportunity for wineries that don’t have public spaces to interact with punters directly. Winemakers and brand representatives will be behind their various bars, guiding participants through a flight of three to five varieties. “It’s the equivalent of a cellar door experience in the city,” Starick says. “Each venue will also create a signature lunch item for the day.”
The walk is self-guided, meaning you can travel at your own pace. A loop bus will also run to shuttle stragglers between venues.
Starick has a family connection to the Eden Valley and Barossa regions. Bringing his Urban Wine Walk to South Australia to champion our growing and bar scenes was always an ambition of his.
“I’ve always wanted to do something in SA,” he says. Now he’s “grown up and of legal drinking age” Starick is excited to see Urban Wine Walk Adelaide take its first steps.
