Pinot Palooza

Excellent wine selection and very knowledgable vendors but oh my god was this event too hot, too loud and too crushed.
The event was held in an underground car park. Giving the organisers the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they didn’t know it was going to be 26 degrees. By the end though people were getting annoyed in the heat and pushing past each other in the crush. The setting also magnified the volume of everyone’s voices so you could hardly hear what you were being told about the wine on offer.
To be honest I couldn’t wait to leave and thank god I didn’t pay the $ 60 asking price for entry (which was a rip off to be honest). I’m just glad some kind soul gave me a free ticket. This had the potential to be a great event but it was ruined by poor venue choice.

Oh dear. It could have been brilliant… but it wasn’t.
I’m not sure if Melbourne’s weather caught the organisers of this event off-​guard or if it was always going to go somewhat wrong.
Held in the basement car park at Circa, we were lucky enough to score a pair of free tickets. Thanks goodness, because if I had coughed up the $ 60 I would have been p*ssed — and not in the good ‘too much wine’ kind of way.
Turns out it was 26 degrees on the day of this event — turning the car park, coupled with a few hundred people, into an instant sauna. The free bottles of water and fans provided gave small relief, but nowhere near enough.
The stall holders looked like they were struggling with the heat and to top it off, they had to yell over the music that was far too loud given they were trying to tell us all about their beautiful wines. Because they were beautiful — all that gorgeous pinot that I’m not too much the wiser about now because after about 40 minutes I had to get out of there.
The layout wasn’t great meaning people all bunched up at one end making it difficult to move around the stalls — especially the NZ section down the back. Which also happened to be hiding a Tasmanian winery I wanted to try. Tasmania is in Australia guys…
Compared to a couple of other wine events i have attended over the last few months this one just didn’t hit the spot. Hope it gets sorted for next time around because a few of the wines I tasted were down right amazing.