The Wandering Wheatbelt Wine Awards 10th annual gala event was held on Saturday 25th October 2014 at Wandering Brook Estate. The sell out crowd touted this year’s event as “the best yet”.
The beautifully decorated winery came alive with guests dressed in all of their finery; enjoying the sumptious food and drink provided whilst listening to the dulcet tones of Abby Strandly, our talented musician for the evening.
Chef Jeff Eaton; with the help of his lovely wife Denise, did not disappoint, with the superb gourmet meal they created being thoroughly enjoyed by all with “compliments to the chef” being heard throughout the meal.
Major winners of this year’s wine show were ‘Faber Vineyard’ (Baskerville), ‘Downderry Wines’ (Narrogin) and our very own local winery ‘Tangelfoot’. Thankyou to this year’s wine judges Alan Dinneen; who also gave a short critique on the wines served with our meals during the evening, and Matt Bowness and stewards Rueben Steer, Max Watts and Geoff Beaton.
Rod Collard exhibited his art for guests to enjoy during the wine tasting from this years show and also spoke later in the evening about working together in reconcilliation.
Thanks to our Wandering minstrel Simon Beaton, for capturing some great photo’s before, during and after the evening and also our MC Judith Price, who once again did a wonderful job for the evening.
Our chairperson Max Watts presented long serving members Raelene Warburton and Darralyn Ebsary with a colourful bouquet of flowers each, and a beautiful picture of tanglefoot (the jarrah frame was hand crafted by Shane Kelliher, who also makes our unique trophies) was presented to Darralyn and Rueben Steer in appreciation of their dedication to the WWWAW over the 10 years.
At the end of the evening guests boarded buses from near and far, happily taking home their complimentary 10th anniversary wine glasses and vowing to return for our 11th annual gala event.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our major sponsors once again. Marradong Country, Lane Buck & Higgins, the Shire of Wandering, Pedersons Hire, Mosman Glass, Premium Grain Handlers, Wesfarmers Insurance – Mark Regan and also the Wandering Lions who help set up every year. We are a non-profit organisation and the support of our sponsors help to keep the cost of our tickets at such at reasonable price.
The committee were thrilled to see of all their hard work came to fruition and the evening ran smoothly. This of course would not happen without the tremendous job our volunteer staff do on the night; and who were ably guided by Maitre d’Helen Herbert, to all of which we are very thankful. Many of whom stated; at the volunteers luncheon the following day, that they enjoyed it so much they will be back next year!
Many thanks to Dawn Dowsett from the Wandering Wheatbelt Wine aWards Committee for providing the information and photos used in this post.