Dear Perth, I’m Going To Miss You…

This news may shatter a few wine glasses around Western Australia. But believe me, it was not an easy decision to make. If you could see my red puffy eyes and runny nose right now, you’d realise just how hard it was to leave Perth and all of its tasty wine.

As most of you know, I have done a bit of travelling since setting out from New Zealand over 12 years ago. Heck, this blog has ‘travelling’ in the name after all. After 6 years of sipping my way around the WA wine scene, it has come to an end. And this my friends is my farewell letter to Perth.

To be honest, everything happened very quickly. My beloved Mr Spittoon was offered a job in country Victoria and we simply couldn’t say no. The Victorian lifestyle came with no more FIFO living, less stress and also being that little bit closer to family and friends back in New Zealand was very enticing.

Despite having lived in Dubai for 4 years (aka no vineyards as far as the eye can see), after living in Perth’s Swan Valley, I need to be close to wineries to survive. I am happy to let you all know that the closest winery to our new home is only a 15-minute drive. From here on out, we will be based in Gippsland (east of Melbourne) and I am very much looking forward to exploring the 600+ cellar doors in the state (I wonder if I can do them all – I do love a challenge!).

The blog will, of course, continue on, there may just be a bit more VIC wine involved. Western Australian wine will of course still be featured and I will be keeping up with what’s going on over there. In fact, I have a couple of fellow wino’s on the ground in Perth who’ll be writing guest posts for me here and there. Plus I will still be keeping in touch with my friends from CMS Events to give tickets away to wine festivals like Sunset Wine, City Wine and UnWined Subiaco.

Other than the blog (which alas is only a hobby I do for fun), I have another exciting new adventure ahead of me. Not only did I leave our beloved home in the Swan Valley and all our friends but I also left my day-job which really took my career to the next level. For most of the time I was in Perth, I worked at a boutique search marketing agency in Burswood where I was the Search Marketing Director, looking after a team of Search Marketing Managers alongside looking after a portfolio of clients.

It was very hard to leave and I knew the day I left, that it wouldn’t be easy to find another company with similar values and standards when it came to offering SEO and AdWords services. Therefore I have decided to freelance from our home in Sale, Victoria! 

I am currently in the process of setting up a small business to offer my SEO, Google Ads and online content services across Australia and New Zealand. Obviously, my speciality is the wine and food industry, however, having worked across all types of industries over the last 4 years (everything from locksmiths to patio builders and even a skydiving company) – my main aim will be to help small businesses grow their digital presence by helping their customers find them through Google.

So if you want to keep updated on my ‘working nine to wine‘ adventure, hit the button below and subscribe to Grand Cru Digital’s mailing list – website coming soon!

This post is not a goodbye but see you soon Perth. To help celebrate WA wine and to show that the wines of Western Australia having a big place in my heart (and wine glass), this month for #thetcwineclub I have picked 3 WA wines to help share the love. I will be enjoying these 3 bottles from my new home in Victoria and no doubt will be shedding a few tears while doing so.

It’s on that note that I want to take the opportunity to thank you WA. To everyone who reads this blogs and follows me on social media – T H A N K Y O U! Our passion and devotion to wine is undeniable and it’s this awesome online wine-loving community that motivates me to continue to blog. 

To all the winemakers, winery owners, sales reps and wine companies I have dealt with over the last 6 years, it’s been an absolute pleasure and I hope we can continue to collaborate. Through this blog, I have been so lucky to meet some amazing people and attend many wonderful events – it really has been 6 years that will go down in Travelling Corkscrew history as some of the best!

I’m not going to drag this out, as I think we all need a glass of wine by this point. However, I just wanted to let you all know what’s happening with the Travelling Corkscrew and to say thank you Perth, bottoms up!

PS: Here’s a tiny selection of the wonderful WA wine memories I’m taking away with me…