The Inglewood Hotel Spring Showcase 2014

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the Spring Showcase at Inglewood Hotel thanks to my lovely friend Jaz who couldn’t make it so passed along the tickets to me.

The Spring Showcase is a lovely casual event where you pay $20 to try a great selection of wines, beers, ciders and more from booze distributors around Perth.  I ended up heading along with Haley whose a fellow wine blogger from Hungry Husband & Wine-ing Wife. Of course we were the first in the line to start tasting which was a very smart move as within half an hour the terrace was packed with thirsty Perth peeps.

The event went from 1pm-4pm and there was something like 70 different products to try so it definitely kept us busy. There was a bit of food going around the place, but pretty much as soon as the waitress made it outside, everyone literally inhaled it within seconds.

All the sales reps and Inglewood Hotel staff were fantastic, I have to give a special mention to the dude from the Inglewood Hotel bottleshop with the mo, he was absolutely hilarious!

The water stations they had set up were great too, they looked pretty plus the lemon and cucumber infused water was delicious!

Our plan of attack for the event was to go around and try the white wines, followed by the reds and then onto the beers and ciders. And I made some fantastic finds…

• Thirsty Meats Jerky – Jesse was absolutely awesome, he gave us a taste of both the ‘Bull’s Gone Nuts’ satay flavoured jerky as well as the ‘Thirsty Bull’ jerky which was a lovely spicy jerky. I have ate my fair share of jerky over the years and this stuff is the goods! Pretty much straight after finishing this post I’ll be popping my order in for Christmas! I really loved the spicy flavour and Jesse said he can make it to order so I’ll be ordering some with ramped up chilli for sure.
• Castelli Estate – I love the Castelli wines, on this particular day I really enjoyed both the Riesling and the Empirica Gewurztraminer.

• Evoi Wines – After doing the Evoi Chardonnay Masterclass at the Taste of Perth this year, I fell in love with the Evoi Chardy. I’m not a huge fan of Sauv Blanc & Semillon blends but I have to admit this was absolutely delicious!

• Greystone Wines – Of course a Kiwi label had to make it into my favourites! I loved both the Pinot Gris and the Sauv Blanc.
• Carp Diem Vineyards –  It’s weird because I hardly drink Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio but I was really loving it at the show! The Pinot Grigio by Carp Diem was fantastic and definitely one I’ll be looking out for in the shops.

• Bunkers Wines – I’ve always seen the Bunkers wines instore, because typically they’ll have a groovy stand with a surfboard but I actually haven’t tried many of their wines until this show. I loved the Sparkling Chenin Blanc, absolutely beauitful, I’ll definitely be hunting down some of this.

• Kirin Ciders – Absolutely delightful! I loved all the flavours from the Fuji Apple to the  Fuji Apple & Ume. I think my favourite was the Fuji Apple & Mikan!

• Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch by Fowles Wine – You’ve got to love the name and marketing for this wine range. It’s absolutely fantastic! But so is their Wild Ferment Chardonnay!

I actually could go on and on as there was so many awesome tipples including all my regulars like Sittella. It was also great to see some unique wines on offer. There were a few Vermentinos, including a Sparkling Vermentino and even a Fiano on offer from Alternatus.

All up it was a great event, and I’ll definitely be looking forward to next years!