Not all just hard work!

A few months ago, Nicola asked me if I would help Lynn (who runs our cellar door facility at the vineyard), with a Women's Expo in Palmerston North. What a chore I thought. Until I got there. I was one of only a few men in a room of hundreds of women. I apologise if it sounds a bit stereotypical but I think a lot of guys would have swapped places with me!

And it was a fascinating Expo too. The stands ranged from the expected (clothing, jewelry, food & wine) through to the less common (alternative healing, investing, dance exercise, miniatures and creative arts).

Recent research has shown that women are now the dominant purchasers of wine in NZ for home consumption, and also increasingly making the decision on what wine to pick from wine lists in restaurants. In that context, one important learning for me from the Expo was confirmation of the strong desire to learn more about wine by women. We had  great interest in the varieties we were showing, but the tasters were not only there to sample the wines.

They also wanted to learn; we were answering questions about the vineyard, our sustainable vineyard practices, wine-making, distribution and wine tourism.

It was great fun and we'll be back next year for sure.