05 October 2011

Beginning October 2011, the National Wine Centre of Australia will start celebrating its 10th anniversary with a year-long calendar of celebrations, including an open day, special Uncorked events, wine dinners, tasting events and function promotions. 

The now iconic building – architecturally designed along the lines of a wine barrel with red rammed earth walls and sweeping ramps continues to see first time visitors marvel at its innovative design.

The past 10 years have seen The National Wine Centre of Australia undergo a number of changes – with perhaps the most significant being its sale to the University of Adelaide which saw an independent management and operations team employed to manage the property. It also runs the catering service at two of the University of Adelaide campuses and an offsite catering facility.

National Wine Centre General Manager Adrian Emeny said “We’ve just experienced an exceptional year in terms both budget and numbers through the doors and look forward to celebrating the 10th anniversary of this iconic building and all that it stands for over the forthcoming 12 months.”

The venue continues to work alongside Wine Australia which runs wine appreciation and wine education courses whilst its award-winning, interactive Wine Discovery Journey showcases the complete wine experience from the vine to the bottle and the position of Australian wine in the international market and its relationship to food.

The primary focus of the National Wine Centre however, continues to be events and functions with it being awarded Best Function Centre, Caterer of the Year and Best Wedding Venue multiple times at the SA Restaurant and Catering Awards in recent years.

With areas available for groups from 10 – 1000, breakfasts, luncheons, dinners, cocktails, weddings, conferences, fashion parades and everything in between – including the option of specially themed South Australian produce menus, the National Wine Centre staff are consistently busy setting rooms for the variety of events hosted at the venue.   The introduction of a number of wine-tasting related options able to be incorporated into major events are proving exceptionally popular and help guests appreciate the significance of the building in which they are dining.

State of the art conferencing facilities in the meeting rooms have generated a significant increase in meetings and conference bookings with day delegate packages available.  Interstate and foreign delegates in particular enjoy the aesthetics of the building and its surrounding parklands.

In addition to privately hosted events, the National Wine Centre continues to run its own events with its fortnightly Friday Uncorked functions featuring a selected winery each event and the winemaker. Its most recent winter series of six wine dinners were also all sell-out events.

The National Wine Centre last year capitalised on its position overlooking the beautiful botanic gardens and commenced brunch service from its concourse Cafe which also trades for coffee and lunch daily whilst a separate area of the cafe is dedicated to wine flight tastings and purchases available at any time of day, 7 days a week.  

 For more information, click here.