This year will see the launch of the New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival, featuring wines from some of New Zealand’s foremost boutique wine producers in a high end, central Auckland venue.
The festival offers boutique wineries the opportunity to showcase their wines and stand out from the crowd in what is becoming an increasingly competitive wine market. The wineries will have an unprecedented opportunity to tap into a highly-targeted and sophisticated audience of wine lovers and enthusiasts, as well as trade, and will gain additional exposure through social and mainstream media.
Festival goers will be able to taste and purchase unique wines from all over New Zealand in one central location. It will be a wine festival unlike any other, offering a discovery of some of New Zealand’s great, undiscovered wines that are not readily-available in large retail stores. We have undertaken an exhaustive search of the country’s best boutique wine producers and are proud to help them take their wines to a broader audience. Not only do we want to share these wines with those who are passionate about the industry, we want to provide a platform to share some of the fascinating stories behind the wines, the winemakers and the vineyards.
The Event
The New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival will be held on the 16th of June in Auckland at the stunning Imperial Lane ( www.theimperial.co.nz .) Accessible from both Queen St and Fort Lane, Imperial Lane’s ambitious redesign encompasses all four levels of a heritage-listed building.
The event will offer an opportunity to meet the winemakers, taste their wines and engage in discussions with industry experts.
Alongside the festival activities in Imperial Lane, guests will also have the opportunity to indulge in a tasting lunch menu at Everybody’s matched with some of the festival’s boutique wines.
The capacity of the venue downstairs is 460 people and it is expected that over the course of the festival, between 500-700 people will attend. There are other areas upstairs where we will host tastings, guest speakers and a two course set menu lunch for up to 120 people. The festival will run between the hours of 11-6pm. Pack in will be that morning (Sunday).
The event is to be held annually and will be paired up with The New Zealand Boutique Wine Awards in 2014 and the New Zealand Boutique Wine Awards Dinner to be held in Auckland and Wellington. We would like all vineyards who take part in the festival to be part of a program of on-going communications with both consumers & trade throughout the year.
The Cost
Tickets will go on sale four weeks before the Festival (May 18th). We hope to initially sell out in pre-sales and then release a small amount of door sales. We will publicise the event through our existing networks and database, social, print and radio media. Tickets for the public will be $29, including their first tasting token and a tasting glass.
The cost for a vineyard to take part is $600 +GST. The revenue generated from the vineyards and the ticket sales will go towards the marketing of the event, tokens, glassware, website and all the other branding and infrastructure needed. As this is the first year of the festival we do not expect to generate a profit, instead to create and execute a unique, high-end and successful event to build on for future years.
Each winery is responsible for bringing their own marketing material for the event, staff for their own stall, and any other materials required to help sell their wines on the day. Consumers will be able to purchase wine on the day at ‘The Bank’, a centralised location and system to help simplify the order process and reduce the time taken to process payments on multiple eftpos machines.
Wineries will be expected to process orders the week following the event, saving the need to transport large quantities of stock to the venue. ‘The Bank’ will be managed by New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival staff with orders compiled the following week and sent to the vineyards along with a bank transfer for the total amount minus 10% of the total sale. The vineyards are responsible for paying any GST on the sale of their wine.
Tasting tokens will be able to be purchased in advance or can be purchased at the venue on the day. All purchasing will be done through ‘The Bank’ so as to ensure tight management. Each token is to the value of $5nzd and can be used for tasting the wines each vineyard has selected to showcase on the day. We would also like the vineyards to offer a premium tasting with their reserve and exclusive wines where available.
A reserve wine tasting will cost more than a standard tasting with the cost of which determined by the vineyard. The tokens collected during the day will then be returned that evening to the events team at ‘The Bank’. These will be counted and signed off and for every token redeemed, the winery will receive $4. This will mean if you do 200 tastings you will return $800. Vineyards can also collect people’s details on the day by doing a business card draw or running a small competition to build their mailing lists.
Marketing
The New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival will send out promotional material for the event to media agencies around New Zealand as well as publications including Cuisine, Life & Leisure, The Denizen, NBR, Metro, regional and national newspapers. We also have a strategic advertising partnership with radio and print media.
Promotional flyers and other materials will also be distributed to top legal, accounting, banking and insurance firms in Auckland alongside other appropriate target markets. Most crucially we will be tapping into wine clubs, enthusiasts and those with a genuine interest and knowledge of boutique wines.
We have put together a comprehensive plan around social media and hope to work with individual vineyards in providing a platform for them to promote their wines in advance of the event and tap into their existing networks and databases. Plans are in place to run competitions and promotions online and through the hospitality company Pack Group, who own the venue and are offering substantial support to the event.
The NZBWF team will be in charge of selling tickets and promoting the event but would happily take on any support from event partners or exhibiting vineyards. We will be giving away a select amount of tickets through media competitions and we would appreciate any support in the creation of these packages. We will also be contacting other partners of the event to add to the experience – for example, Aston Martin chauffer service to Imperial Lane etc.
Guest Speakers
Throughout the festival we would like to have guest speakers including wine makers, viticulturists, wine writers and chefs discussing a range of topics. As well as an enjoyable day out, we hope to offer guests a chance to educate themselves further about some of New Zealand’s lesser-known wines, innovations and practises in wine making, as well as exciting trends in food and wine matching.
If you have a particular area of expertise or know of anyone you think might be a good fit to speak at the festival please let us know.
We would also like to host a series of vertical tastings for some of our more serious wine aficionados. If you have any interest in holding a private vertical tasting for up to 12 people, let us know so we can schedule this into the day and help facilitate ticket sales for it.
Accommodation
We have relationships with several hotels here in Auckland so if you would like us to help make accommodation arrangements, please let us know. We hope to secure discounted rates for those taking part in the festival.
Overview
The New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival 2013 will be the premier wine event for all boutique wine producers. It is an opportunity to showcase your wine to New Zealand’s largest and most affluent wine market, and an opportunity to access this market in a fitting environment.
The event is strictly first-in first-serve for the invited vineyards so please let us know ASAP if you would like to be involved and we will send you the relevant contract and account number to make payment.
If you have any questions about the event or the team please do not hesitate to contact us by phone or email.
We look forward to your response and having you to be a part of what we will make New Zealand’s best wine festival!
Best Regards,
Ash Lomberg NZBWF Director
Contact
For additional information please contact me – ash@boutiquewinecellar.com or on 021-154-5704