Bendigo Wine Region News

Promoting Bendigo’s Rich Ripe Reds

01 May 2008

The Bendigo Wine region has embarked on a new marketing focus to position itself well in the highly competitive wine market.  It is now set on promoting itself as a producer of Rich Ripe Reds.  To launch this new focus, the Minister for Regional and Rural Development, Jacinta Allan will celebrate with winegrowers today, Thursday 1 May from 10am at Sandhurst Ridge Winery in Marong.

Ms Allan will acknowledge the recent support given to the Bendigo Winegrowers Association, when a State Government “Network to Success – Moving Forward” grant of $14,820 was given to allow the region to run a comprehensive a “Putting the Richness into Rich Ripe Reds” seminar and study tour of Bendigo wineries for winemakers. 

This professional development session involved prominent wine industry guest speakers from across Australia.  It was held in late February to provide members with a unique opportunity to learn more about how to enhance the wine quality across the region and to reinforce the position of Rich Ripe Reds.  The second day of the February program involved a study tour of a few of the region’s wineries, Turners Crossing, Balgownie Estate, Water Wheel Vineyards and BlackJack Vineyards.

The “Putting the Richness into Rich Ripe Reds” project was specifically designed to support strategic marketing and previous branding exercises by upgrading the skills of the vignerons to produce wines of consistent quality and style.

A new look Rich Ripe Reds wine region booklet has been produced with details about all wineries in the region and it includes a professional map for visitors to the region.  The style of the booklet reflects the strong branding chosen to represent the region and wine.  Ms Allan will be presented this booklet at the launch, demonstrating the progress with this new Rich Ripe Reds focus.

The Bendigo Winegrowers Association currently has 39 members and each operates a vineyard in the Bendigo region.

 
ENDS………..

For interviews or photographs please contact Aileen Walsh on 0407 706769.