Stay tasteful while tasting – innovative ways for wine lovers to keep tabs on their tastings
Visitors to winery cellar doors across Australia now have access to tasting tracker ‘scratchies’ and other education resources to help keep tabs on their consumption and understand how many standard drinks they are consuming. The Stay tasteful while tasting initiative is implemented through a partnership between DrinkWise, the National Wine Foundation and Australian Grape & Wine.
The Stay tasteful while tasting initiative is aimed at ensuring visitors to winery cellar doors understand that small tastings can add up, with six 15ml tastings equating to approximately one standard drink. With the potential to sample multiple wines and potentially visit several cellar doors during the day, an easy and innovative means for visitors to track their consumption was essential.
Stay tasteful while tasting resource packs – including the innovative ‘scratchie cards’, signage and digital resources – were distributed to over 1,800 cellar doors and tourism associations across Australia as part of the initiative, with the assistance of regional winery associations. To help more people make responsible choices, wine festivals and events including the Good Food & Wine Show have also included the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative.
DrinkWise Chief Executive Officer Simon Strahan said the education campaign is aimed at helping consumers make responsible choices when tasting wines.
“In order to promote a healthier drinking culture, we need to continually provide education campaigns about alcohol,” Mr Strahan said.
“DrinkWise works with the industry to deliver these important messages when people are purchasing or consuming alcohol and this partnership with Australian Grape and Wine is a vital component in educating Australians who choose to consume alcohol, to do so in a healthier and safer way.”
The initiative was launched across News South Wales, Queensland, Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia with the assistance of state and regional wine industry associations and DrinkWise contributors:
- Pernod Ricard
- Treasury Wine Estates
- Accolade Wines
- Casella Family Brands
- Australian Vintage.
Australian Grape and Wine Chief Executive Officer, Lee McClean, added: “We’ve been absolutely delighted to see so many people visit cellar doors and wine festivals again after the challenges of the last couple of years.”
“These resources and education packs are the perfect way to display to consumers what they need to know to help them make the responsible choice and track their tastings when visiting cellar doors and wine festivals around the country.”
“These resources assist our local wineries to educate our visitors and help them to make responsible choices. Consumer education and duty of care are really important to all of us, so we are actively encouraging all wine businesses across the country to use these resources in their cellar doors.”
The campaign
To ensure the success of the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative, DrinkWise took a whole -of-community approach – bringing industry (producers and state and regional wine associations), government and the broader community together to collaborate. The DrinkWise Stay tasteful while tasting initiative has been launched across Australia:
As part of officially announcing Australian Vintage as a valued supporter of DrinkWise, the New South Wales launch of the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative was hosted at the Australian Vintage owned Tempus Two winery in the Hunter Valley. Federal Member for Hunter, Dan Repacholi said “It’s very simple – you just scratch it off after one pour, you get to six and there’s your standard drink. This is a great initiative from DrinkWise because people will know how much they’ve had to drink. It’s going to create safer roads and safer times for locals and tourists alike.”
Queensland wine makers, cellar doors managers and tourism operators came together at Sirromet Wines to see Queensland Tourism Minister, the Hon Stirling Hinchliffe launch the DrinkWise Stay tasteful while tasting initiative in Queensland. Given that the majority of Queensland’s wineries are quite a drive away from each other, the Minister said “this Stay tasteful while tasting initiative is not only a welcome addition to the way we think and operate in the cellar door sector but it could quite literally be a life saver.”
Minister Kristy McBain launched the DrinkWise Stay tasteful while tasting initiative in the Australian Capital Territory at Four Winds Vineyard. “We want people to visit our wineries in a safe and effective manner, to drink in moderation, to enjoy the fruits of the labour of our industry and do so safely because we love when tourists come to our region. We love when they sample our produce, we love when they go away and tell more people. But they have to get here safely and go home safely. So, a huge congratulations to DrinkWise, to the industry, to all the participating cellar doors and, most importantly, to the patrons who take this seriously enough to know that they can enjoy themselves, but do so in moderation, and ‘Stay tasteful while tasting’.”
Accolade Wines, Bay of Fires cellar door hosted the Tasmanian launch of the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative in the lead up to the June long weekend.
Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries and Water, Jo Palmer MLC, was impressed with the Stay tasteful while tasting resources.
“This is a really practical, simple and common-sense tool. It’s so easy to be handed that card and have a visual of where you’re at, as you go from cellar door to cellar door. This will be keeping people safe on our roads,” said Minister Palmer.
South Australian Premier, Peter Malinauskas described the innovative scratchie cards as “bloody brilliant” at the South Australian launch of Stay tasteful while tasting, held at the iconic Treasury Wine Estates, Penfold’s Magill Estate.
“The education packs are a great tool to ensure visitors to South Australia’s great wine regions have a safe and enjoyable experience. We know that our wineries attract hundreds of thousands of people to South Australia every year. With many regional vineyards located a drive away from cities, it’s crucial that wine lovers know how much they’re drinking in order to make the right choices”, said Premier Malinauskas.
When launching the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative at Crittenden Estate Wines on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, said the education packs are a great tool to ensure that visitors to local wine regions have a safe and enjoyable experience.
“This is a vital initiative from DrinkWise and Australian Grape and Wine to help Australians better track their alcohol consumption when visiting cellar doors and wine festivals on the Mornington Peninsula and across the country.
“With wineries typically located a long drive away from cities, it’s imperative that wine tasters know how much they’re consuming in order to make responsible choices,” Minister Hunt said.
Hosted at Nikola Estate in Swan Valley, Minister for Police; Road Safety, the Hon Michelle Roberts MLA, launched Stay tasteful while tasting initiative just as the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown. Like many initiatives at the time, it was ‘paused’ until it was safe for visitors to return to cellar doors.
Backed by research
As an evidence-based organisation, DrinkWise relies on key independent research and clinical advice to underpin our campaigns and programs. The following insight helped to shape the Stay tasteful while tasting campaign:
The Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol (‘the Guidelines’) from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) advise that healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.*
The Stay tasteful while tasting scratchies help consumers to visually identify how many tastings/drinks they are consuming while visiting cellar doors and wine festivals.
The Stay tasteful while tasting initiative also aims to reduce risky road use through community education. Driver road deaths in Australia with an illegal BAC has steadily increased from 18% in 2014 to 21% in 2021 across metro, regional and remote areas.**
Evaluation: DrinkWise has undertaken annual research to measure the impact of the Stay tasteful while tasting initiative in cellar doors and through the Good Food & Wine Show:
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