Why a Traditional Long Corporate Wine Lunch Is In Order

Okay, so you’ve had plenty of meetings with your clients – and they’ve gone well. You’ve promised them this and/or that – then delivered (hopefully over-delivered!) You’ve talked often and have a good rapport, i.e.; you actually understand their business and goals almost as well as they do.

Is that enough? Well, many would say; ‘yes’. That’s a very good relationship. You’re synching.

But… you have this silly, nagging feeling you’re missing a trick somewhere…

The power of wow

And, you’d be right because every now and then in any relationship we want something out of the ordinary, something with X Factor to happen – to lift our alliance up a level. That’s right, every now and then we all like to be impressed! I mean, who doesn’t like being given a gift out of the blue like a really good bottle of something, or to be invited along to a fishing weekend or be given tickets to a show or a sports match? Especially if it’s something we like. We think; ‘wow! Not only did this person do something for me, they actually thought about me when they did it. Sick!’  

The long lunch

Another way of impressing people is to take them along to a good old-fashioned long corporate lunch. This is how business people say they love each other, because they are offering to share their most precious commodity; their own personal time – and not even to talk shop! Plus, the long lunch is a really good chance to eat some of the best food our Kiwi chefs can make and drink some of the best wine the entire world has to offer. And even to hear truly inspirational and/or successful people speak about what they’re passionate about.

The Professionals Lunch

The reason I bring this up is because there is a really top notch long lunch coming up just around the corner and so you really want to clear your – and your clients’ – calendars for Friday 19th May. Because this is the day renowned Aussie winemaker Yalumba are hosting a Professionals Lunch at the Hyatt in Auckland. The theme of this Great Long Wine Lunch is; ‘Let the Wines do the Talking’ which sounds like it ticks pretty much every box outlined above. As you would expect, there will be a superb three course luncheon to go with the wines but, seeing as Yalumba has just won the Great Australian Red competition for an unprecedented fourth time with their The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2018, I suspect the wines will be doing an awful lot of talking indeed.

Your Speakers

Of course it wouldn’t be a proper corporate lunch without quality speakers to add a little light entertainment to your lunch and there are a couple of crackers here. Your MC will be the chap with the voice and personality even ChatGPT couldn’t better for both radio and corporate functions; Mr Cockney Extrovert, West Ham Tragic and very funny man indeed; Miles Davis. 

But naturally enough, the main attraction will be the guest speaker; Louisa Rose, the Head Winemaker for Australia’s oldest family winery; Yalumba. 

Born and bred in Melbourne, Louisa grew up around wine spending her weekends in the Yarra Valley helping out on the family vineyard. This love of winemaking saw her take a postgrad degree in winemaking from the Roseworthy Campus at the University of Adelaide. She did pretty okay here too, graduating as dux no less in 1992.

Then straight away, her association with Yalumba began, working the 1992 vintage as a cellar hand in the Barossa, and returning to join the Yalumba team early the next year. Thirty vintages later, Louisa has worked alongside many legends of Yalumba and been involved in virtually every facet of viticulture, winemaking and management. She excelled so well across the board, that she was asked in 2006 to take on the coveted role of Head Winemaker.

The powerdriver behind Yalumba

Since then Louisa has taken Yalumba on from strength to strength and, while she is careful to keep flying the family traditions of Yalumba high, she’s not afraid to make a few changes here and there too. Under Louisa’s stewardship, from the 2012 vintage on, all Yalumba wines have been made without any animal product-based fining agents which has essentially made Yalumba wines ‘vegan’. Louisa is also a champion of the use of natural – read; wild or feral – yeasts and bacteria in winemaking as well as a keen proponent of driving sustainability throughout the process.

These innovations have seen her win a bevy of prestigious international awards including the 2004 International Woman in Wine (London IWSC) and 2008 Gourmet Traveller WINE Magazine ‘Winemaker of the Year’. But it is in her own wine-mad country where she has risen to iconic status; being chosen by 100 of her peers as the best winemaker in Australia in 2014, Winemaker of the Year in 2013 by the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology and Barossa Winemaker of the Year in 1999. 

Louisa was also inducted as Grand Master of the Barossa winemaking fraternity Barons of Barossa in 2019 and judges Wine Shows in both Australian and all over the world. She is Chairman of the Board of the Australian Wine Research Institute and a Fellow of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology. In other words, Louisa is one of the very best wine people you’ll ever meet and she’s coming to Auckland next month. 

This all means this is the one Long Corporate Lunch you – and your clients – cannot afford to miss as one of the best and most impressive winemakers in the world will be there. And, even better, some of her category storming wines will be too. So, let the wines do the talking, and who knows, maybe your business relationship might even go up a level or so too!

 

What:  The Yalumba Let The Wines Do The Talking Great Long Wine Lunch

When:  Friday 19th May from 12.30pm

Where:  Park Hyatt, Auckland

How:  Book by replying to Tina Rutherford at [email protected]