DrinkWise, in partnership with Australian Grape & Wine and the National Wine Foundation has launched a new ‘Stay Tasteful while Tasting’ campaign to help consumers make safer and more responsible decisions are consumption while visiting cellar doors.
Launched this week by the Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Greg Hunt MP, the initiative gives wine tasters access to new ‘scratchies’ to track how much they are drinking and eliminate the confusion around how many tastings add up to a standard drink.
Stay tasteful while tasting resource packs – including the innovative ‘scratchie cards’ and other responsible drinking resources are being distributed to over 1,800 cellar doors and tourism associations across Australia as part of the initiative.
Minister for Health and Aged Care and Federal Member for Flinders 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 really important initiative. It’s about making sure that people can enjoy time together, but do it responsibly while also supporting the beautiful cellar doors right around Australia,” the Minister said.
“It’s a really smart, innovative idea. It’s a very Australian way to do it, people get it and it’s easy to understand. One of the things that may surprise a lot of people is that if they have six very small tastings, all of a sudden they have consumed a full drink and that means it can easily get away from somebody; having the little scratchie means that each time you are logging it and you are aware of it building up. This helps people to understand, and if people understand then they can monitor.
“We’ve worked with DrinkWise on the Every Drop Matters campaign and Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, which has been such a passion for me, particularly in terms of indigenous Australia and these are all working with the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines to keep people safe, but then to allow their time to get together in a safe way.”
DrinkWise CEO Simon Strahan said the education campaign is aimed at helping consumers make better choices when tasting wines.
“This partnership between DrinkWise, Australian Grape & Wine and the National Wine Foundation is all about educating consumers so they can safer, healthier and more responsible decisions around the alcohol they are consuming,” Strahan said.
“These innovative scratchie cards allow them to track their tastings between cellar doors and actually understand how many standard drinks they are consuming.
“This is an initiative that will be going Australia-wide, we want to educate all visitors to cellar doors so they can really understand how many tastings equate to a standard drink.”
Helen Strachan, Chair of the National Wine Foundation said: “It’s really important for the wine industry to take responsibility for the responsible consumption of our products. It’s the right thing to do.
“We want people to come to cellar doors, we want people to consume responsibly and we want to make it a positive experience for everyone. So with the materials we’ve got with this cellar door initiative, it gives people some practical and visible information about making wine tasting choices that are safe for them.
“This has been a great collaboration between Australian Grape & Wine, DrinkWise and the National Wine Foundation and it’s a really good example of what we can do as an industry.”
Rollo Crittenden, General Manager and Winemaker at Crittenden Estate described the scheme as “a great initiative”.
He added: “It allows us as wine producers and cellar door operators to focus on what we do well, which is talking about our beautiful wines and focusing on our estates. It puts a bit of onus back on the customer and the visitor to monitor their consumption and stay tasteful.”
Australian Grape & Wine CEO, Tony Battaglene, said: “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.
“This new resource and education pack is 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.”