Hotel Brunswick is now showcasing the most diverse range of varietals in Australia – on tap. Award winning brands such as Wither Hills, Petaluma, Knappstein, Innocent Bystander, St. Hallet and Stonier. ‘This is an innovative keg system that allows outstanding quality from the first to last pour’ Cameron Gordon from the Innocent Bystander winery told me.
The Brunswick Heads Hotel’s new wine taps are a first of their kind in Australia, with eight premium wines on offer including two reds.
Now that wine on tap is up and running, the main focus for those supplying it will be to convince their wine drinking patrons to raise the bar. A similar scenario occurred when the cork was removed from the bottle – now no one seems to be concerned about finding a corkscrew. With the ability to increase the quality of wines on offer to their customers through the tap, the pricing will naturally reflect that quality – so, a few extra bucks will buy a good label and a glass that’s not been poured from a five day old bottle.
So, what do the winemakers themselves think of quality wine being tapped and poured through the cellar? Stuart Blackwell, the legendary winemaker at St.Hallett winery in the Barossa said this of the new system, ‘Both winery trial and in-venue testing has shown that wine from keg is served to the customer as fresh as it is from a newly opened bottle. From a winemaking perspective it’s comforting to know the wine is being delivered free of oxidation at the ideal serving temperature for that particular wine.’
