In previous blog entries, George has talked about the exciting locations, businesses and events that he visits and hosts in his role as our Global Wine Ambassador. But, as you’ll see in the recent video, home base for him is without a doubt our head office in Southbank, Melbourne.

Time spent at home is an opportunity to catch up with his ‘extended family’ – our team of about 200 people in marketing, sales, support and finance.  The team in Melbourne is passionate about our products and our business and, despite friendly football club rivalry, have a fun time together socially and professionally. (By the way, George is an Essendon supporter so be forewarned and fore-armed!)

The time George spends in Melbourne is important to him for a number of reasons. An integral part of his role is being the eyes and ears (and voice!) of Treasury Wine Estates. So his daily conversations with people like Simon Marton, our Marketing Director are spent sharing his experiences and the insights he’s gained from talking with our customers and influencers.

George’s insights are also important to our Managing Director, David Dearie. George will tell you how lucky we are to have such a passionate, visionary and charismatic leader in David and how his support of Carlton doesn’t detract from the inspiring and accessible way he is leading our business.

When at home base, George can also often be found in deep discussion with our sales and marketing teams discussing their brands.  For example we’re very excited about the new lease of life we’re giving Baileys – a small winery that has a long and quietly spoken history of great wines. George and Kate McClure, the General Marketing Manager of our niche brands have been working together on new packaging and communication plans for the brand. So, as they say, there’s no place like home and for George and the person who joins him as our new Wine Ambassador, Southbank is a great place to call home base.

We’ve talked before about the exciting range of events that George hosts as our Wine Ambassador and a recent example was the launch event of our latest release premium labels from Wolf Blass.

The event was held at Steer Restaurant at The Olsen, the second in a series of innovative art hotels being developed in Melbourne. No doubt the influence of the Wolf Blass brand and the calibre of the guest list enticed the restaurant to help us with the event – a full two weeks ahead of their scheduled opening date!

Events like this are a valuable opportunity to show case not only the latest releases but to put them into context of the vintages that precede them - and this night was no exception. Our guest list of restaurant owners, retailers and media had a terrific opportunity to taste a number of our premium wines including 10 consecutive vintages of the Wolf Blass Platinum Shiraz. 

This year we launched the 2010 vintage later in the year to make sure we could have our wine makers present to tell their stories.  Afterall it’s these stories that bring the wines to life and give them character. Chris Hatcher (our Chief Winemaker) and Matt O’Leary were able to give our guests  insider knowledge on the vintages they’ve created.

Now, who would turn down a tasting event like that?!

One of the exciting things about this business is the work we do with fine restaurants. An important one for us is Penfolds Magill Estate Restaurant – our very own restaurant - which features in the top 50 in Australia and is undoubtably one of Adelaide’s best.

In case you didn’t know, Magill Estate is the only working wine estate in the world that is less than 10 km from a city’s CBD. It’s also the original home of the Penfolds label which Dr Penfold established in 1844.

I met recently with the team at the restaurant to talk about how the wines we’d selected were working with the new season’s menu. Everyone knows that food is really important to the enjoyment of good wine and eating out is something you get to do a lot of in this job.

So if you like food and wine, getting out of the office and sharing your passion and knowledge with other people, you’ll have a great time with me in this role.

A big part of our role is working with our partners such as retailers and restauranteurs. It’s important and also great fun because they are so energetic and passionate about wine and their businesses. Our partners challenge us and provide us with an opportunity to share stories and get their perspectives.

Recently I met with John Swanson who owns the Melbourne Street Cellars in Adelaide and showed him one of the new wines from Saltram - one of our premium wineries with a history going back to 1854.

Our relationships with retail partners like John are really important to us and to the promotion and sales of our wines. Working with our restaurant and retail partners is a major part of the role because these people have a lot of influence on the wines people buy. We have a lot of fun with people like John and I’ve had many great tasting evenings with him and his customers.

If you love wine and getting out of office to share that passion with other people, it doesn’t get much better!

Visiting the homes of our treasured wines is one of the great things about my job. Recently I met with Matt O’Leary and Marie Clay, two of our wine makers at Wolf Blass in the Barossa Valley.

We have 60 winemakers who have gained their experience in wineries all over the world. The depth and breadth of their experience is what makes working in this role so interesting and more importantly why our wines do so well around the globe.

It’s important we spend time with people like Matt and Marie in order to understand everything we can about the wines - so we can do a great job of promoting them. There is no better way of learning about our wines than to hear it directly from our winemakers.

As an example, one of the new wines that Matt and Marie have been working on has its origins in Robe in the Barossa. It's wonderful to talk to them about this wine and to work out how we can best educate wine lovers about this sensational and little known wine region.

One day I can be in the office and the next I could be up in sunny Barossa learning more about our great wines – what job is better than that?!