The large-scale tasting featured more than 500 Australian wines, many poured by the people who created them, with 31 Australian winemakers and principals in London for the event. The impressive line-up of wines highlighted the different expressions of terroir evident in Australian fine wines.
First Drop owner and winemaker Matt Gant said that the tasting captured the evolving status of the Australian wine market in the UK.
"I think the Premium Australia and 21st Century Vino tastings demonstrated how exciting Australian wine is right now, and that we're only at the start of this next chapter," he said.
In partnership with 21st Century Vino, Wine Australia also hosted a free-pour tasting of more than 50 Australian wines made from Italian varieties. This was accompanied by three master class forums curated by wine writers Walter Speller and Jane Faulkner.
The forums focused on the evolution of Italian varieties in Australia and featured presenters including Jancis Robinson MW, David Gleave MW and Garry Crittenden. Speaking to Wine Australia following the forum, Jancis echoed the enthusiasm for the bright future of Australia's premium wine offering.
"I would imagine in the next five years, the profile of the Australian wines that we're seeing here will move quite dramatically upmarket and that we will be seeing far more really top-quality premium wines – I certainly hope so," she said.
"I hope that we will be seeing many more premium Australian wines on shelves and particularly on interesting wine lists in restaurants and bars."
Regional Director Laura Jewell MW said it was great to see so many lively discussions taking place at the tasting throughout the day.
"Feedback from trade attendees and media has been incredibly positive and we were proud to have so many Australians in market to help create the noise around our diverse range of premium wines," she said.
The next UK event in Wine Australia's calendar to focus exclusively on Australian fine wine is the Langton's Classification Roadshow in March 2016. Many top Australian wines will also feature at London's annual Australia Day Tasting (26 January 2016), which next year will be extended to Dublin (27 January 2016) and Edinburgh (28 January 2016).
