MORE than 2000 patrons from across the state filtered into wineries throughout the King Valley over a mid-November weekend, as ‘La Dolce Vita’ revelers embraced the region’s gourmet food, fresh wine and live music scene.
Seven wineries spread between Oxley and Cheshunt welcomed visitors throughout the weekend festival, which was kickstarted on Friday November 17 at Dal Zotto’s Prosecco Nights launch party.
An estimated 1500 guests took to participating wineries on Saturday in picturesque spring weather, while a further 600 guests, largely from the North East, cashed in on similarly warm weather on Sunday.
Wines of the King Valley president Dean Cleave-Smith said the event had brought good vibes and good wine sales for those businesses which participated.
“We know that people come out in droves when the weather’s good, particularly our local audience who can make the call on the day,” he said.
“All of the venues have reported really good numbers and really happy crowds, lots of people enjoying the atmosphere and some food and wine, but also good wine sales – people are coming and enjoying the festival but then taking home wine with them which is great to see.
“As far as previous events it’s not as high – we’ve had 2800 for La Dolce Vita in the past but given the numbers we saw (on Saturday) we’re really pleased.
“We know there’s a big festival going on in Beechworth this weekend (Drag’d Out Festival), there’s a lot going on in the food and wine space in spring across all of regional Victoria so that does impact us as well given that lots of people travel here from Melbourne.
“We still find that people are bouncing back post-COVID, so if we get the numbers (2000+) then it’s a great weekend.”
The return of the common glass at this year’s event proved popular, with many seen arriving at wineries throughout the valley on Sunday morning sporting their take-home glass from the day previous.
This year’s event also welcomed Oxley-based John Gehrig wines to the mix for the first time, although three other King Valley producers elected not to participate in La Dolce Vita due to staffing concerns, according to Mr Cleave-Smith.
“We’ve had three businesses not participate this year because of concerns around not being able to staff it properly, so the workforce issues have meant we’ve had to tone down our marketing a bit,” he said.
“There are also consumers who want to come when all of the venues are participating.
“At a local level my message to those wineries who choose not to participate is don’t ride off the coat-tails of others.
“Let’s all get in and make this a great weekend for the whole of the valley – people want to come here to experience the fabulous food and wine and hospitality and don’t want to work out who’s participating and who’s not.
“When the weather’s as good as it is it’s hard not to want to venture out and experience the sweet life of the King Valley.”