Food Drink

Get boozy on Murlawirrapurka Rymill Park island with Wine Country

An inner-city island party is coming to Adelaide, and there’s gonna be LOADS of wine.

Local party boy Mark Kamleh and wine expert Nick Stock are offering Adelaide residents a series of premium one-day staycation experiences during December and January.

Over five summer weekends (December 5 and 19, and January 9, 16 and 23), you’re invited to take a trip to scenic Murlawirrapurka Rymill Park island for boozy parties aplenty. Each event will showcase a different wine region, style or grape.

The inaugural event is called Refreshment Island, and it’s happening on December 5 from 1-6pm. It will feature a range of producers who make wine on an island, or who deal in grapes that are native to an island.

A man with many, many, previous Adelaide events up his sleeve – and inspired by previous Rymill Island event Inner City Oasis – Kamleh’s billing these parties as “Adelaide’s finest wine-themed island experiences.” He hopes the events will increase local tourism into the central city as people continue to look for getaways closer to home.

Wine critic and man-about-town, Nick Stock, will draw on his connections in the form of Stoke Wines, The Other Wine Co, Charlotte Dalton (all who have made or currently make wine on Kangaroo Island), Tolpuddle (of Tasmania), and others, to ply attendees with exciting, hard-to-find wines.

Tickets for the first event are $49 and cover entry, two hours of unlimited wine tasting from your very own take-home PLUMM glass and excellent tunes by Fantastic Black Plastic (Nick Gencarelli).

Central city restaurant legends Africola and Golden Boy are on the pans for savoury food, which they’ll sell from the island kiosk. And there’s the option to add a tropical flavoured “Club Tropicana” Island-themed doughnut from Abbots and Kinney to your ticket price for a small extra fee.

Kamleh and Stock launched Wine Country early this year. “It exists to drive interest and enjoyment of wine and put together experiences that are uniquely thoughtful, creative, and amazingly fun,” they explain. So there’s an element of education at the party too. Guests are invited to talk to makers and wine importers if they want to brush up on their wine chat in time to impress the rellies at Christmas dinner.

“The island will also have some zones set up around specific types of wines where you can visit/taste/learn/immerse/discover. Things like the wines of Sicily – all in one location,” explains Kamleh, “This gives the island an experiential narrative for the event too.”

If Island wine isn’t your thing, perhaps one of the next events will tickle your fancy: Party Island, featuring all things fizz is happening on December 19, which Kamleh hopes will be “people’s Christmas party of choice.” Then in early January there’ll be “Pink Drink Island” where you can drink yourself silly on rose.

Get your ticket for Refreshment Island here, and follow @winecountry_au for upcoming wine events and news.

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