In Pour Taste: A Comedy Wine Tasting Experience @ MICF

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Sun 02 Apr 2023 - Sun 23 Apr 2023

In a festival where there is a lot of competition for the audience dollar, as is the case with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, it helps to have a 'hook', something that will differentiate your act from the hundreds of others on offer. The first thing that appealed about Sweeney Preston and Ethan Cavanagh's show In Pour Taste was the catchy name. The second was that the show involved wine tastings! Alcohol and comedy, what an.. ermm... intoxicating combination!



Awarded Winner Best Eat & Drink Weekly Award 2023 Adelaide Fringe, In Pour Taste doesn't just sound great on paper, it comes with credentials.

The venue for the show is ReWine CBD , one of three stores in the ReWine stable. The ReWine philosophy focuses on sustainability; drinking great wines, locally made and waste-free. Customers are encouraged to 'return, refill and reuse' the bottles they purchase from ReWine. The bottles are filled directly from the barrels in-store. So as well as being an ethical venue, there is wine expertise at hand - provided on the night we saw the show by (ReWine Fitzroy Venue Manager) Jordan, and (Queen Street Venue Manager) Mel.



The first wine on tasting - a Coriole Chenin Blanc - was poured just before the show got underway. Sweeney and Ethan gave an overview of what to expect from the show - five wines to taste, interleaved with comedy segments. There were some 'warm-up questions' to gauge the technical wine knowledge of the audience, starting with 'who's ever drunk wine before?', and we were off and running.

Jordan took over to introduce us to the wine and provide information about its provenance as well as providing some 'fun facts' and humorous banter along the way.

Ethan provided some very helpful tips about how to react upon tasting each of the wines, in a way that would fool a true wine buff.

And so it continued, tasting our way through an Ansonica , ReWine's own happy mistake the Accidental Rosé , a Sangiovese , and a Saperavi . All of these wines retail in the $22 - $25 range (cheaper by a few dollars if you return and refill a bottle), which seemed very reasonable for the quality of the wines.

Probably not surprisingly, the comedy seemed to get funnier as the tastings progressed! But we did enjoy Ethan and Sweeney's gentle humour. They work well together and show great empathy. Their style is not a sharp, shocking, thigh-slapping version of comedy, it's softer and more considered, though punctuated with laugh-out-loud moments. There is clever audience interaction and engagement throughout the show.



We particularly enjoyed the segment during which the blurb to go on the back of a wine bottle was developed - you know, of the 'it has a lively palate with hints of mown grass, forest floor and pencil shavings' variety.

As an overall experience, I thought In Pour Taste was a great concept, and beautifully executed by Ethan and Sweeney, with a little bit of help from hosts Jordan and Mel. Give your smiling muscles as well as your tastebuds a workout, and perhaps discover a new favourite wine along the way!

In Pour Taste runs until Sunday 23 April at ReWine CBD, 460 Queen Street, Melbourne.

Session Times:Sun 9 Apr: 6pm;Wed 12 Apr & Thu 13 Apr: 6pm;Sun 16 Apr: 6pm;Wed 19 Apr & Thu 20 Apr: 6pm;Sun 23 Apr: 6pm.

Ticket prices:Adult: $49.00Group (6& #43 ;: $45.00.Your ticket includes five wine tastings (a non-alcoholic option is available). You'll also receive 20% off wine purchased at ReWine after the show. Click here for more information and to buy tickets.The running time is 90 minutes. Strictly for audiences 18& #43 ; (licensed venue). This show contains occasional coarse language.

The images in this article were taken by the writer.

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!date 02/04/2023 -- 23/04/2023
%wnmelbourne