**EMBARGOED UNTIL 8PM TONIGHT**
Bottles of Tasmania’s best bubbly will be flowing as the Effervescence Tasmanian Sparkling Festival kicks off in Hobart tonight.
The Hodgman Liberal Government is proud to support this cocktail and degustation dinner at Atmosphere @Frogmore Creek, which is the launch event for the four-day festival showcasing our best sparkling wines.
The highlight of the night will be Atmosphere @Frogmore Creek’s executive chef Ruben Koopman demonstrating how sparkling wine can be paired with each of the five degustation courses.
The majority of the sparkling grapes are grown and the winemakers based in the North, and events such as this help to draw more visitors to the region and showcase what it has to offer.
This festival is just one of many events we support that will help us achieve our target for 70 per cent of visitors to stay overnight in regional areas and increase the average visitor spend by 50 per cent by 2022.
Increased visitation supports local hospitality and related industry employment, so we can continue to focus on meeting our target of 50,000 tourism jobs around the State by 2022.
Other Effervescence events include the Champagne and Tasmanian Sparkling Dinner with International Wine and Spirit Communicator of the Year Tyson Stelzer at Stillwater, The Grand Tasting – A Decadent Garden Party Like No Other with 15 wineries, Bubbles and Beats and a series of masterclasses at Josef Chromy.
The Hodgman Government has supported the event through our Regional Events Start-Up Program.
Events such as this help to showcase regional Tasmania and the best of the state’s sparkling wine industry, and I encourage everyone to get involved.