Brisbane's Social Stimulus package for flood relief

Brisbane’s burgeoning hospitality industry is counting the costs of Mother Nature’s worst temper tantrum. 

With much of the mud gone and walls being re-sheeted, it’s time to ‘drink up’ as Brisbane’s restaurant family comes together to raise money for the Flood Appeal and breathe new life back!

The Wine Tradition and Cuttings Wine Co are two local boutique wine wholesalers representing 20 premium, family-owned wine brands from Australia and New Zealand.  On Friday January 15, after sandbagging for 48 hours, owners David Bone, Tod Williams and David Sanders arrived at their Albion warehouse to find some 78,000 bottles of wine, with an estimated retail value of $398,000, water damaged.

Realising there were others worse off than them, they are driving Wine Relief, a campaign launched to regenerate a badly hit hospitality industry and help raise money for the Premier’s Flood Relief .  

It’s a win/win for diners - a reason to enjoy a great drop of wine for a good cause.

So now profits from every bottle of Hay Shed Hill and d’Arenberg wine poured in the supporting restaurants below will be poured back to Queensland flood relief. 

• E'cco Bistro - CBD
• Tank Restaurant – CBD
• Anise – New Farm
• Alloneword - Fortitude Valley
• Claret House - Teneriffe
• Cru Bar - New Farm
• Embers Steakhouse - Milton
• Glass Bar - Fortitude Valley
• More restaurants will be announced later this week....

Co-owner David Bone said this push was a “social stimulus package”, aimed at getting Brisbaneites to start going out again. 

“The Brisbane hospitality industry has been hit in two ways – firstly many restaurants have been directed damaged and thus their trading is either not-happening or severely impeded. Secondly, going out to lunch or dinner has been the last thing on many people’s minds. We need however, to kick-start our recovery, and this means making restaurant and bar bookings,” he said.

“We have been privileged to have two family owned wineries from different areas in Australia came to the party and support this push. Ironically, it is normally these farmers that are at the peril of Mother Nature, so they had an innate understanding of how unforgiving she can be,” he said. “The restaurant industry in Brisbane - and beyond - need people back in their venues; back on their seats; back ordering meals, and wines. So next time you dine out, chose well and support your fellow Queenslanders,” he said.

d’Arenberg has been owned by the Osborn’s since 1912 and is based in McLaren Vale. d'Arry Osborn has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the wine industry and has seen more than 65 consecutive vintages. He was the first to call and offer a hand. 

Hay Shed Hill is a picturesque winery in the heart of the Margaret River region of Western Australia. Michael Kerrigan purchased this long established vineyard in 2006 and runs a Deli and Café at the winery and thus has a unique understanding of what a hard industry hospitality can be.

Owned by three local boys Tod Williams, David Bone and David Sanders, Wine Tradition and Cuttings Wine Co specialize in representing twenty premium, family owned wine brands from Australia and New Zealand and were one of the first specialist wine wholesalers set up in Queensland in 1994.