About Us
Who is Australian Wine & Food?
Australian Wine & Food exists to bridge the connection between premium, Australian-owned food and beverage producers and corporate consumers who desire and appreciate high-quality goods.
With our roots in country Victoria, we bring an authentic, honest approach to business. We’re dedicated to supporting small and regional producers to elevate the produce they’re passionate about creating, via our:
- weekly face-to-face tasting events in CBD buildings and other major Melbourne locations
- online premium corporate food and beverage hamper gift service.
Managing Director Dale Thomson and his team are always exploring and discovering boutique producers, selecting the finest offerings to include in our collection. Whether it’s choosing the best gin coming out of the recent local boom in distilleries, lending support to an undiscovered yet world-class winery, or sourcing the finest quality locally produced olive oil, chocolates, biscuits, coffee and more.
All our high-quality food and beverage partners are Australian-owned and from fascinating backgrounds that have brought them to where they are today.
Our history
We’ve been showcasing world-class Australian produce since 1998, with the first iteration of our hampers available in duty-free shops across Melbourne. This soon shifted to selling direct to corporate clients, many of whom desired bespoke customisation of their bulk hamper orders. With many of our clients wanting to sample the produce before selection, our corporate tasting events were born.
Growing up on a farm in the Shepparton region, Dale had a strong understanding of the process of paddock to plate from a young age. With exposure to livestock saleyards, fruit canneries and the dairy industry, he was always troubled by seeing big businesses selecting the best of the best Australian produce to ship off overseas, leaving local consumers lacking.
After gaining business and tourism qualifications and experience, including a stint in Europe observing their advanced food and beverage industries, Dale realised many of the smaller producers dedicated to resolving the local supply problems lacked the sales and marketing skills to be able to persist and be viable.
To help these smaller producers get to the marketplace, he launched Australian Wine & Food’s first hamper boxes.
Fast forward to today and our thriving online store and weekly face-to-face events continue to support our partners through showcasing their exceptional produce.