01 September 2006

Enjoy the tales and humour of one the world's most famous cricket commentators, Henry Blofeld and experience a fabulous selection of wines, at the Wine and Wickets dinner series to be held at Hilton Hotels in capital cities and Cairns throughout the Ashes series (Canberra not included).

Henry Blofeld's unique brand of cricket commentary delivered with his distinctive Etonian flavour has made him famous with cricket fans all over the world.

A highly regarded schoolboy cricketer, many believed that Blofeld could have potentially opened the batting for England had it not been for an unfortunate collision with a bus that stymied his International Test cricketing aspirations.

Instead, he pursued his passion for cricket as a journalist and broadcaster, making an indelible name for himself from the 1970’s onwards, as one of the legendary voices of BBC's "Test Match Special".

Advised in his early years to 'paint a picture' for his listeners, 'Blowers' is known as much for his musings on pigeons, planes and double decker buses as he is for his commentary on the game.

Highly acclaimed wine critic and self-confessed cricket addict, Jeremy Oliver will co-host the "Wine and Wickets" dinners with insightful commentary on the wine and by introducing Henry Blofeld, with whom he has had a friendship with for over 23 years. Oliver credits Blofeld with finding him his first publisher and naming his first book on wine Thirst for Knowledge.

As well as a highly entertaining night of cricket stories, guests will also enjoy a four-course gourmet dinner and taste a fabulous range of nine specially selected Australian wines. Guests will have the opportunity to be among the first to taste the highly awarded Wolf Blass White Label 2001 Chardonnay and Wolf Blass White Label Riesling 2001. The 2003 Wolf Blass Platinum Label, recently voted the World's Greatest Shiraz by Winestate magazine, will also be served.

Ticket price: $230.00 per person
Includes:

• Four-course gourmet dinner, including limited release Wolf Blass wines
• Special souvenir: A bottle of Wolf Blass Gold Label

Dates and booking details of the dinners are:

For more information, please contact:

Nicole Lyons
Wolf Blass Brand Communications Manager
03 8626 3419 / 0438770119
Nicole.Lyons@FostersGroup.com

Leanne Tyrrell
Hilton PR Consultant
03 9629 7000 / 0403 081 999

Full Media Background On Henry Blofeld And Jeremy Oliver:

Henry Blofeld
Often assumed to be as dotty as his trademark bow-tie, Henry Blofeld's quaint obsession with London buses and pigeons has ensured him a place alongside John Arlott and Brian Johnston as one of the legendary voices of BBC's Test Match Special.

For many, especially those listeners who hailed his return to the airwaves in 1994 after a stint at Sky TV, Blofeld's burbling commentaries provide a pleasingly onomatopoeic backdrop to a day’s cricket, and his frequent gaffes and misidentifications merely add to that charm.

Like Johnston, "Blowers" was educated at Eton College and his old-school leanings are unmistakeable. Unlike Johnston, however, his bluff and hearty image is not entirely accurate, as anyone who has read his caustic columns in the UK's Independent newspaper would testify. In part this might be attributed to frustration. As a schoolboy wicketkeeper and batsman, Blofeld was one of the finest cricketers ever to emerge from Eton, and seemed destined to play for England until he was knocked off his bike in his final year at school. Though he recovered to play for Cambridge and Norfolk, he soon turned to journalism, which allowed him to pursue his passion for cricket.

Henry Blofeld was awarded an OBE in 2003 for his services to broadcasting.

Jeremy Oliver
Jeremy Oliver is one of Australia's foremost wine writers and presenters. He is a widely read and fully independent commentator and is published in several countries. In January 2005 he was named the inaugural Wine Writer of the Year by the widely circulated Australian Wine Selector magazine.

Jeremy began writing about wine in 1984 with the release of his first book, Thirst for Knowledge, in the process becoming the world's youngest published wine author. He has since published another fifteen books, plus hundreds of articles all over the world. He has hosted most of the leading wine events in Australia and also works in an ambassadorial capacity for Australian wine in export markets.

His books include the best-selling The Australian Wine Annual (now in its ninth edition), More Thirst for Knowledge and Evans on Earth (a biography of Len Evans). Jeremy is a regular contributor to Gourmet Traveller's Wine Magazine, The Straits Times, Wine & Dine (both Singapore), OLN (UK), Drinks (USA) and a number of other publications. He is also a regular presence on ABC Melbourne Radio.