PR and Wine - What a lovely combination!

Hi everyone!

Well I completed my placement at Leeuwin Estate a few weeks ago now and have just been working on the final report! The professional practice unit is by far the best unit I’ve taken throughout the duration of my studies. With the intent of one day doing PR in the wine industry I was so grateful to be able to complete my placement at Leeuwin Estate - one of the most highly acclaimed winery in the world.

While most of my placement was predominately focused on public relations in terms of event development and implementation, I was given the opportunity to be involved in a range of aspects of the organization. My first day however was a bit of a shocker with being given the task of sending out the annual Leeuwin Estate newsletter to approximately 1,800 individuals, needless to say it was very time consuming, repetitive and mind numbing but it had to be done.

However since that fateful first day things definitely improved. I was involved in aspects of the annual Leeuwin Concert ranging from compiling corporate event kits, producing information letters for specific guests and helping assist in seating arrangement for over 1,200 guests at the event. I was also given the opportunity to work with a leading Perth photographer in designing and shooting the new images for next years wine releases – it was definitely a highlight, who knew so much work and planning can go into shooting a bottle of wine!? It was also great to be involved in aspects of the event I had never considered such as the development of transportation schedules for 1,200 people and ensuring that all corporate clients had accommodation, arrived on time, etc.

I was also involved in developing information and tasting booklets for tasting evenings, aiding in development of an Easter service booklet, updating national and international mailing lists and creating wine review sheets for a number of current and previously released wines to accompany media releases. I was also given the task to research and compile data of other wineries and their associated events which was actually quite interesting to see where Leeuwin was positioned in terms of specific event aspects.

In all my placement at Leeuwin Estate was fantastic. It was great to see how a strongly branded organization with a fantastic reputation handled their public relations activities and how the reputation of an organization can be vital to success.

And so for the last time, cheers guys – thanks for reading. I hope you have all had a fantastic time at your placements!


Zoe Saunders
Curtin University (Bentley Campus)