The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival will run 16-30 March 2007. Lightbulb's team of foodies and sommeliers sample what's on offer this year. Several events parallel Lightbulb posts run since August 2006.

The MasterClass presenters session features talks by chefs and food critics including Jill Dupleix (food editor of The Times (UK)), Tony Bilson (Bilsons in Sydney) and Cheong Liew (The Grange in Adelaide). For chefs the relevant Lightbulb post, among our most popular, is: A recipe to make a high net worth celebrity chef.

Out of the fryingPan is a conference on the future of food and the media. Sessions include "How to get on TV, and is it really worth it?" and "Brand Building - how to build a profile for yourself or your place." Also relevant to this event is A recipe to make a high net worth celebrity chef.

A Cow, A Goat & Two Blondes and Australian Cheese Forum. These two events provide an opportunity to discover some of Australia's finest cheese makers. Featured is Indigo Cheese Company from Rutherglen, Victoria. Someone should tell Indigo to feature more pictures of people enjoying cheese on its Website. It's OK to have clinical shots of cheese makers (see photo from the Indigo site) and even their other ones of cute friendly goats, but would it not be better to see their cheese? Hey what do I know, I'm just a lawyer who likes cheese. And writing blog posts such as Is Australian cheese properly branded?

Heritage & Evolution: Australian Shiraz is part of the Cellardoor at Southgate two-day event. In a wine MasterClass, Andrew Caillard of Langton's Fine Wine Auctions will confront the French insult (sometimes true) that Australian wine can be "industrial"). He sidesteps this by going upscale to exquisite shiraz tastings from Penfolds Grange, Emily's Paddock, Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier and Henschke Hill of Grace. At Lightbulb we have celebrated non-industrial wine making in the post Learning from the wine world of Max Schubert.

On wine law, wine company valuation, wine marketing, wine exports and liquor trends there is a wealth of additional material in Lightbulb and the Dilanchian Website Library:

• Liquor sector trends and statistics for 2007
  
• Online advertising, shaken not stirred
• Special Collection: Entrepreneurship Toolkit
  
• "I'd like to thank my lawyer" - on being introduced to the wonders of Penfolds Bin 389
• Changing views on time and the epidemic of short termism - mentions Castella Wines Yellow Tail
• Legal Anatomy of a Wine Label [PDF]
• Learning from Wine Branding [PDF]
  
• Improving Creative Destruction by Brand Managers [PDF]
  

What, no fruit?

There is no specific event celebrating Australian fruit. What do you think, is Australian fruit under-appreciated? Someone should suggest that the Melbourne gig take a leaf out of the Sydney Royal Easter Show's (5-18 April 2007) fruit displays as illustrated here.

Here comes another self-opinionated lawyer from Sydney comment. Maybe, for promotion of fruit, as in other creative endeavours, Australians have to be led by innovation by New Zealanders. See Striking gold with kiwifruit. So what's your view, is Australian fruit under-appreciated?