Cyndal Petty’s Pair’d 2026 Shortlist for Anyone Who Wants To Get Into Wine

Technically, I’m a Western Australian wine writer who tastes wine for a living. More usefully for this shortlist, though, I’m just a girl who likes to drink, eat, attend parties and break every wine etiquette rule ever created.

That combination means I understand that when it comes to getting into wine – or booking events for a world-class wine-led festival like Pair’d Margaret River Region – it’s easy to lack confidence and not know where to start. But I also know that wine is personal. It’s only fancy if you choose it to be, and the only real prerequisite for learning about it is having a working palate.

With that in mind, here are the masterclasses, parties and dinners I would book at Pair’d this November if I were trying to get into wine.

The Grand Tasting

For tasting rare museum wines, if you want to.

If you can only attend one event – which does seem counterproductive – make it The Grand Tasting. It lets you choose your own adventure: taste wines from multiple local producers at your own pace, listen to stories from the stage, or eat a few snacks by Matt Moran.

If it were me, though, I’d book one of the 45-minute Museum Masterclass sessions. Hosted by WA’s most celebrated wine writer, Erin Larkin, and South Australia’s Nick Ryan, the sessions include access to exceptionally rare wines and the stories behind the people who make them, exploring the why as much as the what.

Under the Stars

For learning that wine is shaped by mood, place and company.

It’s a common misconception that flavour is simply about what you put in your mouth. It’s far more multisensory and much more emotional than that. The way we perceive wine is shaped by place, people, mood and, in this case, the stars.

If you’re not familiar with Xanadu, it produces some of Margaret River’s most expressive and detailed wines. It also wins a lot of awards.

Here, those wines are paired with an evening of stargazing using advanced smart telescopes to observe planets, star clusters and distant galaxies, while a Wadandi storyteller guides the experience. I would normally cringe at the word transcendent, but here, it fits.

New Wave Gathering

For finding your people – and your producers.

You can tell a lot about a person by the wines they drink, and even more by the producers they pledge allegiance to. Learning about wine is partly about finding your people, which makes New Wave Gathering a good place to begin.

This is where you’ll meet Margaret River’s next generation of producers: the wilder, less traditional personalities rewriting the rules of wine. And if you’d like a little sophistication with your party, there are complimentary sommelier-led masterclasses to drop into.

More than anything, this event is a chance to play around, find producers that align with you, and realise that the idea of wine being fancy is entirely optional.

Pair’d Beach Club

For drinking like you’re in a Dua Lipa photo dump.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Beach Club. I am curating the wine list, after all.

Aesthetically, it’s not dissimilar to a Dua Lipa photo dump, and it’s a great way to observe Margaret River wine in its natural habitat. Set on the white sands of Meelup Beach, just metres from the water, it manages to be both decadent and delightfully relaxed.

Think salty vermentinos, chilled reds and plenty of sparkling. Michelin-starred chef Johannis Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson and local heavyweight Ben Ing will be on the pans, while Scott Bridger will be at the raw bar serving up Leeuwin Coast Albany Rock oysters. And of course, yours truly will hover around, pouring, floundering and chatting about wine.

Howard Park Global Sparkling Tasting

For challenging yourself, positively panicking and learning how wine minds think.

If the idea of tasting five brackets of five – that’s 25 – world-class sparkling wines in near silence while some of Australia’s best wine minds commentate doesn’t overwhelm you, I’d be impressed.

At your ability to lie.

Lean into that overwhelm, though, and it quickly becomes excitement.

This is the kind of tasting usually reserved for the few, and I’ll let you in on a secret: you don’t need to completely understand everything that’s said. It’s enough to challenge yourself, taste through the brackets and see how critics and winemakers think.

If it’s anything like previous years, the wines come from down the road, across the globe and everywhere in between. A little wine knowledge goes a long way here.

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Pair’d.