It must be a tough thing to get right.
Serve too much booze and there's trouble. Let people bring their own booze and there's trouble. Don't serve the booze fast enough and there's still trouble.
I didn't go to the Mission Estate to see Sting perform on Saturday night but, from what
I heard, it seemed like a hugely successful night, on the whole.
Four friends from Auckland were visiting for the concert and I dropped them off at Mission Estate at 4pm and picked them up about 11.30pm, tired, happy and sober.
They'd had a brilliant time - apart from a small matter of some long queues.
Not only had they waited quite a long time to buy wine but, after one lengthy stint standing in line at the bar, only chardonnay was left.
And later, when the sauvignon blanc had been restocked, it was warm.
It almost sounded like organisers had found a unique way of avoiding the booze-fuelled bad behaviour that marred the Joe Cocker concert a few weeks ago - by enforcing a mandatory stand-down time between drinks.
Of course that's not true. Organisers wanted people to enjoy themselves. And it was in their interests to prove that no one was missing out now that the concert was no longer BYO.
They delivered on one promise, that of keeping alcohol prices reasonable. But the service times didn't quite cut it.
The long queues may not have dampened the enthusiasm of my guests, most of whom were first-time visitors to the Bay, who were thrilled with the concert and their weekend.
And it probably won't stop next year's concert being sold out, or the year after that.
But it's clear the days of concertgoers lugging chilly-bins full of booze into the wineries are over so, somehow, a balancing act needs to be found between serving too much too fast and leaving people waiting too long.
That's something the Mission Estate has a year to figure out.
