And Finally...

2010 has been a year of a few firsts for the Events Team; our first tasting at the Eden Project, our first Wine Show at Vinopolis, our first run-in with a volcanic ash cloud and both Jo and Will’s first tastings. It’s been a great year and we’re looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings.

Our 2010 highlights:

John –‘A fantastic evening aboard the HMS Warrior and our Lake District visits - looking forward to heading back with our Cumbria tasting in June.’
Will – ‘The Eden Project tasting. A brilliant venue and a great excuse to return to my home county!’
Ian – ‘Also the HMS Warrior and hosting a wine and dinner evening at Le Manoir alongside the first lady of New Zealand Wine, Jane Hunter’
Jo – The Vinopolis Show – I loved the festival buzz and spending a few days around Borough Market was great fun!’

The most popular wine from across our 2010 tastings has got to be the Pillastro Selezione d’Oro which has wowed our customers across the UK every time we’ve shown it this year… It’s certainly one to keep you warm this winter!

Thank you to every one who has come along to one of our events this year – we’ve really enjoyed doing them and hope that you had a great time too!

We’ve got lots of exciting new locations (Brighton, Godalming & North Wales, to name a few) and some old favourites (HMS Warrior, Lincoln and the Lake District) already booked up for 2011. Our first one is at the end of January at STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon… Let’s hope the weather improves by then!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Events Team

Wine, Canapés and Riots!

On Thursday 9th December, we had a rather interesting day as we headed to London for our annual Wine & Canapés evening for 200 tasters, due to be held in The Mall Galleries, Westminster...

So far this year, we’ve been up against volcanic ash clouds, airport strikes and extreme weather. On Thursday, we had a whole new challenge… in the form of several thousand demonstrators!

John, Will and I made our way to London nice and early in case our route was affected by the protests taking place around Parliament Square as MPs voted on tuition fees. We managed to get there just fine, though the area was very heavily policed, and we were able to start early - we certainly didn’t want to have anyone waiting outside with all that going on so close by, particularly on such a FREEZING cold night!

By contrast, the atmosphere at the tasting was warm and relaxed. Any of our customers that had experienced a stressful journey getting to The Mall were soon sipping on elegant Champagne and nibbling exquisite canapés as they viewed the fine oil paintings of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters that line the walls of the gallery.

We were joined by two producers; Marie O’Riordan of Halewood International, with a selection of terrific value, excellent quality Romanian wines including the night’s top seller Colina de Piatra Alba Pinot Noir 2009 and Ollie Marsh of RidgeView Estate Winery who showed off two of their outstanding, multi-award-winning English Sparkling Wines, South Ridge white and rosé – both were very well received and it was great to include some impressive wines from less familiar territories.

Thanks to all who came and joined us on the night. Despite the unfortunate timing, it turned out to be a really great evening, riots and all!

This was our final tasting of the year but we’ve already got lots of exciting new venues (Brighton, Swindon Steam Museum & Cardiff, to name a few) and some old favourites (HMS Warrior in Portsmouth, the Lake District) booked up for 2011. So here’s to another great year of tastings!

Cheers!

Jo x

No rest for the wicked

or if today is Thursday, this must be Cheltenham...

The days since the Laithwaites Show at Vinopolis have hardly been idle. We’ve had four more events to organise, to travel to and to host - and there are another two in the offing.

The former Bird’s Custard Factory in Birmingham is now an Arts & Media centre comprised of many different spaces – we opted for The Old Library which dates from 19th Century. Dilapidated by the Nineties but now restored to a bright, airily-vaulted venue thanks to grants from English Heritage and the EDRF.

Despite the threat of heavy snow around the area, Jo and I made it and so did almost everyone else. It was good to be joined by Jim & Paul from our Solihull Shop who presented 5 wines including the statuesque Trapiche Las Palmas Cabernet which ended up as fourth most popular wine behind these three:

Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc 2009 – sadly now sold out; 2010 vintage due in February 2011

Pillastro Selezione d’Oro 2007 – the ‘Champion’ wine of 2010 at our events

Moonlighters Cabernet Sangiovese 2006 – a unique RedHeads Studio production


Reading Town Hall was next on the list for John and Jo – if you’re thinking this one should be easy for them being based in nearby Theale, you haven’t met Reading’s Traffic Wardens.

Unfortunately, the snow did affect this one – two out of three producers were unable to make the journey to Reading from France but we did have 120 customers and some canapés to sustain them. David Emmins representing Campanula will be pleased he did make it as his lively Hungarian Pinot Grigio 2009 was the most popular wine followed by the muscular Groote Kaap Cabernet 2009 and the dainty frizzante Limonetto.

Next day, next event – Cheltenham, the beautiful Grade I listed Pittville Pump Room – again more snow around but we were not to be put off. With most of our staff coming from our Gloucester base, travel wasn’t quite so much of an issue here.

Tony & Barbara Laithwaite joined Will to taste their way around 32 wines and our popular Breton Cider, presented by Sylvain Ruffier. Other highlights in sales terms were the Pillastro Selezione d’Oro (again, see, told you so) and Westend Estate’s The Boxer 2009 red.

With a quick trip to Gloucester to look after a group from the Institute of Directors thrown in last week, this week, with only two events should be a piece of cake, shouldn’t it?

Ian