Back to School & Marmalade

70 customers braved the worst that the Irish Sea could throw at them to join us at the beautiful Rydal Penrhos Preparatory School in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, last Tuesday.

We were joined on the evening by Sam Lockyer from Stonewall Estate (New Zealand) and guests were tempted by a wide variety of wines including the top 3 wines of the evening; Pillastro Selezione d’Oro 2007, Spier Signature Collection Pinotage 2009 & Domaine Servin Les Pargues 2009 Chablis.

The staff had a brilliant time chatting with customers and I’m so pleased with all of the positive comments that I have received since the evening.

John braved the elements on Sunday, with an early drive (5.30am!) to The Lake District to attend the Marmalade Festival at one of our favourite locations, Dalemain.

John had been asked by owner Jane Hasell-McCosh to present the Merry Marmalade prize (marmalade recipes including alcohol :-D ) to winner, Fiona Bird. Laithwaites sponsored this category (unsurprisingly!).

We return to Dalemain in June for our own Food and Wine Show – you can book tickets here. It is one of our favourite events and it will give you the chance to taste plenty of wine (and local Lakeland foods) and time to visit the vibrant, award-winning gardens too!

Will

Full Steam Ahead!

This week has seen our first two events of the year; a Wine Dinner at the George Hotel in Stamford, and a walk-around tasting at the STEAM Museum of the Great Western Railway in Swindon (pardon the pun with the blog title).

It was our first ever tasting in Swindon and we were lucky to have found such a spectacular venue to hold it in: STEAM - The Museum of the Great Western Railway is housed in a beautifully restored Grade II railway building in the heart of the former Swindon railway works (it is also very conveniently placed next to Swindon’s Discount Outlet Centre, which, naturally, Will and I couldn't resisit popping in to when we initially went to view the venue).

The Museum tells the story of the men and women who built, operated and traveled on the Great Western Railway. The exhibitions and magnificent locomotives provided a fascinating backdrop as we poured 30 wines, 2 beers, a Cider, a Port and a Maury for 100 tasters.

We were joined by Libby and Brigitte from Le Chai, who flew over from Bordeaux especially to join us and presented 3 lovely Chai wines, plus Will Laithwaite who brought along a cracking beer, the ‘Abingdon Bridge’ from his Loose Cannon Brewery.

My favourite part of the museum had to be the Station Platform, a reconstruction from the 1930’s, which was like stepping back in time. It all felt rather romantic as we served the Haton Champagne alongside the ‘Lode Star’, a steam locomotive built in 1907, and a 1934 Diesel Railcar... Cue lots of posing for photos!

The evening was very relaxed and enjoyed by all. Once again, having been the star of our 2010 tastings, the Pillastro D’Oro 2007 stole the show, closely followed the Stonewall Sauvignon 2009 then our Maury from Le Chai, the La Font Del Bosc 2005.

After Swindon came our annual visit to The George Hotel of Stamford to host a Wine & Dinner Evening, which was as delightful as ever. We, mainly Ian, have been holding events at The George Hotel for 18 years and never tire of it. It was my first visit this time, and I wasn’t disappointed. The hotel boasts traditional furnishings, log fires and quality food and wine, and Stamford itself is a charming town.

We were joined by 70 guests in the oak panelled Restaurant and all thoroughly enjoyed a Champagne reception, a quick tutored tasting by Ian including a Greek wine, the Malagousia 2009 Domaine Gerovassiliou, which caused a lot of interest and debate (very positive!) then a delicious four course dinner. Each course was carefully chosen to compliment the 4 dinner wines, finishing with the Jackson Triggs Ice Wine from Canada, served with Treacle Tart and Marmalade ice cream… heaven!

Next month we’re off to Colwyn Bay, Norwich, Cardiff, Godalming and Nottingham. Plus we’re currently planning our July – Dec events so do let us know if we’re due a visit to your town, especially if you can recommend a venue, at eventsfeedback@laithwaiteswine.com and we will try our very best to see you soon!

Jo x

P.S Special thanks to Puttyfoot for taking some great photos of the Swindon tasting for us! http://puttyfoot.com/

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

2011 is set to be a bumper year for us, with bigger, better, more exciting and interesting events planned already and scores more in the pipeline!

January is normally a month for taking a step back and recovering from the previous year and the festive period - not the case this year! We are kicking off 2011 with a couple of very special events.

The first event of 2011 is the ever-popular and now sold out dinner at The George of Stamford, Lincolnshire – it’s become an annual fixture! After a Champagne reception, guests will be treated to a tasty, specially designed four-course meal in the beautiful, oak-panelled restaurant of this historic coaching inn, all carefully matched with a selection of eclectic wines from our range:

Weingut Felsner Grüner Veltliner 2009 Kremstal
Domaine Les Escondudes 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC
Finca Valpiedra 2001 (magums), Rioja Reserva DOC
Jackson Triggs Vidal Icewine 2007, Ontario

The first tasting of the year (and one that I am particularly excited about, as I’m organising it) is at STEAM Museum of the Great Western Railway on Tuesday 25th January in Swindon, Wiltshire.

We will be joined by several producers including Sam Lockyer from Stonewall Estate in New Zealand and Libby Woolcock from our very own Le Chai au Quai in Castillon-La-Bataille, Bordeaux. I’m very pleased to be able to say that Will Laithwaite will also be attending the evening, bringing along his excellent creation, Abingdon Bridge beer from Loose Cannon Brewery, for guests to sample. Tickets are still available, so if you fancy a glass of Champagne on the atmospheric pre-War station platform (think Brief Encounter) and sampling 30 wines in a very relaxed and informal atmosphere, surrounded by history, then please do buy your tickets now.

The office will be busy in January with two supplier tastings for staff planned, including an extra special visit from Edouard Moueix. His family are regarded by many in the wine industry as Bordeaux royalty and are associated with some of the best Châteaux on the Right Bank.

Keep watching this space and I hope to see you all at an event soon!

Will
For a list of all our Events, click here

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

A Show to Remember

When Laithwaites Wine throws a party, it is a party to be remembered! That’s exactly what we did at the weekend in the wonderful Vinopolis Great Halls, adjoining our Arch shop, next to London’s world famous Borough Market.

We were delighted to be joined by scores of wine producers from across the globe, around 200 different wines, 70 members of staff, and almost 1600 happy smiley customers over three tasting sessions!

The wine and wine makers, of course, stole the show, and a rich cacophony of laughs could be heard for most of the weekend as producers joked with customers, customers joked with each other and staff and we all ribbed the South African boys about the rugby.

At the end of each session the votes were counted up and the winner announced, with Bill Calabria’s Westend Estate Pinot Grigio 2010 scooping the award for Friday evening, his Amore Durif 2009, winning the Saturday evening prize and the Spier Signature Collection Pinotage 2008 splitting the Westend Estate wines for the Saturday lunchtime top spot.

Hopefully, all those who attended, be they staff, producers or customers, enjoyed the events of the two days and can take back fond memories; I certainly have several fond memories as well as one slightly painful one that will remind me to take more care where to put my foot next year!

For a full list of the wines on show please feel free to browse this eBrochure

Will Waters