The Review - FOOD & DRINK- The Wine Press with DON & JOHN Published: 1 November 2007
There was cause for celebration for many at the show, including (right) sisters Emma and Amy Senogles
Time to put a cork on all this showbiz razzmatazz
The Wine Press wonders whether marketing and gimmickry have made this ‘premier’ event lose its focus
WE hope that readers enjoyed the three and a half day Wine Show at the Business Design Centre in Islington. The show was billed as “London’s premier wine event” and “The place to taste, try and buy wine”. Did it live up to these claims?
The Wine Show has been presented by Single Market Events of Richmond for three years.
The first show in 2005 managed to exile interesting young French winemakers to the gallery while a scantily dressed young woman trod grapes in a large vat on the main floor of the exhibition.
Not surprisingly, none of the young winemakers returned for the second year – bad news for the show since theirs was generally the best wine.
This year told us more about those who go to the show than those who organise it, which is perhaps as it should be.
And most of those attending in the three days open to the public were women.
Women now buy more wine than men. We know much of it comes from supermarkets but we know too little about what they buy and why.
The news from Islington is that they may be widening their horizons.
Single Market Events are also responsible for the London Motor Show and London Fashion Week. Their speciality is events, not wine, hardly the obvious specialist presenters.
This year’s centrepiece, a showbiz-style competition between six well-known wine writers (who should have known better) hosted by the BBC’s Nicholas Barden, was trivial and poorly staged.
During this, it was almost impossible to carry on any sort of conversation throughout most of the building.
It also underlined the lack of any real attempt to inform.
The now well-worn routine of walks with the wine writers limited to small groups didn’t make up for this failing.
There is, of course, another side. While large-scale interests like the Tesco Wine Club monopolised the main exhibition space, there were some real discoveries if you looked for them.
The French display taking up a large part of the gallery was a new departure, promoting French wines by broad generic description rather than area.
Visitors were invited to sit on comfortable armchairs and sofas and sample “robust” or “smooth” reds, or drink “crisp and dry” whites irrespective of the areas they came from.
For the French this was something of a revolution, indicating their determination to compete with New World wines.
Another revelation was the number of independent outlets and producers making their presence felt.
The outstanding example was the Apennine Workshop from Ramsbottom in north east Lancashire – as improbable a location for wine drinkers as you could pick – a combined restaurant and wine business specialising in small Italian vineyards.
Their wines aren’t cheap, ranging from £95 to £225 for a mixed case (£8 to £18.75 a bottle).
A less expensive source is the Assenovgrad Winery in Bulgaria, whose Mavrud Reserve 2003 and Tsar Assen Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 are good value at £6 a bottle, including free delivery for 12 bottles or more if you live in London. (Tel: 07970 971883 or email mark.glover@hotmail.co.uk.) Bulgaria may be on the way back.
To sum up, a well-attended show, but one that in future will need to forego unnecessary gimmickry for a more serious dialogue between young producers and a good-humoured audience eager to experiment and learn.
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