London Wine Fair has seen its 41st edition come and go, and although it’s an event dedicated to trade (mainly business to business), only a third of all visitors were strictly industry related, which shows just how much sway the beverage industry has nowadays.
As much as there was talk of the peak in visits for the 2018 edition, this edition showcased 35 scheduled tasting sessions, 417 unique exhibitors from 28 countries, from the classics such as France and Italy all the way to the lesser known for their wines like Ukraine or Czech Republic. This edition included over 3500 different products and seemed like no category was forgotten. The lineups included all of the classic wine styles – sparkling, still, red, white, rose, fortified – along with low or non-alcoholic options (some more wine-related than others) and other beverages such as spirits, liqueurs and cider. In sum, three very busy days that have left us with the feeling that we’ve not even gone through half of what was out there to taste and see.
If you’re the planning type, you could go through the event’s exhibitors and get a glimpse of the beverages they planned to bring. You could also pre-arrange meetings and get the location to be able to find them for a face to face at the Fair. In the same way, thanks to the collaboration with Bottlebooks, you could even keep in touch with the different producers/distributors and write notes about the wines (or other beverages tasted) and then download them after the event ended.
On our daily walkabouts, we’ve discovered an amazing red vermouth from Spain by Celler de Sanui, a selection of mind-blowing wines from Ukraine (by Fathers Wine) and Czech Republic (by Vinarstvi Valka) and delectable Sake and Shochu based beverages from Japan by Umeshuya. We’ve managed to taste Retsina wine (Song of The Pines by A. E. Tzivani Bio wines) unlike any I’ve gotten my hands on before (fresh, aromatic, light) and remarkable fortified sweet wines from Rivesaltes by Domaine de Rombeau. We were fortunate enough to taste from with their current vintages all the way to a stunning 1963 vintage that left us at a loss for words. Another gem came from the No and Low-alcohol section, a Tea-based beverage called Saicho, which not only has the potential of satisfying the non-drinking audience but also to give them the possibility of experiencing food pairings by showing the range of texture and aromatics this up and coming category has.
As for the Masterclasses we had the joy to attend, we had on our first day a special lineup of Louis Jadot wines (Burgundy) where the winemaker Frédéric Barnier shared his enthusiasm about the region’s particularities and how he’s preparing for the future whilst still keeping Burgundy’s identity, more on that here if you’d like to have a read.
We decided to invest some time listening about the range of wines produced in Greece, with particular interest in Crete, and it’s got us onto some incredible aromatic wines and bold reds that are worth going off the beaten path for, if you’re interested to know more about them do have a read here.
In a more relaxed and informal tasting in the Walk up theatre, we enjoyed easy drinking, elegant reds and gorgeously aromatic, graceful whites from Romania at unbelievable value by Cramele Recas. This fantastic wines offer great value for money and are great match for food.
Last but not least, on the very last day we sat on a Tejo (Wines from Portugal) Masterclass and tasted stunning wines, but were blown away by the sweet wine (Companhia das Lezírias, Séries Singulares Late Harvest) a fragrant, complex and perfectly well balanced between sweetness and acidity, a trait which makes it an infinitely drinkable, as Italians call it, meditation wine.
It was refreshing to see more than one event focused on Greek, Portuguese and Romanian wines, as well as some less popular areas from France and Italy. Certainly, the most fascinating thing was the amount of producers coming with delightful wine (and other beverages) at the event in search of a distributor, and whom we hope to see on the market soon.
LONDON WINE FAIR
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