London Wine Week celebrated its third annual festival last month (23-29 May) welcoming a thirsty 10,000 visitors to this year’s event, including more than 6,700 wristband wearers embracing the capital’s thriving wine scene.
The Hub of the festival once again returned to the beautiful Devonshire Square, where its sun soaked terraces played host to a number of pop-ups including a flower-filled English garden from Nyetimber, al-fresco beach bars from Vins de Provence and Wines of Portugal, DrinkUp.London’s very own vermouth bar, plus additional pop-ups from Franciacorta and Aldi within a short walking distance. Further afield Loire Valley Wines hosted sell-out events at some of London’s finest venues; including tastings at Borough Wines, Bedales, Sager & Wilde and a rooftop BBQ at Queen of Hoxton.
This year also saw the launch of the London Wine Week Banquets – a series of five wine tasting feasts held in partnership with foodie icons Disappearing Dining Club – where a stunning warehouse space overlooking the Hub was transformed into a glorious banquet room complete with open kitchen. More than 220 guests attended across the week, enjoying wines and menus encompassing various cuisines from Argentina to Alsace.
A highlight of London Wine Week – the self-guided Wine Tours – saw more than 125 of the capital’s favourite wine bars, restaurants and independent merchants get involved with specially created wine flights and food matching offers, all designed to encourage consumers to discover new grapes, blends and vintages and seek out new bars in which to enjoy them. Early estimations show that with well over 16,000 flights and pairings served, more than £80,000 has been injected into the capital’s hospitality industry through this aspect of the festival alone.
London Wine Week Festival Director Emma Murphy said: “We are absolutely delighted with the response to this year’s festival – the atmosphere both at our Hub and across the events was electric, young Londoner’s have never been so enthused about wine. The launch of the LWW Banquets was a real highlight for us this year – bringing a new and delicious element to the festival that we can’t wait to repeat!”
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