The dust has settled, the broken glass swept up, the spittoons dismantled for another year, the lights switched off and aching limbs and slightly sore heads placed in cold storage. Time to take stock of another Real Wine Fair and recollect the emotion of the occasion in a state of comparative tranquillity.
A time to thank the growers for their huge contribution in coming and showing their wines, for their enthusiasm and spirit and for generating that special friendly atmosphere that big tastings thrive on.
And to thank those who made their way through the claggy rain to Tobacco Dock and have subsequently given us the most positive feedback. And thanks also for your suggestions to make it an even better fair next year.
It was a pleasure to be part of this event. A couple of people asked me what financial benefit we derive from our investment in the fair. There is rather more (or less) to it than that. The rewards are not commercial; their real value is far more profound:
*The pleasure in seeing old friends
*The pleasure in making new ones
*Bringing likeminded people together
*Conveying that wine is not all about profit and for narrow purpose but has an identity, a history and cultural distinctiveness and personal foundation.
The Real Wine Fair strikes no didactic agenda despite what some commentators might write. The fair exists to bring the growers to the people and allow the public and the trade to experience wines that they might not normally taste or even know about. A fair is sometimes just that, a festival or celebration of the good things in life, a whirl of human interactions rather than a succession of cold financial transactions. If everyone feels positive then we’ve done our job and that is reward enough.
Photo by Roberson Wine
The Real Wine Fair ~ More than a wine tasting
The dates – Sunday 17th March – Monday 18th March
The weather – cold, murky, mizzly
Marie Thun calendar – two root days!
Summary
Two days in Wapping
1,500 visitors
110 wine growers
500 + organic, biodynamic and naturally made wines
Street food snacks
Artisan food and drink
Pop up wine shop
Pop up wine bar and restaurant
Real Wine posters
Seminars
The Real Wine Month
Promotions and events throughout the UK in March
The Venue – Tobacco Dock, Wapping, E1
Tobacco Dock, a Grade One listed warehouse, was smokin’ hot, a superb venue. The Great Gallery was the perfect exhibition space, light (despite the gloomy weather), airy, with sufficient room comfortably to accommodate over 100 growers and many hundreds of visitors at a time. There was a separate room for the food, a big restaurant which doubled as a wine bar and rooms dedicated to seminars.
The Partners
Real Wine 2013 was the collective enterprise of Les Caves de Pyrène, Indigo Wine, Passione Vino, Roberson, Ethical Edibles, Tutto Wines and Modern Portuguese and their many growers and we were also honoured to host a terrific contingent of Georgian winemakers.
The Growers
It is invidious to single out growers, so a few extra honourable mentions. It was good to see the South West growers back en bloc – Luc, Pascal, Ludo & Jean-Bernard lent their usual cheery demeanours to the occasion. Spain was particularly well represented with great growers from lesser-known regions such as Alicante, Manchuela and Tenerife. The Georgians brought a variety of superb, exciting and unusual wines from their homeland. Artisans from Italy were exceptionally well-represented – they came from Piedmont, Lombardy, Friuli, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna and Sicily – amongst others – bearing a bewildering array of indigenous grapes and styles. This was, to coin a phrase, the real Italy, a far cry from milquetoast Pinot Grigio and over-sulphured Trebbiano. We had a fine sprinkling from Australia, South Africa, Chile and New Zealand – wine made from wild vines, in old tinajas or concrete eggs, with skin contact and sans soufre. The old new world or the new new world? Only time will tell. The Real Wine Fair may be viewed as putting a girdle around the world; this is the new small-scale globalism, connecting the dots, those dots being small growers working in a unique idiom, not necessarily recognised or honoured by their own local critics or peers, but working in an intelligent and prescient fashion to become the most eloquent advocates for the terroir of their own vineyards.
