Sud de France Festival 2011 hits UK

The worldwide Sud de France Festival is coming to the UK for a third year next month.

Running from 9-26 September, the festival is designed to raise consumer awareness of Languedoc-Roussillon food and wine with 318 producers, importers, merchants and restaurants hosting a number of events around the country.

A boat in London’s West India Dock starts everything off on Friday 9 September with a consumer tasting and party featuring electro-rock music and a presentation of the region’s natural wines by Isabelle Legeron MW.

Further events will then occur over the following two weeks, a trade highlight being the Sud de France third sommelier competition.

Also taking place in New York, Shanghai, Brazil, Mexico and Germany, last year’s festival saw more than 4,039 new product listings of food and wine obtained in the 1,052 retail outlets worldwide.

In the UK, Côte restaurants, The Wright Brothers, Kensington and Fulham Wine Rooms, Majestic and Waitrose are just some of the venues taking part.

In London, La Cave à Fromage is having a Sud de France cheese and wine matching event, while Vinopolis will have a space dedicated to Languedoc-Roussillon for the entire duration.

Isabelle Kanaan, executive director of the generic body’s London office, said: “While Sud de France focuses the majority of its activities throughout the year on the trade, the festival is devised to reach a large audience through a wide range of promotions and events.”

For more information, visit the website www.festival-suddefrance.com.