London Wine Fair 2015 the ‘best ever’

“Busy and buzzy”, this year’s London Wine Fair has been hailed a success by members of the trade, with the number of visitors from the on-trade increasing by 16%.

Visitor numbers to the event, held last month in London’s Kensington Olympia, reached 11,668, an increase of 4% on last year. A total of 670 exhibitors packed the hall with guests able to take part in a programme of over 100 seminars and tutored tastings.

2015 also marked the year that Pol Roger returned to the fair after a 10 year absence.

James Simpson MW, managing director of Pol Roger Agencies, said: “We have had a good calibre of punters; people interested in the spirits side, so part of the bigger picture of showing off our full portfolio. We’ve seen a few new customers with a good regional spread.”

Victoria Moore, wine writer for The Daily Telegraph, said it was the “best London Wine Fair ever, filled with great people, wines, stories, ideas.”

This year, the fair’s key focus was on independent merchants and the on-trade. New features to support this included The View Tastings, an area sponsored by Octavian specifically for exhibitors showing wines with an RRSP of £30+ and with a fine wine remit, and Wine Grapes, a now annual celebration of two varieties, which for this inaugural year were Syrah and Grüner Veltliner.

Independents were well represented with 1,195 visitors from this sector attending, with the number of visitors from the on-trade increasing by 16% on last year.

Esoterica

The newly established Wines Unearthed section gave producers seeking UK representation a platform, while Esoterica, returning for a second year, featured small, independent UK importers. Brewhouse meanwhile championed small batch, specialist and craft beers.

“For us, this year was set to be a real test”, said Ross Carter, LWF’s show director. “We were looking to build on the buzz last year’s show generated and really cement The London Wine Fair as the must-attend event for the UK trade as well as key international buyers.

“We feel we have delivered a show which really works for both our exhibitor and visitor audience in terms of business, engagement and of course tasting. Many exhibitors have already secured their space for 2016, which we feel is a ringing endorsement.”

Check out our roundup of the show in pictures here.