What’s on at London Wine Week

Today marks the start of London Wine Week – an entire week in which the capital goes wine-crazy.

More than 125 bars, restaurants, wine retailers and venues are set to throw open their doors (and cellars) for you to taste specially selected wine flights for £5, find specially selected food and drink pairings or take advantage of retail discounts. All you need to join in the fun is a couple of spare evenings, a tenner to buy the all-important wristband that gains you entry and get discounts across town, and thirst.

Here is db’s run-down of some of the events on offer from now until Friday.

So grab yourself a wristband here and start planning your route…

Wine is popping up all over

(image: DrinkUp.London)

Central to LWW16 is The Nyetimber Hub, a covered terrace in Devonshire Square where festival goers collect their wristbands and indulge in a flight of English sparkling win put together by the Nyetimber team.

Also based on the square will be a series of pop-ups including a beach-themed bar from Vins de Provence, while the Wines of Portugal Discovery Bar will be offering a selection of 15 different wines from Iberia and Franciacorta is taking over the nearby 1901 bar in the Andaz hotel to celebrate its sparkling wine from Italy’s Northern lakes.

Even Aldi is getting in on the act with its pop-up wine shop over at BOXPARK in Shoreditch, giving Londoners the opportunity to try-before-you-buy its new online wine range, free of charge. The discounter, whose emergence as a serious wine contender has disrupted the wine retail scene, is also hosting three free MW-led masterclasses from Friday to Saturday.

Take in the sights

(image: DrinkUp.London)

One of the highlights of the week is the ability to taste wines from across the world with the £5 tasting flight, These happen all over town, and with more than 500 wines from 20 countries available, it in London’s largest self-guided wine tour. Wherever your stomping ground, you can find something nearby. There are tours across the City, Farringdon, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, Mayfair, Marylebone, London Bridge, and West London from Knightsbridge to Shepherd’s Bush. It even goes south of the river…

Armed with your LWW2016 wristband, bag yourself a £5 flight from participating bars and venues. Choose from Eastern European whites at Bedford & Strand, Austrian flavours at Eastway Brasserie, Tokaj at the 10 Cases Cave a Vin, Greek wines at Opso, unusual classis at Percy & Founders, favourite French classics at Ball’s Brothers Bury Street, or sample Ribera Uncorked at The New Street Wine Shop.

For a full list of participating bars, check out the LWW2016 website here.

Flights of fancy

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If you want to up your game with some more bespoke, pre-booked tastings that seriously boot your knowledge, you can also try some of the dedicated tastings happening in many of the participating venues. (Just bear in mind that many of these have limited capacity and need to be booked in advance).

Check out France’s less well-known regions with France of the Beaten Track at Patron Cave à Manger, look at the American Revolution at EuroCave UK on 27 May, or become a somm for the day with the WSET’s crash course in food and wine pairing on 24 May at Covent Garden Wine bar, Terroirs. You can also learn how to decode wine labels and know what to expect at a tasting with Master Sommelier Matthieu Longuere at Le Cordon Bleu London on 26 May, and for wine buffs wanting to start their own cellar, experts Nathan Hill & Christian McLarnon will be at the Honest Grapes tasting on 29 May to show you how.

Get botanical with vermouth 

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It’s not just regular wine that is getting a look in.

If you fancy something a bit different, the pop-up DrinkUp.London Vermouth Bar will be on hand with a menu of lower ABV vermouth aperitifs and cocktails from its stand in the Devonshire Square Hub. It is claiming vermouth is ‘the drink of summer 2016’, so this is your chance to gen up on the heritage, styles and flavours of this Mediterranean fortified, botanically-infused aperitif.

Alternatively, you could try a selection of new wave vermouths at The Whisky Exchange Shop on Thursday 26 May. Seven producers who are raising the drink’s reputation across Europe will be on hand to explore the drink. They include Belsazar, Cocchi, Collector, Lillet, Regal Rogue, Turin and Vya.

Sipping + snacking

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New for 2016 are The London Wine Week Banquets – a new type of wine tasting with five long-table banquets held in partnership with experiential foodies, Disappearing Dining Club. These taking place in the Devonshire Square warehouse lofts overlooking al fresco LWW Hub on Devonshire Square. Each 50-person feasts will each showcase a different wine, from Alsace to Argentina, Sparkling to Sicilian, each with a specially created food menus to match. Book your ticket on the lunchtime or evening events early to avoid disappointment.

But the long table route is not the only way to grab yourself a bite to eat. The Queen of Hoxton has a BBQ in conjunction with Loire Valley Wines and Time Out card serving piri-piri kebabs, falafel and burgers paired with different Loire wines.

There are also a host of venues offering ‘sip + snack’ offers for those wearing a wristband, including Vinoteca, Granger & Co, Four to Eight, Cork & Bottle Wine Bar, Enoteca, Hawkesmoor and Cellar Gascon, to name only a handful.

For a full list of ‘sip + snack’ offers, discounts and more, check out the LWW2016 website here for participating venues.

Flowering achievement

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And if you want to really splash out in style, the Bluebird on the Kings Road has teamed up with McQueens Florist and the Rothschild Collection from Waddesdon Manor Wine Shop to offer Bluebird in Bloom on Tuesday 24 May. This floral extravaganza is being starts with a champagne reception, with canapés by Bluebird, followed by a floral masterclass and five-course tasting menu, paired with wines from the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdone Manor Wine Shop. Pre-booking for this limited capacity event is a must.

And if all that sounds like hard work…

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Then there’s a selection of rather different events on hand. Wine merchant Honest Grapes is running a series of events aiming to shake things up  – get political from a wine version of the Brexit debate on 28 May, which pits English beers and wines against some the best the continent has to offer, or BYO to their bottle amnesty, which aims to save Londoners from dodgy wine. Simply take an unwanted, unopened bottle of wine to swap for one from their collection.

And if all of this wine makes you want a boogie, Genuine is back for a R& B wine dance party at Ruby’s Lounge in Dalston. Don’t say you haven’t been warned…