RAW Berlin to run wine and music bar alongside show

RAW Wine Berlin is launching a pop-up wine bar that will run alongside the German natural wine show, following the success of its London pop-up.

Raw London held its pop-up wine bar at the London Edition hotel in Fitzrovia ahead of the artisan and natural wine show in May

The organisers of the second artisan wine fair in Berlin, which will take place on 27 November 2016 at the Markthalle Neun, has teamed up Berlin-based UK record label City Slang for the pop-up, and will present an evening of wine and music based in a bar by the river.

Although the organisers are still finalizing the details and wines that will be available to taste, it has confirmed around 130 “avant-garde” producers are set to take part in the one-day show in Berlin.

The move follows the success London pop-up which ran for a week in May to coincide with fifth annual RAW London wine fair, it said.

Organiser Isabelle Legeron MW said she had been “thrilled” with the London pop-up, which was held at the London Edition hotel in Fitzrovia in the week running up to the natural wine show in May and served more than 100 low-intervention organic, biodynamic and natural wines.

“It was really well received and the hotel were delighted with the result, so all round a great success,” she told db. “It was lovely to have an HQ where growers coming to town could hang out, meet their fans and also have a drink with the RAW team – the fair itself is always so busy for everyone that there is not really any time for catching up so the bar was the perfect antidote to that.”

“More importantly though, it also meant we were able to pour wines from a selection of growers who came to the fair and share the RAW WINE growers’ philosophy for a two week period, rather than just a weekend, and all in a relaxed – and effortlessly sophisticated –  central London location.”

Legeron says the Berlin pop-up would have a different feel to its London counter-part and that the show itself attracts a wider range of Eastern and central European trade visitors, in addition to its strong German following.

“We have definitely noticed an increase in interest and discussions about natural wine since we announced the first edition in Berlin in early 2016,” the organizer said. “Natural wine is on the up everywhere and Germany, as one of the powerhouses of Europe, is no exception. Our mission, as RAW WINE, was to help the German market understand what low-intervention organic, biodynamic and natural wines are all about.”

November 2016 will see the fair’s first outing in New York which is hoping to target the “huge” and untapped US market for natural wine. It will take place in a converted warehouse in Brooklyn’s Bushwick area on 6 – 7 November 2016.