RAW London expands with week-long programme

Natural and artisan wine show RAW London is expanding its scope with a week-long series of pop-ups across London next month.

The organisers have collaborating with a selection of bars and restaurants to extend the annual London trade show into a week-long series of events and pop-ups. The new #rawwineweek will run from 7-13 March, culminating in the trade show, seeing mini-events in wine bars and eateries across London, from Hackney to Shoreditch, Soho to Spitalfieds. The organisers have also confirmed several pop-up events including the launch party on the Friday night in partnership with Genuwine, the wine and R&B party founded by Aimee Hartley of events platform, Above Sea Level and sommelier Courtney Stebbings (not to be confused with the US R&B star of the same name!).

Other events include the Somm-Thing Extraordinaire on the first night of the show, featuring five stars of the on-trade who champion low-intervention organic, biodynamic and natural wine. Taking place on the Sunday night, it will feature Raphaël Rodriguez, restaurant director and wine buyer for the Michelin-starred Fera at Claridge’s, Mayfair, head sommelier at Frenchie in Covent Garden, Bastien Ferreri,  Martino Bosco, head sommelier of the upcoming Claude Bosi @ Bibendum in Kensington, Ed Thaw of Michelin-starred Ellory in Hackney and Jo Radford of the Timberyard in Edinburgh.

Businesses taking part in pop-ups include 40 Maltby St, Antidote and Ducksoup in Soho, Brawn on the Columbia Road, Burgess and Hall in Forest Gate, Ducksoup, Frenchie in Covent Garden, Passione Vino and Sager + Wilde, in which customers can try natural wines either by the glass or as four tasters for a tenner, in some bars.

The trade show will take place at the Store on the Strand on Sunday 12 and Monday 13 March, with the team hosting its own event, the Pop-Up(stairs) in an event space above the trade fair.

It follows the pop-up wine bar that ran alongside last year’s show in the London Edition hotel in Fitzrovia and the pop-up wine and music event at RAW Berlin in August.

Orange wine

The organisers are looking to boost the profile of orange wine, after signing up two winemakers credited with bringing about a renaissance of fine orange wine. Slovenia winemaker Stanko Radikon and Josko Gravner from the Friuli region on the Italian-Slovenian border will be exhibiting at next month’s London show for the first time.

Although the show has previously shown orange wines, organiser Isabelle Legeron MW said the trend was set to “take off” this year, hence the renewed focus. Exhibitors showing orange wines include producers from Sicily, France, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Georgia, Austria and the USA. It will also encompass a range of different grapes varieties, from muscat to Slovenia native riobolla giallo, Georgian varieties chinuri and rkatsiteli and Spain’s airén.

Producers include Frank Cornelissen from Sicily, Albert Mathier from the Valais in Switzerland, Italians Pradarolo and La Maliosa, Laurent Bannwarth from Alsace, Matassa from Roussillon, and Domaine Viret and Eric Texier from the Rhône, and Claus Preisinger and Birgit Braunstein from Burgenland, Austria. The Scholium Project from California will also be exhibiting, along with Domaine Ligas from Pella in northern Greece, Georgian producers Gotsa Wines, Tibaani, Naotari  and Natenadze’s Wine Cellar from Meskheti.

In November Legerons trialled a limited edition raw wine box operation a bid to make raw and organic wine more widely accessible.