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The Apprentice star to reveal new venture at The Wine & Spirits Show
A contestant currently battling it out with other hopefuls for a slice of Alan Sugar’s fortune on BBC’s The Apprentice will be presenting her Canadian icewine at The Wine & Spirits Show in London this month.
Jackie Fast, with her Rebel Pi Ice Wine. Credit: Instagram, Jackie Fast
Jackie Fast, who is still in the running on the show to receive a £500,000 investment from Lord Sugar, is from Canada, but has also studied in Beijing, and now lives in London.
A canny businesswoman, Fast set up sponsorship consultancy firm, Slingshot Sponsorship, in 2010 with “just a laptop” and £2,000, and sold it six years later for “millions”.
She’s also written a book about sponsorship selling, but right now her focus is on her wine brand, Rebel Pi, under which she has launched a Canadian ice wine in the UK, which retails at £139 a bottle.
The wine is made from Roussanne grapes from a single vineyard in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.
“Following the sale of my last business, I wanted to take everything I learnt and apply it to a completely new industry,” she said.
“Wine has always been a passion and the fact that the drinks industry is incredibly competitive is what made my foray with this business that much more attractive. I am delighted to launch REBEL Pi with the aim to disrupt the wine industry, much like I did with the sponsorship industry.”
The wine will be available to sample at The Wine & Spirits Show, which will take place over two days from 12-13th October in the heart of London at One Whitehall Place, part of the five-star Royal Horseguards hotel.
Organised by the drinks business and the spirits business, the event will target wine enthusiasts based in London, with around 2,000 members of the general public are expected to attend, alongside members wine and spirits trade.
The Wine & Spirits Show will offer one hall dedicated to wines, and another that will be focused entirely on spirits. Producers already set to exhibit in The Wine Hall include Consorzio Tutela Vini, Wine Trail Wales, Sud de France, Ledbury Wine and New Zealand Wine Growers.
The Wine Hall will also feature the Global Masters Zone, showcasing the top medal-winning wines judged throughout the years in the drinks business Global Masters Series.
The Spirits Hall will feature everything from gin and whisky to Tequila, rum and Mezcal, with Amber Glen Scotch, HMS Spirits and Angus Dundee Distillers already set to take part. This hall will also host The Spirits Masters Zone, which will be manned by the spirits business team and showcase the Spirits Masters competition medallists.
Both halls will feature a dedicated New Products Zone for both wines and spirits, which will showcase the hottest wines and spirits launched within the last 12 months, keeping guests up to speed on emerging trends and releases.
A Global Beer Tour zone will also offer guests the chance to sample a wide range of brews to have been judged by our expert panel as part of the Global Beer Masters, which will take place in August.
MASTERCLASSES
As well as hundreds on wines and spirits available to sample, the event will also offer a series of expert masterclasses, on both wines and spirits, giving guests the chance to get under the skin of Champagne with Pol Roger or delve deeper into the world of fine wine with online auction site iDealwine.
Winners of The Drinks Business and Sparflex’s English sparkling wine packaging award, Digby Fine English, will also be holding a masterclass, as well as the newly-formed Consorzio Tutela Vini DOC delle Venezie, showcasing the Italian region’s Pinot Grigio, which has been elevated the grape from IGP to DOC status.
Not only do these sessions offer consumers the chance to learn more about wine or spirits, but for wine and spirits brands to showcase their products in front of an interested and engaged audience of wine and spirits lovers.
Jackie on the BBC show The Apprentice
A full schedule of masterclasses, which will be offered FREE on a first come first served basis.
The Wine & Spirits Show follows the Wine Show Chelsea, Spirited London, and The City Wine Show, a wine fair designed to encourage consumers to explore the world of wine in a relaxed environment, which has run successfully for the past two years at Stationer’s Hall in the heart of London.
The event will open from 1pm to 9pm on Friday, and from 1pm to 8pm on Saturday. To register for the trade event, which will run from 1pm to 5pm on Friday, please click here.
We still have a few stands available for those wishing to take part. To enquire about taking part in the show, please email Chloe.Beral@unionpress.co.uk
For more information and tickets click here.