Consigli DiVini - » The London International Wine Fair

I was looking for a wine fair to go to in London, and as it so happened, to my delight, there’s one coming up this week! It’s a 3-day event running from May 20th-22nd at the ExCel International Exhibition and Conference Centre in East London.

The London International Wine Fair is considered to be ‘the single most important event in the world wine calendar’ for anyone who has anything to do with wine. It’s a chance to sample wines, network with winemakers, and generate potential sales.

There’ll apparently be over 1200 wine exhibitors from different wine-producing countries including Italian wine producers, of course; plus an expected 14,000 visitors, all under one roof!

I, myself, will be going solely for the wine tasting! Ok, on a more serious note, there are a couple of 1-hour seminars that I’d also like to go to. There’s one called Abruzzo: Wines of the Hills & Mountains that looks interesting. There’ll be other seminars on the wines of Chianti, Sicily, Lazio, Piedmont and Tuscany. I obviously can’t go to all, but would like to go to, at least, one.

I plan on lining my stomach with some good food beforehand to prepare myself for copious sips of wine (Italian or otherwise). I’m more of a sweet wine person so I plan to try out that range and maybe venture into the medium dry range if my palate can handle it.

This is a free event, by the way, which is great!

I’ve just registered! - was a really straightforward process.

So it looks like I’m going! I, unfortunately, can’t go to all 3 days. However, I’m looking forward to the day that I can make as it’ll brighten up the week ahead and if the British weather’s nice and sunny, all the better.

Will write an update on my experience of the fair.

Ciao!

(UPDATE: 24/5/08 - Unfortunately, yours truly didn’t read the fine print. It was a trade-only fair for which you needed to provide ID to prove you were in the wine trade. Hmph. Oh well, there’s bound to be another wine fair coming up - I hope - must check.)

(img by: paulaloe)