BIRMINGHAM WINE WEEKEND

THE JOURNAL

 Guest Blog: Tony ElviN

Tony of The Wine Events Company writes about why he loves BWW

Why do I love Birmingham Wine Weekend?

I’ll start my answer with a question. How many bars or restaurants do you avoid because you know they’ve got a cr*p wine list? I struggle to dine somewhere where they don’t care about their wine. 

When you look at the venues in this year’s line up, you know you’re going to be able to get a great glass of wine at Loki, Arch 13, Vagabond, Wine Freedom, HDV and others. I’ll no doubt find myself in each of these over the course of the week. But Wine Week, as it is this year, gives you something else. It unlocks a load of other venues that you didn’t know cared so much about their wine, and they do, I know this because we’ve tried them.

In the run up to Birmingham Wine Weekend we join festival founder, Alex Nicholson-Evans, to tour all the venues and to sample their wine choices. It’s fair to say we have tasted some fantastic wines for this year’s festival. It has been great to see the time and effort taken by our venues to select interesting wines to share with you on your wine journey this year. 

Yes, there are crowd pleasers, obvious choices, as there should be. But for each warming, welcome Malbec or fresh and zippy Sauvignon there’s something from the Lebanon or a fantastic English fizz, an Orange wine, a Pet Nat or a Zibbibo. It’s a chance to try something new, maybe find your new favourite. Maybe over the week you’ll jump back and forth between old favourites and something new. That sounds like a plan to me. The venues have really outdone themselves this year for what will be the best Birmingham Wine Weekend to date.

Of course, we’re really excited to be hosting a series of events too. There’s certainly a feeling of ‘bringing the band back together’ by hosting a wine dinner with Master Sommelier Nigel Wilkinson and the kitchen brigade at Hotel du Vin. Nigel and I have hosted dozens of dinners together there over the years, and this will be a wonderfully fun reunion of great food, chat and wine.

Phil Quimby has dusted off his red trousers and is excited about chasing restaurant owners Ann and Irene around their new Chapter for our Wine Dinner Gameshow, Call My Quaff. 

But maybe the best place to start your Wine Weekend adventure this year is at The Canal House where, on Monday 4 April, we will be hosting our introduction to wine tasting .. Taste Like a Pro. This is your ‘safe space’ to ask every question you ever wanted about fermented grape juice whilst tasting eight different wines. We’ll explore the impact that climate, food and production methods can have on the humble grape in your glass whilst helping you get the most from every sip across the rest of the week.

We are hosting five events this year but that’s just five from an array of seventeen different events that will be taking place over the course of the week. We’ve made sure we have time to join some other events and make our way around the circuit too. We hope to see you on our travels. 

Salut!