Signature Wines Wine Tasting Events
Posted on Sat 13th Dec 2014 at 10:54
One of the best parts of our job is taking Signature Wines to tastings and seeing your reaction for ourselves. We’ve been all over the UK during the last year, promoting our wonderful wines and opening people’s eyes to the possibility of wines from Macedonian.
Our favourite comment of the night was probably: “difficult to pronounce at first, but really interesting wines”. Clearly perseverance pays off! Later in the year we did a similar tasting at Buckingham Golf Club, where we introduced lots of keen golfers to the delights of Macedonian wine. We also provided an in-store tasting at the new Wine Rack shop in Radlett, where they hosted a Spring Wine Festival. It was wonderful to meet their customers and hear how well Stobi’s Vranec was doing - Branch Manager Shaun Smith told us that “we all really like the Stobi Vranec, so displayed it in the staff recommendation section. It’s priced perfectly at £9.99, and gives the customers something interesting to try. I sold one bottle to a guy that wanted something different for that evening, and he came back the next day to buy a case of 6!” As well as in-store tastings, we’ve also been helping retailers and local societies by providing bottles for wine clubs, such as this one at the New Ash Green Club: where Stobi's Vranec Veritas Reserve was crowned wine of the evening. We’ve also been busy connecting with new partners in the wine industry, including retailers, bars, restaurants and importers. As we’ve seen throughout last year, Stobi’s well made, vibrant wines never fail to strike a chord with buyers. As one retailer said, for example, when talking about the new Stobi Žilavka 2013 at the 2014 SITT exhibition: ‘I was looking for something different, new and of quality and this is it.” The London Wine Fair at Olympia in June was a particularly good event for Signature Wines, and we had our three Masters of Wine: Jo Ahearne, Caroline Gilby and Justin Howard-Sneyd, on hand to chat to attendees about Stobi and the qualities of Macedonian grape varieties. We had a great response, both from people trying it for the first time and those who came to tell us that the bottles in their shops were selling like hot cakes! Similar fun was had at the ERT fair, where we were chuffed to have a photo of our stand tweeted by the Three Wine Men.
We’ve also ventured up to Scotland numerous times last year, in particular to attend the Epicurean Event at the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel. This event only showcases the world’s most exclusive wines, so we were delighted that Stobi had been selected to take part. Elsewhere in Scotland we had a fantastic experience at the Pitbauchlie House Hotel, where Wine Importers Scotland hosted an exclusive event for wine collectors. We particularly enjoyed visiting this hotel because they have many peacocks roaming the grounds - peacocks are integral to the Stobi brand because they are depicted on the mosaics on the floors in the Roman ruins of Stobi, so we took it as a very good omen! Overall, we had a corking year - forgive the pun - and are very grateful for all the support you’ve given Signature over the last 12 months as a premium quality wine importer specialising in wines from Eastern Europe. We look forward to bringing you even more incredible wines in 2015!