WINES from France, Portugal and Spain were among the big hits last month when Inverarity Morton hosted its Explore. Taste. Love. wine show in Edinburgh.
The event, which featured wines from around the world, saw publicans, bar owners and restaurateurs able to sample an array of wines both familiar and more unusual.
Speaking to SLTN at the event Inverarity Morton commercial director, Ian Cumming, said the show has successfully built a reputation after visiting the Assembly Rooms for a decade.
“We keep wondering if we should change venue, but the venue really works,” he said.
“People are comfortable with it. The room’s fantastic. It looks great. The suppliers love it, so they want to come back.”
Getting the range of wines just right is the secret to the success of any trade show, and Ian said Inverarity’s focus is on encouraging its customers to try something they may not have seen – or sampled – before.
“It’s about getting people to try some slightly different things,” he said.
“Moving away from the old family favourites. So we’ve got a Gewürztraminer from Italy in there, some Greek wines in there, a rosé from Rhone.
“So they can take a note and hopefully they’ll list it. It’s just to get them to be a wee bit more adventurous in what they’re trying.”
This year attendees were encouraged to rate the wines they were trying via a handy QR code.
The top-performers on the day included Taittinger Brut Reserve Champagne, La Vie Sauvage Organic Semillon from Bergerac in France and Always on a Friday Pinot Noir from Portugal.
The producer of the latter caused a stir on the day by encouraging attendees to try his wine chilled – something that’s generally considered heresy among red wine drinkers.
Ian said: “People have this concept in their head – ‘you can’t do that!’ – but then they try it.
“It’s just about continually trying to make it a bit more interesting.”
The event also included masterclasses from wine producers, a seminar on Women in Wine and a wine and food pairing masterclass featuring chef, writer and presenter Julie Lin.
Lin, co-owner of Glasgow restaurant Ga Ga, has appeared on numerous TV shows including Masterchef and Saturday Kitchen Live.
The masterclass saw her preparing a number of dishes, which were each paired with wines selected by Inverarity’s Morton’s Guy Chatfield.
Ian said having Lin involved in the event ‘added a stamp of quality’ to the show.
“People like the food and wine matching concept. And also, obviously, Julie is well known. She’s very engaging – a great personality,” said Ian.
“We’re just adding that bit of extra quality, just to let people see that we’re actually quite serious about this.
“We’re not super-niche, but we’re quite serious about what we do with food and quite serious about what we do with wine.
“We know the market, we appeal to it, and we’ve got some great wines at all levels.”
And he was adamant that no cases of wine were sold on the day of the event itself.
“It’s a showcase,” said Ian.
“We don’t want it to get to the stage where it’s people coming along saying ‘what’s your price? Can I get free stock?’ It’s all about the quality of the wine.
“We want them to find wines and then after the show it’s about them sitting down with the guys and putting a price together.
“If you start talking about price and orders etc it just takes away from the quality of the event, I think.
“It’s about finding something you really enjoy or finding something different, and then afterwards you can sort out the commercial stuff. And it works.”
