About Us
Wine tastings - £70pp - £90pp (subject to wines selected)
These have proven to be really well received. They can be aimed at any target audience, from those you know well to people you hardly know at all.
Format:
In brief we talk people through a PowerPoint slide show of wines from around the world. The slide show is a big element as people get immersed in the images whilst tasting the wines. I talk through the nuances but resist going into the details that you often get from wine critics on TV. It’s important that guests don’t feel inferior as can sometimes be the case when people start taking about aromas of acacia and hawthorn when you can only taste lemon! For those who want detail,
we pick them off individually, whilst serving the next wine. Duration is flexible but is typically around 90 minutes. Normally the flight of wines would be fizz on arrival and/or Champagne, two white
wines, two red wines and a sweet wine.
Requirements:
Screen for PowerPoint, 2 glasses per guest, 4 ice buckets, somewhere to chill wine beforehand, ideally pedestal tables and tablecloths but can be set around a standard meeting table.
Guest size:
From 8 people upwards. Size is only limited by the size of the room. For larger numbers, timings may increase slightly due to logistics of serving.
Minimum spend and deposit. Minimum spend is £850. Non refundable deposit if event is cancelled
is £500
Wine quiz. £70pp - £90pp
These are brilliant for connections where you know one or two partners well, but want to get to know the rest of the team. On occasion, the day-to-day work will be completed by someone in a practice that you don’t know and these can be a great source of referrals. It’s good to know the
Head of department, but often it’s those who sit just beneath, that are first to see the opportunity of a referral. Thus, getting a group from a firm together is a brilliant way to expand the outreach.
Format:
People have 10 to 15 minutes on arrival to chat, then are placed into teams. Experience tells us that 4 teams of 4 is ideal, but it works up to 24 (more than that gets cumbersome). These teams are ideally made up of 2 home team and 2 guests. Clearly who is put with whom is important. Name badges (whilst often a pain) are really useful at these.
There are 5 to 6 rounds of questions. Each has 2 or 3 questions relating to the wine on show that is served blind and then 2 or 3 general nowledge questions. That way, no one gets left out, even those who have no real interest in wine. We think this inclusivity is vital to making sure everyone has a good time.
Below is an example of one of the rounds for a quiz we hosted recently.
1. Where is this wine from?
a) USA b) France c) Germany d) South Africa
2. What grape is it?
a) Chenin Blanc b) Sauvignon Blanc c) Riesling d) Chardonnay
3. What is the alcohol level of this wine
a) 12% b) 12.5% c)13% d)13.5%
4. The film “The Beach” starring Leonardo di Caprio is set in which country?
a) Malaysia b) Sri Lanka c) Australia d) Thailand
5. Which US agency has the motto “For the benefit of all”?
6. Which British supermarket has a clothing range named “George”?
As guests try to answer, I move from group to group and subtly try to help those who need it. I might ask “Why did you think that was 12% alcohol” and then talk them through what a wine of higher alcohol content might taste and feel like. This helps with making sure nobody is embarrassed with a low score in the quiz and is also, subconsciously, educational.
Requirements:
Screen for PowerPoint, 2 glasses per guest, 4 ice buckets, somewhere to chill wine beforehand, ideally standard meeting tables.
Guest numbers: requirements, minimum spend and deposit as above for wine tastings.
Navigating the storm £70pp - £100pp
Format:
This is a mix of educational and fun aimed at those who want to be able to handle a wine list in a restaurant with more confidence. It is a list of tips and rules to show everyone how to get the most out of a restaurant list and find the best value. It covers how to pick and remember vintages, how to handle when hosting HNW’s or those who profess to be wine connoisseurs, how to handle sommeliers, how to recognise and return corked wines, where the value is in a list and how to find it etc etc.
Requirements: This is a more intimate event. Ideally aimed at 10 to 12 and is perfect for more junior members of a large firm. Two glasses per head at a table and a screen for PowerPoint.
Minimum spend and deposit. £850 and £500
The Innovation tasting £70pp - £100pp
Format:
This tasting covers 5 areas of innovation in the world of wine that materially changed the future of a particular region or that are changing the world of wine as we speak. They include Champagne, two white wines and two red that relate to an innovation or idea that changed the face of that region or wine. Requirements as for Navigating the storm
Requirements:
Screen for PowerPoint, 2 glasses per guest, 4 ice buckets, somewhere to chill wine beforehand, ideally pedestal tables and tablecloths but can be set around a standard meeting table.
Minimum spend and deposit. £850 and £500
Vertical tasting- £120pp
Format:
These are incredibly rare and reserved for prime targets who have an interest in wine. We serve a range of vintages of a wine from the same Chateau to show how weather and time affects the wine in front of you. Truly fascinating and always causes discussion amongst the guests. Ideal if someone wanted to get 3 or 4 influencers from different firms together to pre-launch an initiative and get their views (and any amendments they deem would help with traction) before going to market.
Requirements:
Screen for PowerPoint, 2 glasses per guest, 4 ice buckets, somewhere to chill wine beforehand, ideally pedestal tables and tablecloths but can be set around a standard meeting table.
Guest size:
Changes depending on the wine choice
Minimum spend and deposit. £700 and £500
Targeted tasting £75pp - £95pp
These are aimed at a one-off theme, often linked to a particular business or professional target.
Two examples are as follows.
Autumn Internationals Rugby - November 2022.
This was constructed for a business that had several UHNW clients who were rugby fans. Last November England played Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan.
The week before the tournament started, we served wines in pairs served blind. We showed English Sparkling against Graham Beck South African Brut, Kits Coty Chardonnay against Catena Zapata Alta Chardonnay, English Pinot Noir against New Zealand Pinot Noir and finally a Mead from Lyme Regis against a Ginger Saki from Japan.
We rated them blind and all the guests predicted the scores of the upcoming game. Those closest to the correct scores overall won a prize once the final match had finished. This allowed the company involved to email all the guests weekly with a league table during the duration of the tournament, hence staying on the radar in a non-intrusive way.
Classics horse racing event.
We were asked to host an event to launch the start of the Classics at Newmarket by an institution with close links to horse racing. We came up with Ponies, Thoroughbreds and a Unicorn. We showed them two wines that cost £12 and £13 under the guise of them being classified as
ponies. Fun but not expensive. Then we showed two wines that cost over £40 each which were classified as Thoroughbreds. More expensive, but interestingly not to everyone’s taste. Someone commented “Just like a friendly pony compared to an edgy stallion”! Finally, we showed them the
Unicorn. This was a wine of which there were only 15 bottles left in circulation, so these were literally the last of their kind. Similarly, they ran a competition to allow regular contact.
Requirements:
Screen for PowerPoint, 2 glasses per guest, 4 ice buckets, somewhere to chill wine beforehand, ideally pedestal tables and tablecloths but can be set around a standard meeting table.
Minimum spend £850 and Deposit £500
All prices are subject to VAT