Wine Fest 2015

(by Peter Richards MW and Susie Barrie MW)

What a weekend!

We’d like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came to Wine Festival Winchester this year and made it bigger and better than ever.

Visitor numbers were nearly 20% up from our first show last year, with well over a thousand people flocking through the doors, so word of mouth is clearly having an effect. Thanks everyone for bringing your friends along! We had 41 exhibitor tables in the Guildhall, more than 300 wines on show (plus gin, whisky, cognac, cider, perry…), delicious food and a really buzzing atmosphere for the whole weekend. Here’s a copy of the programme to download: Wine Festival Winchester programme 2015

We raised over £2,100 for our wonderful charity partner Home Start Winchester and Districts. Thanks to all those who bought tickets, as well as to those people and companies who so generously offered prizes. Congratulations and thanks to all the very hard working and cheery Home Start volunteers, who did such a brilliant job of selling tickets and manning the cloak room. That makes it over £3,000 raised for charitable causes to date by the festival.

Our staff were amazing, exhibitors were brilliant, visitors were right in the spirit – and, when this happens, you know it’s going to be a great weekend. Huge thanks also to our wine festival sponsors. Also to our fabulous media partners Social You. Running an event like this is a pretty big undertaking and its success depends on the collaboration of many people and companies. We’d like to thank everyone who supported the festival – it’s a brilliant way to celebrate wine and its related products in all their glorious diversity. And a special thanks to Rosie and Claire, the real stars of the show, who are just the best team to work with.

The good news is that we’ve now confirmed dates for next year – 25-26 November 2016. For those looking to secure their tickets early, you can get a £5 discount on entry tickets by using the code WFW2016EARLYBIRD when buying tickets from the website.

We’ll be uploading a brief video of the 2015 festival in due course. In the meantime, here is a video by Susie to say thank you to our visitors, followed by some more photos (thanks to the brilliant Catherine Skinner) and comments from the festival:

‘You have created something very special – one of the best events we have attended – it will go from strength to strength. We want to be part of that, please!’ (Exhibitor)

‘The festival was fabulous. I am absolutely coming next year. Everyone I know who went is raving about it too.’ (Laura)

‘Tremendously good event and will certainly be a regular on my calendar’ (Mike)

‘Thank you for a fantastic weekend! Rave reviews from everyone our side – about the organisation, venue and what fun they had. We will definitely be back next year!’ (Exhibitor)

‘Great day, lots of delicious wine!’ (Lizzy)

‘Thank you for a brilliant event. My very discerning son-in-law commented that coming for a second year running was even better than he could have imagined (helped by going to both masterclasses). We appreciate how lucky we are to live in Hampshire.’ (Richard)

‘What a tremendous and fun event! Great wines and a nice, jovial, buzzy atmosphere. You’ve done a great job with this event.’ (press)

‘Brilliant! Roll on 2016!’ (Georgie)