London Wine Fair 2022 will be a hybrid event for the first time. This year celebrates both a return to Olympia, after a two-year hiatus, and the fair’s 40th live show.
In another first for the fair, it will take place in June this year; a result of ProWein changing its usual March timing. The fair will now take place just after the weekend of the Platinum Jubilee, when it is expected the capital will host celebrations the like of which have not been seen since the Olympics in 2012.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The Trading Floor will host UK agents, including Awin Barratt Siegel, Enotria & Coe, Hatch Mansfield, Richmond Wine Agencies and Felix Solis Avantis, as well as international brands and generic bodies.
Esoterica will return to the gallery level, with around 70 boutique importers taking part.
Drinks Britannia will be a celebration of British drinks, spanning wines, spirits, beers, ciders and non-alcoholic products, with a Wine GB hub. Wines Unearthed will feature more than 100 wineries looking to export to the UK for the first time.
The Discovery Zone – in association with D-Vine – will be back hosting products and services championing innovation within the drinks industry at large, across design, packaging and logistics.
The Education Zone – hosted with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust – is an area for anyone in the trade looking to increase their knowledge, whether they are embarking on the first step of the ladder or working to the Master of Wine examination.
NEW INITIATIVES
Low & No Zone: The show will host a dedicated space for low and no alcohol drinks for the first time. Mindful drinking movement Club Soda will curate a discovery area for low/no brands, including launches.
It will also host a fireside chat between Laura Willoughby, co-found of Club Soda, Christine Parkinson of Brimful Drinks and Harry Crowther, founder of Grain to Grape. A panel discussion of venue owners who have successfully integrated low/no into their offering will take place.
Old Vine Trail: Co-founder of The Old Vine Conference, Sarah Abbott MW, will curate the London Wine Fair’s first Old Vine Trail, which will highlight all the old-vine wines available to taste at the show. The list will be available to download via Bottlebooks, the LWF directory.
The Wine Writers Edit: 10 of the UK’s leading wine writers will each select three wines they are most looking forward to trying at this year’s show. The final list of 30 wines will be published ahead of the show.
BRIEFINGS & MASTERCLASSES
This year’s show will see a focus on strategies for the return to normality, straddling the double impact of Covid-19 and Brexit. Sustainability and the drinks industry’s role in tackling climate change will also be key themes.
WHO’S COMING?
Generic bodies
ProChile
Wine Australia, with 26 producers looking to export to the UK for the first time
The BIVB, with around 40 Bourgogne producers, will host a Grand Reunion pop-up tasting on the first day, including a free-pour tasting of wines from Chablis and Crémant de Bourgogne, plus an afternoon press briefing
Spain will showcase two regions for the first time – Murcia and Galicia
Portugal will bring new-to-market producers from the Península de Setúbal
Greece is back with Crete and Central Macedonia
Wines of Romania and Wines of Armenia will exhibit for the first time
Wines of Ukraine will also be there, and the fair is liaising with the generic body to create a special destination stand, free of charge, in the heart of the trading floor
Producers
South Africa’s Distell and Argentina’s Domaine Bousquet will be at the fair, as well as Romania’s Cramele Recas. Portuguese wine brand Esporão will join Hatch Mansfield.
Event director Hannah Tovey says: “For retailers looking to invigorate their offer, taste new vintages of current listings, seek out off-the-beaten-track bottles and discover the latest opportunities for their businesses, the London Wine Fair is simply unbeatable.
This year we will showcase thousands of producers from the largest number of regions ever represented at the fair, making this the perfect one-stop-shop for retailers who need to maximise their time when away from their businesses. And for those retailers for whom leaving their stores is just not viable, the London Wine Fair digital edition will take place two weeks later, on June 20 and 21.”
Harpers Wine & Spirit and Drinks Retailing features at The Discovery Zone Theatre at LWF 2022
TUESDAY 7 JUNE
11.30am Harpers Wine & Spirit: Meeting the challenges of the net-zero journey
UK drinks businesses share insights from their own progression towards a carbon-free future
1.30pm The future of drinks retailing: How much of a role will technology play in the shops of the future? What do consumers want and how can drinks retailers deliver?
Stephen Finch, founder of Vagabond; Anne Jones, drinks experience and development at Waitrose; and Herchelle Perez Terrado, founder of Drinks Partnership consultancy will join Drinks Retailing editor Lucy Britner to talk about changing consumer trends – from technology, including payment, apps and smart dispense – to omnichannel retail and its future in the drinks industry.
3pm Harpers Wine & Spirit: Future challenges and opportunities for the younger generation
Panel session around the launch of the 30 Under 30 future leaders list
THURSDAY 9 JUNE
11.30am Drinks Retailing: The power of social media for drinks brands and retailers: The best Instagram accounts, working with influencers, keeping compliant and the future.
Lucy Britner, editor, Drinks Retailing, in conversation with YesMore drinks marketing agency co-founder Tom Harvey. The pair will explore social media as a marketing tool, the opportunities for both brands and retailers, staying compliant and the future of social media and the drinks industry. The session will end with a Q&A in both directions, so have your phones handy and your Instagram open.
1.30pm Harpers Wine & Spirit: Sizing up the on-trade in a post-pandemic, post-Brexit world
How the hospitality landscape has changed and what this means for the drinks offer – presentation by Katy Moses, managing director of Kam Media
3pm
A Guide to English whisky – with tasting: This is a fast-growing and exciting category, with new distilleries and new expressions popping up all the time. But what are the opportunities for the trade and what makes English whisky stand out from the crowd?
Drinks Retailing editor Lucy Britner is joined by Alex Wolpert, founder of East London Liquor Company; Charlie Echlin, head of whisky at The Oxford Artisan Distillery; and Rob Patchett, brand ambassador for Cotswolds Distillery, to talk about the opportunities for English whisky, followed by the chance to taste three great examples.
THE DETAILS
WHEN
Tuesday June 7, 10am-6pm Wednesday June 8, 9.30am-6pm Thursday June 9, 9.30am-5pm
WHERE
Olympia London, Grand Hall, W14 8UX Digital: 20-21 June, 10am-6pm
TICKETS
£45 to attend both the digital and live event; or £25 to attend the digital event only. Group booking: buy 10 tickets, get one free.
Exhibitors will be allocated free tickets for their guests and a number of members of the drinks trade will receive free tickets, including verified media, Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers.
MORE INFO
londonwinefair.com Instagram: @london_wine_fair Twitter: @ londonwinefair #LWF22
