Pick up a Pinot (from Germany of course)

For many Brits, Germany is not their country of choice when wine shopping. Unless you understand basic German, the label on a bottle of Riesling - the country’s premier grape varietal - can leave you puzzled and reaching for the nearest Aussie Chardonnay. With this in mind, you’d think we’d be mad to even think about pitting German Pinot Noir (yes, red wine from Germany does exist!) against its international, highly-regarded competition.

But such was our faith in the quality of German Pinot Noir, we recruited a world-class panel of judges (and friends of Phipps to boot) including top wine writers Jancis Robinson MW (Financial Times and Purple Pages.com), Tim Atkin MW (BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen wine expert) and Matthew Jukes (Daily Mail) to taste 20 German Pinot versus 20 top Pinot Noirs from around the world, to judge for themselves. The tasting itself required the organisational skills of a military sergeant but after hours of tasting, we were thrilled to find that no less than seven German wines had made the top 10!  Our audacity and insight had paid off! Even more astonishing when the final results came in a German Pinot Noir actually came third overall, beating all three Burgundy wines in the tasting! But don’t just take our word for it. Check out Jancis Robinson’s video, Tim Atkin’s fantastic article and Gabby Savage’s write up on Drinks Business, or if you’re still not convinced come back next week to watch the event’s video and see it with your own eyes. 

Posted by Lucy Richardson

I don’t drink coffee, I take tea my dear…

No one summed up the English’s love affair with tea better than Sting. But most Brits would be hard pushed to know where their beloved brew is actually coming from. Which is where we come in. Earlier this month the Phipps office was celebrating with, er, a lovely cup of tea after winning a six-way pitch organised by the PRCA/ FAPRA to work with the Tea Board of Kenya. Kenyan tea is one of the world’s most drunk teas and is in almost all of the UK’s best-loved blends but it also has a lot to shout about it its own right. We’re implementing a campaign including social media, consumer and stakeholder communications to help Kenyan tea get the credit it deserves. So watch this space for all things tea-related and in the meantime, pass the sugar! 

Posted by Lynne Shirley