Rioja – getting behind the bottle

Rioja is one of the most loved and best known wine regions amongst UK wine drinkers but how many of them know what goes on behind the scenes at every winery to achieve Rioja’s trademark integration of fruit and oak?

 I’ve been lucky enough to get to know Spain’s most famous wine region on four press trips this year. Seeing the landscapes and soil, and getting first-hand accounts from the people on the ground in the vineyards and wineries gives you a real appreciation of the painstaking work that goes into producing each bottle that ends up on UK shelves and wine lists. At any given time around 1.2m barrels of wine – one of the highest concentrations in the world - are carefully ageing in oak before being stored in bottles at the winery until they are released to the market ready to drink. The sheer volume of wine is striking – from underground labyrinths of tunnels lined with bottles under the town of Haro to the world’s largest barrel room at Campo Viejo, millions of litres of wine are stored across Rioja.

Whether the winery philosophy is traditional and steeped in history, such as Muga, which to this day employs an in-house cooper to make the barrels, or ultra-modern, such as Baigorri, an extraordinary construction reaching seven storeys underground to ensure that every step of the winemaking process can take place using gravity, with no need for pumps, no expense is spared in ensuring that optimum quality is preserved from the vineyard right through to the bottle that ends up on the wine merchant shelf or restaurant wine list here in the UK.

Posted by Lottie West

Spirits…and the paradox of choice

Counterintuitive as it may sound to anyone living in a Western consumerist society, is it possible that freedom of choice has made us not freer but more paralysed, not happier but more dissatisfied? 

That idea was already vaunted by psychologist Barry Schwartz five years ago but as of this month London’s The Social will be putting it to the test. Instead of a back wall full of bottles the selection of spirits on offer is limited to the best of the best. So that's one vodka, one gin, one rum, one whisky, one tequila. “I’m not saying it’s wrong to have 20 gins,” remarked Eric Yu, managing director of The Breakfast Group which owns The Social in the October’s issue of the Drinks Business. “We’re just trying to get a balance. There’s a whole plethora of choice that’s way beyond public understanding.” So what’s out view on this - best of the best or plenty of bottles behind the bar? Not sure actually, it’s a difficult choice to make…

Posted by Toby Schuster

Food Trucks Serving Up This Year's Hottest Trends

You know a trend has gone mainstream when the Wall Street Journal covers it. After taking the U.S. by storm (12 of the best-loved food trucks from across the pond) Europe has started to replicate the trend and especially London has seen its fair share of mobile food outlets over the last few months.

From The Meatwagon and Street Kitchen to the Pitt Cue Co, what these mobile eateries have in common is a relentless use of social media to drum up business. The Meatwagon alone has 5,000 followers on Twitter and 1,500 Facebook fans, not to mention the numerous food bloggers who have written about it (rumour has it that Street Kitchen is even working on an iPhone app). But we can’t help thinking that other factors are at play as well. “Food trucks are a combination of several food-related trends we have seen this year,” comments Phipps’s resident food blogger Rachael Everitt. “By serving British staples they let us indulge in comfort food at a reasonable price and offer a level of authenticity and food provenance you can’t get from traditional take-away food.” But with temperatures turning positively autumnal do we think the trend will survive the winter? Our take on this is that rain and colder temperatures might dampen our national obsession with queuing but if the quality remains high food trucks could give the trusted lunchtime sandwich a run for its money.

Posted by Toby Schuster

Industry future discussed at House of Commons

 

Influence comes in many forms and this week Phipps attended the Annual Parliamentary Reception of UK’s Food and Drink Federation (FDF) at the heart of British politics, the House of Commons. As the FDF’s communications partner we met with members of parliament including chairman John Stevenson MP and representatives from some of the UK’s most influential food and drink brands to exchange insights and opinions on many of the issues faced by the industry. 

 

Britain’s Minister of State for Agriculture and Food at Defra, Jim Paice MP, raised the issue probably most relevant to many of our clients - how to attract young talent. As a sector that represents over 15% of manufacturing turnover and employment, we need to fend off competition from other areas, and increase investment in training and education in order to make sure the industry attracts the bright sparks of the future. These ambitions tie directly into the FDF’s Taste Success apprentice scheme, designed to attract school leavers and graduates into the industry by showing how the sector is leading the way in terms of innovation, training and development. 

 

Catching-up and networking with the All-Party Parliamentary Food and Drink Manufacturing Group, which co-hosted the event, brought up a number of other issues the FDF is actively championing – from re-formulation and nutrition to health and agriculture. As they say, a lot of food for thought.

Industry future discussed at House of Commons
 

Posted by Lynne Shirley

Rioja Tapas Fantasticas 2011

For the fourth year running, Wines from Rioja brought Spain to London and helped 15,000 visitors discover the joy of matching Rioja wine and tapas at Rioja Tapas Fantasticas.  Over 33 wineries from Rioja and 13 of London’s finest tapas restaurants were present at the two day food and wine extravaganza on the Southbank which meant that there was something for everyone - with temperatures soaring on Sunday to over 30C the refreshing whites and roses were particularly popular.

Wine workshops and walks with wine experts Olly Smith and Susy Atkins were sell-outs and Jose Pizarro took time out from his newly opened tapas bar to show the crowd how to cook the perfect tortilla and gambas al ajillo during the live cookery demonstrations (expertly matched with Rioja wine of course!).

Two great days with fabulous food, visitors, expert advice, weather and Rioja - roll on 2012!

German Wine Question Time and Riesling and Co tasting

The long anticipated ‘Riesling & Co’ tour came to London for the first time on 11th May, following events in Denmark, Holland and the US so far this year.  Not content with simply showcasing the best German wines available both in the UK and abroad to an eager trade audience, we decided to make the most of having so many German wine and industry experts in the room by holding a ‘German Wine Question Time’, where the audience could question our panel of experts about the future of German wine in the UK.   David Dimbleby, eat your heart out…

Following the format of the popular political TV programme Question Time, the German wine version saw our panel of industry experts – which consisted of Marks and Spencer's BWS category manager Andrew Bird, Hakkasan Group wine buyer Christine Parkinson, Wine Intelligence’s Richard Halstead, Matthew Clark wine consultant Andrea Ruggeri and Justerini & Brooks’ Marketing Manager David Brown, ably chaired by Wines of Germany and Phipps PR managing director Nicky Forrest  – answer questions from the audience on a range of issues, including what Riesling and German wines in general can do to increase their popularity in the UK and whether Germany should look beyond Riesling and Spatburgunder (Pinot Noir) to attract the UK’s wine drinkers to give German wines a go. The consensus was that more needs to be done on packaging German wines for the UK market, although it was acknowledged that German producers (particularly the younger generation) have made good progress in improving their labels. Others stated that the language used by retailers and marketers to communicate to consumers the taste of German wines also needs revising if consumers are going to buy into “Brand Germany” once again.

Following an animated discussion paralleled with a lively Twitter debate, the floor was then opened up for the attending German producers to showcase their wines to the trade - with over 120 wines from 21 producers including esteemed wineries such as Donnhoff, Schloss Schonborn and Dr Thanisch, it was quite a treat for the audience! Attended by over one hundred members of the wine trade and press, including wine bloggers, sommeliers, buyers and journalists alike, the tasting proved to be a resounding success, with many attendees leaving with a renewed passion for German wines whilst pondering the future of German wines in the UK market. Check out our videos from the day including comments from Charles Metcalfe, Andrea Ruggieri and David Brown on our Wines of Germany You Tube channel and let us know your thoughts!

Posted by Sara Evans and Lucy Richardson

Phipps at the Good Housekeeping Food Awards

This week we were guests at the annual Good Housekeeping Food Awards held at the beautiful location of Lancaster House in St James’. We walked the red carpet and emerged into stunning gardens which felt miles away from the hustle and bustle of central London. Even the flower arrangements were food-themed and adorned with apples and aubergines.

 

We were treated to prosecco and delicious mini canapés from By Word of Mouth Catering including fillet steak with mango dressing and delicate halloumi tarts. We rubbed shoulders with foodies such as Gizzi Erskine, John Torode and Prue Leith before heading inside for the awards which were short and sweet. Voted for by readers and GHK experts, winners included Sacla, Phipps favourite Green & Black's and The Thoughtful Bread Company. 

Posted by Lynne Shirley

Green & Black’s CDP preparations!

Sleeping mats have been bought, walking boots are being worn in and Spanish is being practised, as in just over two weeks Phipps’ Lucie will be joining ten intrepid explorers from the UK and the US on Green & Black’s first ever Community Development Programme (CDP) expedition to the Dominican Republic.  The CDP has been set up by Green & Black’s to help the local cocoa farmers establish sustainable livelihoods and communities through agricultural and social programmes, and what lies ahead for the project team is two weeks living and working with the local Dominican Republic community to help build a gravity fed water system to provide three villages with running water in what promises to be a truly unforgettable experience.

After receiving hundreds of applications we’ve got a great team made up of five UK and five US participants who all caught our attention with their understanding of sustainability and Fairtrade and by generally being adventurous, energetic and all round fantastic!

Lucie will be keeping her Twitter updated with all the Dominican Republic happenings, so make sure you keep an eye out – www.twitter.com/loociep

Phipps clients win at the Green Awards!

Monday night saw the Drinks Business hold its annual Green Awards, which were held this year at one of London’s coolest new bars, The Folly, in the heart of the city. With two of our clients up for awards –Cono Sur for ‘Best Green Company’ and Sainsbury’s for ‘Best Green Retailer’ – we made our way through rush hour traffic to join the great and the green from across the trade for the much anticipated announcement of this year’s winners.

The calibre of the nominees was exceptional as ever, with strong competition for Cono Sur coming from British brewery Adnams, following their ‘road to sustainability’ campaign and renewable gas achievements in 2010. Impressive as Adnams were, the judges could not ignore the huge environmental achievements of Cono Sur in 2010 and they were announced as the winner, much to our delight (not to mention that of Cono Sur’s brand manager, Nicola Hale!)

There were more whoops still to come from the Phipps team when five minutes later, Sainsbury’s was awarded the Green Retailer of the Year award!  This was a much deserved win and the Sainsbury’s team in attendance were thrilled to have been recognised by the trade for the great lengths they have gone to over the past year to address green issues. 

So with the night proving to be a great start to the awards season for Phipps’ clients, we’re keeping our (green) fingers crossed for more awards later in the year!

Posted by Lucy Richardson

Phipps MD in PR Week vodcast

This week Phipps MD Nicky Forrest joined Rob Metcalfe MD of Richmond Towers to discuss the latest public attitudes to celebrity chefs in the latest PR week video.  Check it out here, and let us know whether you agree that although Jamie is streets ahead when it comes to image – actually it’s Gordon who is the genius.