Report on the Lea & Sandeman Autumn Tasting at the Vintners’ Hall

by Charles Lea

The Lea & Sandeman Autumn tasting was great fun for us all, attended during the day by many journalists and trade buyers, and in the evening by nearly 200 paying customers, many of who took advantage of the evening’s offer to refund their ticket in full against the value of orders taken on the night.

Four producers took the opportunity to present their products themselves, and Mario Zanusso of I Clivi in Friuli, Giuliana Cavazza of Castello del Terriccio in the Tuscan Maremma, Andrea Sottimano of Sottimano in Barbaresco and Pierre Dubarry of Cognac Moyet reported excellent reactions and a very enjoyable day of feedback and intelligent chat about the wines and Cognacs they were showing.

In total there were over 130 wines available to taste, a huge range but still only a tiny minority of L&S’s current offering, selected for this tasting largely on the basis that they had not been shown is tastings earlier in the year. You can see the full list here, but don’t blame us if you then feel like kicking yourself for not having attended.

The next major consumer tasting that L&S will take part it is the Wine Gang Christmas show, (not actually at Christmas, but on Saturday the 29th October at Vinopolis).