Dates for your Diary: Producer Visits and Tastings

We've got a busy few months coming up, with lots of producers due to visit us, plus an exciting new series of monthly tastings from now until the summer months take hold.

*NEW* Bancroft Spring Snapshot Tasting

When: Wednesday 19th April, 10am - 4:30pm

Where: Roosevelt Room, Brown's Hotel, 33 Albermarle Street, London W1S 4BP

Theme: ICYMI - bitesized portfolio tasting

We would like to invite you to the first in a series of brand new 'snapshot' tastings, which we will be holding once a month, starting in April - same time, same place, same set-up, different theme. Simple!

Click here to view the Invitation, and to register

This series of tastings will have a different theme each month, and will include some guest appearances from our wonderful winemakers! Each month we will send out a new invitation, detailing the upcoming date and theme - all of the other details will stay the same. Our aim is to bring you a fresh, carefully curated snapshot of our portfolio, perfect for speed-tasting in your break or for mulling over in more detail. 

Stay tuned for more... 

Producer Visits

April

Tuesday 25th - Thursday 27th - Arnaud Bergasse from Viranel (St Chinian) will be in London for one day, and then will be touring the South West for two days! 

May

Tuesday 2nd - Friday 5th - Chateau Montelena (Napa). Bo Barrett (GM/Master WInemaker) and Brian Baker (VP Sales & Marketing) will be in London for a few jam-packed days of events celebrating all things California, Napa and, well, Chateau Montelena! Enquire here for event information.

Tuesday 16th - Thursday 18th - Herència Altés (Terra Alta) Official UK Launch. We are delighted to announce the dates for this launch of our incredibly exciting new Spanish agency, from the beautiful Terra Alta in Catalunya. The core team from the winery will be in London for a series of events, including a focused trade tasting and press launch. Watch this space and your inboxes for more details!

June

w/c 12th - The South Africans are in town! Kevin and Hanli Grant of Ataraxia (Hemel-en-Aarde) and Carl Schultz of Hartenberg Wine Estate (Stellenbosch) are gracing us with a tandem visit. Throughout this week, we will be hosting a number of lunches, dinners and tastings to showcase the diversity of the Western Cape and probably to eat lots of biltong too.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of our upcoming events. Please keep an eye on our events calendar, your inbox (if you are not yet subscribed, email us to do so). Pop us an email to express your interest in getting involved with any of the above events, or to receive more details of our plans.

MEAT the winemakers: South Africans and Sausages

Pieter du Toit (Cederberg) and Kevin Grant (Ataraxia) with butcher extraordinare at MEAT N16

After a day of showing off our wines at this year's annual WOSA wozani tasting, we decided to take our three South African wineries and a group of customers off-piste for something a little more experiential.

Schild Estate launches their Limited Release Shiraz Prämie 2013 at the LWF 2015

The London Wine Fair 2015 played host to plenty of launches and releases, but the grand UK unveiling of Schild Estates Limited Release Shiraz, the new Prämie 2013, elbowed all the competition out of the way. Our ears were burning when the LWF name dropped Schild as one to watch this year, inviting trade professionals to experience ‘lightning caught in a bottle’.

Bancroft Wines Annual Portfolio Tasting 2014

The evening welcoming committee

On Tuesday 4th February 2014 'Team Bancroft' hosted their Annual Portfolio Tasting in the company of 30 of our list of producers.

We welcomed over 300 guests through the door including notable members of the press and the New Zealand High Commissioner Lockwood Smith. We also hosted a further 100 private clients during the evening. En Primeur growers were also in attendance creating a buzz with their limited quantity samples in the En Primeur room. 

Lucky Tuesday Tasting at Ametsa with Arzak Instruction & Bodegas Remirez de Ganuza

We were very fortunate to have Luis over from Bodegas Remirez de Ganuza, to talk us through all their wines, including a few bottles and magnums of older vintages sent from their cellar - hence the lucky epithet. Without talking about every wine we tasted, I would like to focus on the mini-vertical of their Reserva wine, which is the lynch-pin of their range. Their wines are aged for longer than the statutory period at each level, so their Reserva could be labelled as a Gran Reserva (one for the purists, out there!). 

We are shortlisted as a finalist in the first ever Harpers’ French Wine Awards!

Bancroft Wines was recently shortlisted as a finalist in the first ever Harpers’ French Wine Awards in the Best Distributor/Supplier for French Wine category.

Eclectic new wines at our Cambridge College Autumn Tasting, by Sean Burbridge

So, it was that time of year again, the new year for university students coincides with the Bancroft Autumn wine tasting event at Gonville and Cauis College, right in the heart of Cambridge city centre. Even though it was the last week in September, we were blessed with the sun shining down like it was a glorious mid-summer’s day. 

The Bancroft "Fine Wine" reunion, by Sean Burbridge

Over the summer a few of our much loved colleagues left for pastures new, so it was decided that we should all have a good catch up over some fine wines. Lunch was to be organised at one of Bancroft’s favourite haunts – The Kitchen on Tower Bridge Road. The idea was for each person to bring along a bottle “to impress”.....so the ex-staff members were invited, the table was booked and the food pre-ordered to avoid disappointment. 

Sean carrying all the wines!

Donna Marzia Negramaro Rosso 2011 wins a Gold Medal at the ‘Sélections Mondiales des vins Canada’

We are delighted to announce that one of our wines, the Donna Marzia Negramaro Rosso 2011, has been awarded a Gold Medal at the ‘Sélections Mondiales des vins Canada’.

A succesful London Wine Fair!

We are now back in the office after a VERY busy three days at Excel for the LIWF. We had a great fair with a great turnout and everyone was in good spirits, both staff and producers. 

CUMPC update - Varsity Match

We always love hearing from the team at the CUMPC who Bancroft Wines are proud to sponsor. This year seems to have been very busy for them and Laura from St John's college has given us a fantastic update: 

LAN dinner at Boundary, by Rob Allen

A most auspicious start to any wine dinner in London has to be to get mildly sunburnt on the roof of the venue. In the case of the LAN Wine Dinner evening at the Boundary, that made-up-rule proved to be correct. Even Trinidad (Villegas, export manager), fresh from California, joined in the fun. 

London's Spring 2013 SITT Tasting, by Naomi Bedford

On Wednesday 27th Feb, Bancroft Wines joined a whole host of exhibitors to showcase some of our fabulous wines at London's Spring 2013 SITT tasting. I heard lots of appreciative murmurs about our venue, The Lindley Hall, which is one of the beautiful Royal Horticultural Halls in Victoria; a beautiful backdrop for a tasting.

Bancroft Wines Portfolio Tasting - 5th February

Our tasting on Tuesday was a huge success and with 38 growers, it was our biggest and most comprehensive to date.

 

Christmas Tasting 2012

We had a great night last night at our Christmas Tasting. We were joined by over 100 clients and all 70 wines were showing extremely well. We were also really pleased to welcome Francois Villard (Condrieu), Mark Bingley (Louis Roederer) and Shane Fazackerley (Bodegas Altanza, Rioja). A huge success!

Autumn Cambridge College Tasting, by Sean Burbridge

All started well on Tuesday morning as Mike turned up at my house on time, ready to head to Cambridge for our biannual Cambridge College wine tasting event.

New Croatian wines from Matošević at SITT Autumn and our September Trade Tasting

Bancroft is now the exclusive UK agent for Ivica Matošević, a very highly regarded winemaker in the Istrian region of Croatia. 

Olympic Torch passes through Borough

The Olympic torch passed nearby the Bancroft Office this morning and some of the Bancroft team went to offer some support. The pavements were packed with people and there was lots of excitement and cheering. Only one day to go!

A dinner with Marjan Simcic at Tinello, by Claire Scott-Gall

Marjan Simcic has a great personality and we at Bancroft are very fond of him. When he agreed to come over to the UK to spend some time with our clients, we were thrilled We held a private dinner this week at Tinello restaurant in Pimlico. Guests included a mix of private clients and trade and we were also joined by the Slovenian Ambassador, Iztok Jarc, and his wife Helena.

The beautiful private room at Tinello

Winemaker's dinner at Pizarro restaurant with Isaac Fernández Montaña, By Alex Robertson

The winemaker of two of our most popular wines from Ribera Del Duero joined us last week for a very special master class dinner for 16 lucky guests at highly acclaimed Pizarro restaurant.  The dinner was simply sublime with a selection of tapas, roast lamb and then a selection of cheeses to finish off.  It was the perfect venue to taste the wines of Bodegas Neo, a firm favourite of Robert Parker who often rates the Punta Essencia with 96 points or more and the wines of Bodegas Arrocal, one of the best value wines from our range.