Corney & Barrow has joined forces with Lady of the Grapes wine bar and restaurant in Covent Garden for a celebration of women in the wine industry.
The event, hosted by Lady of the Grapes’ owner, Carole Bryon, will be held at the wine bar on Maiden Lane on 5th March, and will feature a panel of expert guests.
Rebecca Palmer, Wine Buyer and Associate Director for Corney & Barrow, will be joined by winemakers Vivien Ujvári (Barta Winery, Hungary) and Wendy Outhwaite (Ambriel Winery, Sussex), to share their stories and journeys of working in the wine industry.
After 22 years at the bar and an elevation to QC, Wendy has significant experience as a woman in a predominantly man’s world, as does Rebecca Palmer, who joined the UK wine trade in 1996 and has worked with long-established independent wine merchants Corney & Barrow for the past 12 years. Vivien was appointed Head Winemaker of Barta in July 2016, after working her way around vineyards in Napa Valley, New Zealand, Australia and Tokaji.
The evening will include a tasting of six wines from Barta and Ambriel. Each wine will be presented by the winemaker, and paired with an amuse bouche.
Owner of Lady of the Grapes, Carole believes women are still woefully under-represented in the wine industry.
“It was when I first started in the wine industry that I realised there were not a lot of women. I want to support all women, from those who work in the vineyard to others selling wine in the shop,” says Carole, who adds: “I thought it would be good to use the global reach of International Women’s Day to champion women in the wine trade. My aim is to try and make them more visible through our wine list, because it’s not just men who make wine.”
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day taking place on Friday 8th March, to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
This event will take place at Lady of the Grapes on Tuesday 5th March between 6pm and 8:30pm. Tickets are priced at £30 per person and are available directly from Lady of the Grapes on 020 7836 4152.
The wine flights and matching small plates will also be available at Lady of the Grapes from 5th until 8th March. On International Women’s Day itself (Friday 8th March) a special food and wine pairing menu will be available. The menu will be available soon on OpenTable and www.ladyofthegrapes.com.
ABOUT LADY OF THE GRAPES
Lady of the Grapes is a wine bar, restaurant and shop in the heart of London’s Covent Garden. Owned and run by Carole Bryon, Lady of the Grapes shines a light on female winemakers.
Carole’s aim is to ensure each and every customer has a delightful epicurean experience while supporting female winemakers. Lady of the Grapes can accommodate 30 guests and the carefully-curated list features 100 different wines, including 15 available by the glass.
Focusing on organic, biodynamic and natural wines more than half the list features wines made by female winemakers.
Carole believes the complex and fascinating flavours of wine are impossible to achieve via conventional wine-making methods. Organic, biodynamic, minimal intervention viticulture ensures the consumer only tastes the grapes and terroir. All the wines on the list contain no additives, low sulfites and indigenous yeasts only. www.ladyofthegrapes.com
ABOUT BARTA WINERY
Barta Winery is located in the famous and acclaimed village of Mad, in the heart of the Tokaji region. The vineyards are planted on the volcanic soils and high altitude sites of Mad, whose historic vineyard classification dates back to the 1700s. The outlook at Barta is one of custodianship – they see themselves as part of recently re-established traditions, striving to “preserve as best as possible both the appearance and soils of this exceptional land for future generations”.
Winemaker Vivien Ujvári joined Barta Cellar in July 2016, after working her way around vineyards in Napa Valley, New Zealand, Australia and Tokaji. Her team’s winemaking philosophy is one of minimal intervention, aiming for purity and character in their wines, achieved through organic farming. Spanning dry styles as well as Szamorodni and Aszu, Barta’s wines are a celebration of the distinctive Furmint variety, reflecting the unique qualities of their exceptional terroir. https://bartapince.com
ABOUT AMBRIEL
Ambriel was founded in 2006 by couple Wendy and Charles Outhwaite, self-professed wine lovers with the dream of producing their own sparkling wine. Alongside careers in law and finance, they embarked on a search for their ‘perfect’ vineyard. It took them 5 years to find it, a sunny, south-facing site overlooking the sweeping South Downs in Nutbourne, a small village in West Sussex.
Its rare, green sand soil is prized by English viticulturists for its heat-retaining, light-reflective and free-draining qualities, well-suited to the vagaries of the English climate. The Outhwaites planted the classic champagne varieties chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, using high quality Burgundian clones.
This is a small-scale, hands-on operation with meticulous attention to detail. The land is run sustainably with an emphasis on biodiversity. England’s expressive orchard fruit style and naturally high acidities are embraced, looking to prolonged ageing on the lees and cork for the wines to meld and develop fully in flavour. https://ambrielsparkling.com
