Cullen Wines feature at RAW Fair, London
The RAW Fair was held in London over the 17th and 18th of May. It is a two day extravaganza of natural wines from around the world, made with minimal intervention and minimal additives and
was the perfect platform to showcase Cullen Wines. The audience of around 4200 was a mixture of consumers and trade professionals and this amazing turnout was an increase of over 1200 visitors on last year’s event, which demonstrates the increasing popularity of natural wines.
Cullen was well represented by Emma Cullen of Liberty Wines – Vanya Cullen’s niece and brand ambassador for Cullen Wines in the UK. With her was Matt Dermody, Vineyard Manager from the Cullen
Estate in Margaret River. ‘It was the first time I have exhibited 2014 Amber in the UK and it was extremely well received,’ says Emma. ‘People loved its texture, the spice and its fragrance. The other favourite wine on our table was the 2012 Diana Madeline – a real hit for its elegance, fruit power and liveliness. It is continuing to get rave reviews over here – as per the Matthew Jukes top 100!.’
As well as meeting many of the visitors over the two days, Emma and Matt also had an opportunity to spend time with Cullen’s Canadian importers Lifford Wines. Andrew Rastapkevicius and daughter of Lifford Wines Founder, Nicole Campbell were both very excited to be there and tasted all of the Cullen Wines on offer. They were particularly interested in when Amber would be shipped to Canada. Amber generated a lot of interest amongst other visitors to the RAW Fair too. As a result, Emma will be training staff at China Tang, The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane and Alain Ducasse, and hosted a tasting at Vinoteca. Sager & Wilde, Hay Vintners and Loki Wines also expressed interest in listing Amber when it arrives.
Overall, it was an excellent event for Cullen to be involved in. ‘Techinically I think our wines were some of the best in the room’ Emma says. ‘We reached a large interested audience and also got some great exposure, interest, tweets and Facebook comments’.