Hastings poised to launch natural wine festival

By James Lawrence

Published: 10 August, 2022

An eight day celebration of minimum-intervention winemaking is due to take place in Hastings this September, organised by restaurant owners Ben and Kate Norum.

Running from 16 to 23 September, the first edition of Hastings Natural Wine Week will pull together a series of events, tastings and supper clubs in both Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea.

According to the organisers, “Each of the dozen local restaurants, bars, pubs and wine shops participating have drawn a wine-producing country out of hat, and will serve an exciting selection of natural wines from that country by-the-glass all week.”

In addition, wristbands will be available from participating venues - wearers will get access to all events and a 20% discount on wines sold by-the-glass.

“To mark the start of the celebrations, a natural wine fair will take over HEIST indoor street food market in St Leonards-on-Sea on Saturday 17 September, where a host of wine importers and producers will offer natural wines to taste and to buy,” said co-organiser Kate Norum.

“Tastings, talks and supper clubs will be organised by each venue, all based around the countries drawn, which include big-hitters such as France, Italy and Spain as well as more specialist wine destinations such as Georgia and the Czech Republic,” she added.

Other venues taking part include Collected Fictions, The Cove, Marina Fountain, Bottle of Hastings and Tillingham Winery.

In a recent interview with Harpers, Doug Wregg, owner of Les Caves de Pyrène, observed that his customers had shown a heightened interest in esoteric wine styles post-lockdown.

“When the first lockdown finished, we maintained a higher average spend and noticed that the sales mix has changed considerably. Trade customers and consumers in general, had evidently gravitated towards more artisan wines such as organic, biodynamic, skin-contact, low intervention,” said Wregg.

A full schedule of events and listings of venues taking part will be announced soon via the @hastingsnaturalwineweek Instagram feed and hastingsnaturalwineweek.com.

Top image shows the logo for the inaugural Hastings Natural Wine Week.

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