Wednesday 2 October 2013

The Great Sherry Festival

It is great to see some active promotion of Sherry taking place, and of course the Great Sherry Tasting on the 21st. Heaven knows, it is much needed. What gets me though, is that as usual in Britain, everything is centred on London. Any remotely interesting tasting - and there are plenty of them - takes place in London.

Perhaps promoters don't understand how long it takes to get there, or how much it costs, so here's my experience of the Great Sherry Tasting last year, going from Edinburgh:

Rise at 4.00 am and catch a plane to Gatwick at 6.00 am. Catch Gatwick Express in to Victoria, and change underground trains twice to get to Tottenham Court Road for about 9.30 am. Attend the tasting for two or three hours, have some lunch, and then head back to the underground, hopefully before the horrific rush-hour crush, then change trains to Victoria, Gatwick Express etc. I got home at about 8.30 pm. And I had spent well over £120.00. It is a horrific journey, and only a Sherry nut like me would have contemplated making the effort.

Perhaps promoters might give the rest of the country some consideration, and  hold tastings somewhere else occasionally, or even more than one. Sherry is so in need of promotion, that more than one would be of huge benefit. Yes, people anywhere in the UK can participate, but not many though - there are only 50 POS kits available! I fully understand the budget restrictions, but most of the hard work and costs will be wasted if Sherry is only promoted in London. We are not heathens  north of the M25 - and we vastly outnumber Londoners.

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