The Fladgate Port Harvest press trip took place this year from 16-18 September and saw journalists, Tom Cannavan, David Kermode and Phoebe French join us for a visit to Porto and the Douro Valley.

Andrew Hawes, Justin Liddle and Alan Montague-Dennis from Mentzendorff joined Brunello di Montalcino producer Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona and 3,000 other riders for the Eroica Montalcino at the end of May this year.

At the very end of January this year we travelled to South Africa to escape the drudgery of another English winter for some much sought for sun!

Paxton & Whitfield and Taylor’s Port recently held an event at Paxton’s headquarters to offer some guidance on those all-important Port and cheese purchases for the festive season.

That idea of “ beauty of fatigue and thrill of conquest ….” Giancarlo Brocci

On October 7th 2018 , Andrew Hawes , Justin Liddle and Alan Montague-Dennis travelled to Pisa with their vintage steel bicycles  to join our Italian agency Principals , Ciacci Piccolomoni D’Aragona to form “Team Ciacci” and participate in L’Eroica di Gaiole.

Last weekend from Friday 15th June thousands of lovers of vintage cycling, Great British life, fashion and wine flocked to Friden Grange in the Peak District for the fifth annual Eroica Britannia.

On a recent visit to Riga Mentzendorff’s Ruta Barulyte visited the home of Mentzendorff Kummel…

In mid-September Justin Liddle, Andrew Hawes, James Dodsworth & James McKenna travelled to Alsace for a meeting with Chapoutier at Schieferkopf where Michel Chapoutier and four friends, all, like him, passionate about great grape varieties and great terroirs, decided to turn their dream of “making a fine Riesling in Alsace together” into reality.

As a huge fan of Sherry and with a keen interest in horse racing, I was very excited to have been invited to The Famous Carreras de Caballos ‘Horse Racing’ as a guest of Bodegas Hidalgo La-Gitana.

The Carreras de Caballos is held on the beaches of Sanlucar de Barrameda, but how exactly the races started is unclear. One story is that fish buyers raced the horses along the beach as they waited for trawlers to bring in their haul to the port. What is known is that a horse racing society was established in Sanlucar in 1845, creating a tradition that would become a part of the city’s cultural fabric.

Earlier this year, the Sales & Marketing Teams plus the Management Team gathered at Heathrow airport for their early evening flight to Marseille for their annual Sales & Marketing conference at Chateau des Ferrages, newly acquired by M Chapoutier in January 2016.