In what was the first of the ‘Hannibal Presents…’ series, we struck up a wonderful collaboration with local charity, Wandsworth Oasis last month and together, put on an evening of wine tasting, food and musical entertainment, raising £1,500 for the charity. The top prize in the raffle was a magnum of personalised wine – this had been specially designed for this event!
Among the 100 attendees from across south west London and Surrey, we popped bottles for local business owners, residents and general wine fanatics, making for a relaxed networking opportunity as well as a great social event.
Those in the ‘know’ will have heard of the Oasis – a highly respected local charity, doing great work and supporting folk living their day to day lives with HIV. Their charity shops need to be visited to be believed – we chose their flagship ‘superstore’ in Tooting as the somewhat unusual venue for our latest event. Believe me, if you haven’t visited it, you must – it’s the biggest and best charity shop I have ever visited, packed to the rafters with all sorts of temptations at ludicrously great value. One of our guests walked away with 3m x 3m framed image of the New York skyline for a mere £20!
We chose 25 of our more unusual wines to fit the theme of ‘Old Curiosity’. The evening’s top choice was a relatively new wine to our portfolio. Parpinello’s delicious Vermentino from Sardinia was closely followed by Chateau Ksara ‘Prieure’ – which is a classic red that comes from this ancient Lebanese winery. Our guests embraced the ‘unusual’ theme and we were delighted! It seems that, by all accounts, a great evening was had by all. Our good friend Mark Ferguson also joined us – representing the award-winning Exton Wine Estate.
Oh, Wandsworth’s very own Mayor was also in attendance! We were thrilled to have her there and the coverage we received in the local Guardian was the cherry on top of a fabulous cake!