OenoTrade Hosts London’s Highest Wine Tasting

OenoTrade hosted London’s highest wine tasting at Landing 42 of the Leadenhall Building on February 26th 2020 with attendance from many of the capital’s top sommeliers, wine buyers and journalists. 

The stunning setting 225 metres (737 feet) above the City was the perfect showcase for OenoTrade’s inaugural Portfolio Tasting with a total of 28 wineries from our portfolio on show. Top winemakers in attendance included Loic Pasquet from Liber Pater, Trevor Durling from Beaulieu Vineyard, Bertrand Sourdais from Dominio de Es and Domaine de Pallus, Jean-Luc Burguet from Domaine Alain Burguet, and Michael Ragg from Mischief & Mayhem. 

During the day Loic Pasquet (below far right) hosted a hugely popular masterclass featuring his magnificent 2015 Liber Pater 2015 which was the world’s most expensive wine when released last year at €30,000 per bottle. Loic also showed two samples from the 2018 vintage plus his finalised blend which will be released in 2021.

Later in the afternoon guests were treated to another industry-leading tasting entitled “World’s Greatest Wines” which featured Latour 1982, Soldera 2011, and Screaming Eagle 2016. The wines were selected by Olivier Gasselin (Oeno Director of Trade), Daniel Carnio (Oeno Director & Co-Founder), and Justin Knock MW (Oeno’s Chief Wine Analyst) respectively as their interpretation of the best wine currently available on the market.

Other masterclasses during the day were hosted by Shirley Tan representing Silver Heights winery in China and the winemaker and owner of Chateau Belle-Vue in Lebanon, Naji Boutros. Silver Heights is Ningxia’s top boutique winery who has recently been introduced to the UK market by OenoTrade on an exclusive basis. Top wines include The Summit, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and Emma’s Reserve, a powerful 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.

Naji Boutros (below) spoke about his journey from working in the U.S. and London as an investment banker to founding Chateau Belle-Vue in his family’s ancestral village which he had been forced to flee during the Lebanese Civil War. Today Naji and his wife Jill run a highly successful winery producing exceptional fine wines crafted from French varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot which thrive in the Mediterranean climate.

Chateau Belle-vue’s iconic wine is the Le Chateau which is typically composed predominantly of Cabernet Franc and Syrah along with smaller proportions of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon depending on the vintage. Just 2500-3500 bottles of this outstanding wine are produced each year, along with up to 15,000 bottles of Belle-vue’s second wine, La Renaissance. At the OenoTrade portfolio tasting Boutros also showed for the first time in the U.K. his white wine, Petit Geste, which is made from Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.

Other highlights of the tasting included Bodega Contador’s magnificent limited edition collection of four unique single vineyard wines, Bibi Graetz’s Testamatta 2016 and Colore 2016, Fattorie dei Dolfi’s Imeneus 2016, Chambertin Clos de Bèze Grand Cru 2017 from Domaine Alain Burguet, Lokoya Howell Mountain 2009 and Vérité La Muse 2013.

For more information about OenoTrade or any of the wines on show, please contact us at info@oenotrade.com. 

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