The Gin Festival has been going for some time now (as have we!) and an event that brings 100 different gins together in one place can only be a good thing.
Well, we now have the Prosecco Festival to build on the clear success of the Gin Festival. First thoughts were – will it be as good? How many Proseccos are there? How will it work?
This weekend 18-19th August 2017 saw the first Prosecco Festival held in UK in Swansea, with more planned throughout the year in other regions from Guildford to Liverpool. Not sure why Swansea was chosen as the first venue, but it was sold out so this was clearly a good choice.
It is the same format as for the gin Festival – order tickets online, well in advance as they sell out quickly, buy tokens at the door for how many drinks you want to buy then swap these for each drink at one of the bars. Swansea Brangwyn Hall is a beautiful venue with a stage, long tables and chairs down the centre, 4 main bars to choose from plus your very own Prosecco glass to keep topping up.
Clearly there were not going to be 100 to choose from, but each bar has 4-6 Proseccos to buy by the glass, plus some extras, plus some more exclusive expensive options to buy by the bottle. A great addition was a table with a choice of flavoured shots to “Pimp up your Prosecco” – the mango flavor was definitely a favourite! A token costs £5, or £4 each if you buy 6, and one token buys one glass of your choice.
Was it successful? Yes, a lively atmosphere with a band and singers on-stage, plenty of seating and Italian street food stalls if you want to buy snacks. The choice of Proseccos is limited, of course, and by the 3rd or 4th they taste either ‘dry’ or ‘not dry’ although the shots definitely helped. Unfortunately, we didn’t realise until after the event, when we actually read the ‘Little Book of Fizz’ we were given, that cocktails were also available at all the bars. We didn’t find any Masterclasses like at the Gin Festival, so it would have been nice to know a bit more about Prosecco and how/why it has become so popular.
Warning: unlike the gin which is watered down by tonic and ice, this was (generally) at least four full measures in a fairly short session – and even cheaper if you had bought 6 tokens. The taxi driver said he had picked up several fares as they staggered from the afternoon session! Not us, naturally. We probably wouldn’t go again, but it was a great evening (or afternoon if you prefer) out with friends.
“A Fizzie: a person of wonderful repute, unrivalled class and distinguished taste; a lover of fizz”
“Risk assessment: A cork can reach up to 25 miles per hour as it leaves the bottle”
“Unlike Champagne, Prosecco doesn’t improve with age” so you have to drink it sooner rather than later. But it does have fewer calories than other wines.
