Campaign for the right to sip

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Dawn Davies (ex Ledbury) of Selfridges Wonder Bar in London W1 (pictured) and purple pager Jamie Hutchinson of The Sampler, London N1 need your help.

You may remember that silly old UK legislation is extremely rigid when it comes to allowing wine to be served in small tasting pours. Currently wine may be served only in 125ml, 175ml or – heaven forfend – multiples thereof. (I happen to think that the 175ml measure has in some cases and places been a bad thing in terms of encouraging binge drinking – and it’s really too big a serving for white wine which can warm up too soon unless drunk dangerously quickly.) Anything below 125ml is not a legal measure, which means that serving a sip of wine, as Dawn and Jamie wish to do, is technically illegal.

Dawn writes: 'The government has now issued a consultation document which seeks to amend the current legislation by making it legal to serve anything under 75ml. This would mean that flights of wine in restaurants and concepts such as the Wonder Bar and The Sampler would be legally allowed to serve a sip of wine. If you support this view point please respond and say so to lynnette.falk@dius.gsi.gov.uk or

Lynette Falk,
National Weights and Measures Laboratory,
Dept for Innovation, Universities and Skills,
Stanton Avenue,
Teddington TW11 OJZ
UK

by the end of the year.'