Last year, I organised a one-off, never-to-be-repeated charity wine-trade gig called Skin Côntact LIVE! about which Jancis wrote here.
This year, contrary to my original expectations, we're doing it again.
It is very much a UK wine-trade affair, but I hope you'll allow me to hijack these pages briefly to announce the 2016 edition of this event, called Skin Côntact LIVE AGAIN!
Once more, we are staging a gig to raise money for Wine Relief, the wine-related fundraising initiative for Comic Relief, one of the UK's best-loved charities. Last year we raised almost £11,000 and we aim to match this sum in 2016.
This year, the format is similar but with two big differences. Firstly, we are using a proper rock n roll venue – the O2 Academy in Islington. As before, we will have a wine tasting before the gig, made possible by our event partner Côtes du Rhône, without whom this event would not be possible. Then, the original Skin Côntact line up will take to the stage to perform a set of guaranteed crowd-pleasing floor fillers.
The band will be fronted by an all-new series of VIP wine-trade lead singers – and this year there is the opportunity to join us on stage! We are on a mission to find the best singers in the wine business, so would encourage any budding singers who work with wine to enter the Sing with Skin Côntact competition.
Tickets go on sale in mid February, and the gig itself is scheduled for Thursday 12 May. I sincerely hope everyone in the wine business will come along to what will be the wine-trade party of the year. AGAIN!
See skincontactlive.com for more information.