The Crystal Palace Suite
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Last night was that great annual event - getting the dinner jacket out of the cupboard. With bow ties tied, George, Henry and I headed off to the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane for the International Wine Challenge's 2010 awards dinner. Before the dinner itself in the ballroom, the Merchant Awards were presented in the Crystal Palace Suite overlooking Hyde Park. With a name like Crystal Palace, it just had to be a lucky night!
The Ballroom of the Hilton, Park Lane
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Sure enough, we were thrilled when the winner of The En Primeur Wine Merchant of the Year 2010 was announced as......Farr Vintners. This is the fourth year in the last five that we have won this prestigious award and we are particularly pleased to have won it as a direct result of our record-breaking 2009 Bordeaux En Primeur campaign. One of the judges said to me afterwards that they had been particularly impressed not just by the sheer volume of sales, but by the depth of information and expertise on our web site and our scrupulously fair allocation system.
En Primeur Wine Merchant of the Year 2010
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After the awards were presented, the winners were paraded in front of the packed Hilton ballroom where nearly 1000 members of the British wine trade were assembled in their finery. As good as the award winning wines were, we toasted our victory with a sensational magnum of Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir 2001. Maybe one day in the future, if we are fortunate enough to win the award in, say, 2020, we'll be celebrating with a magnum of Cos d'Estournel 2009!
