AP Television

London - 27 May 2016

1. Close of wine glasses

2. Bartender pouring sparkling wine

3. Tilt down on central courtyard at Devonshire Square, the hub for London Wine Week

4. Group of friends enjoying English sparkling wine

5. Men playing table tennis

6. Sign reading (English) "London Wine Week"

7. Set up shot of Emma Murphy, director of London Wine Week

8. SOUNDBITE (English) Emma Murphy, director of London Wine Week

"What's unique about it? It's the largest self-guided wine tasting that there is across London. It's kind of the only event of its kind that we have over here. So we work with 125 bars, restaurants, independent merchants who all get involved whether that's with offers, special menus or ticketed events across the week."

9. Two women with wine flight selection

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Emma Murphy, director of London Wine Week

(Responding to the question Do you think a Brexit will affect the wine industry negatively?)

"I wouldn't have said so, because I mean, I think, you know, wine trade has been going for long enough, even long before the euro, so I wouldn't have thought that would make much difference to be honest with you. Hopefully not anyway."

11. Sign reading (English) "Pop into our pop up wine bars"

12. Various of Portuguese wine pop up

13. Mid of graduate trainees in insurance Oscar Stenpom and Anna Rogers

14. Flight of Portuguese wines

15. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Stenbom and Anna Rogers, Insurance Graduate Trainees:

(Responding to question Do you think a Brexit will mean it will be more difficult for people to access quality wine?)

Stenbom: "Yes,"

Rogers: "I guess so, I mean if it's more expensive for them to send the wine here, if there's more tariffs, then yeah I guess it would be."

Stenbom: "It would also be more difficult to know what you're drinking, because there won't be as many restrictions on labelling the wine based on where it's actually from and the grape it's actually come from."

16. Pull focus of Spanish wine labels

17. Vintage bottles of fortified wine

18. Side view of Spanish wine bottles

19. Set up shot of Bettina Lemm with wines from Ribera del Duero in northern Spain

20. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lemm, Westbury Communications (which represents the Ribera del Duero region in the UK):

"I think they (wines of Ribera del Duero) are still an emerging market, especially in the UK. The UK is an important market for Ribera del Duero, it's the seventh-largest export market for Ribera del Duero, but I think that we're still establishing ourselves. A lot of people know some big names from the region, and we're just trying to bring attention to some other grape producers who might not yet have the same recognition."

21. Close of wine labels

22. SOUNDBITE (English) Bettina Lemm, Westbury Communications (who represent the Ribera del Duero region in the UK):

(Responding to the question are you worried about the possibility of a Brexit affecting your export market?)

"I think at the moment we're pretty confident, as we've seen year to year that exports have grown. I think that's going to continue and I don't think it's a worry that we have at the moment."

23. Pan from mediaeval knight sculpture to pop up courtyard

24. Mid of Provence wines pop up

25. Establisher shot of Tom Harrow, wine director of Honest Grapes Wine Club

26. Close of Harrow eyeing the wine

27. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Harrow, wine director of Honest Grapes:

"There's been a real rise in wine clubs in London and the UK generally of late, and I think this is because people want to engage more with what's in the bottle. It's not just liquid, they want to know the stories behind it, they want to meet the people involved. And there's the sociable aspect, you know wine is fundamentally something which we do with other people."

28. Mid of woman laughing over a glass of wine

29. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Harrow, wine director of Honest Grapes:

"It's fair to say that we're a bit concerned about the possibilities of Brexit, I think the rising price of the euro against the pound will have a serious effect on quality wine. At the moment more than 60 percent of wine that comes into the UK is shipped in massive great tankers and then bottled over here and that's not something we get involved with. But that becomes the only affordable way if the pound plummets against the euro. So I think that it won't be a good thing initially for the wine consumer because the prices of these small artisan wines will go up."

30. Woman at table with wine

31. SOUNDBITE (English) Tom Harrow, wine director of Honest Grapes:

"All the English wine makers that I speak to say we are half a degree away from being a perfect climate for sparkling wines at least - and even the whites, and to an extent the reds are really coming up. So I have to say it - sorry Al Gore - global warming is a good thing for the UK sparkling wine trade."

32. Various of English rose and white sparkling wines

33. Vermouth being poured into a glass

34. Various of "Regal Rogue" Vermouth bottle

35. Tilt up of Mark Ward, founder of Regal Rogue vermouth, and his produce

36. SOUNDBITE (English) Mark Ward, founder of Regal Rogue vermouth:

"It seemed like a really obvious thing to do, marrying the herbs and spices with this abundance of Australian wine to create a New World style of vermouth. And you know the tradition of vermouth is really led by the European markets. You know, Italian, French, now Spanish - but now there are vermouths coming out of America, the UK, Germany and obviously Australia. So pretty much anywhere where you find wine now, you will find a vermouth of some sort."

37. Crowd of London Wine Week attendees at the Vermouth Bar

38. Mid of vermouth cocktails being made

39. Focus pull of sign reading (English) "Drink Up"

LENGTH: 6:02

FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4038463

LEAD IN:

UK wine industry experts are eyeing the upcoming vote on whether to leave the European Union with mixed feelings.

With producers and suppliers heavily reliant on pan-European trade, many remain unsure how Brexit will impact upon business.

STORY-LINE:

Sparkling wine on a summer's day in the English capital.

Glistening flutes and bottles in abundance, and a crowd of happy lunchtime drinkers add to the atmosphere of excitement and discovery, along with an impromptu game of ping pong.

It must be London Wine Week.

This is the third year of the festival, and this year is the most popular to date.

Festival director Emma Murphy says "It's the largest self-guided wine tasting that there is across London. It's kind of the only event of its kind that we have over here. So we work with 125 bars, restaurants, independent merchants who all get involved" .

But although these flutes of fizz are English sparkling wine, much of the wine the festival goers here are tasting is from EU member states such as France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany.

The June 23 referendum on whether to quit the European Union is fast approaching. So is this something the industry should fear?

"I wouldn't have said so," says Murphy.

"Wine trade has been going for long enough, even long before the euro, so I wouldn't have thought that would make much difference to be honest with you. Hopefully not anyway."

At the festival hub on London's Devonshire Square, there are pop-up bars featuring wines from across Europe.

These two young graduate trainees are enjoying wines from Portugal, and with their festival wristband, it costs them just five British Pounds for a flight of three.

Oscar Stenbom and Anna Rogers both agree that things may well be different if Britain leaves the union.

"If it's more expensive for them to send the wine here, if there's more tariffs, then yeah I guess it would be," says Anna, while Oscar is concerned about regulation and labelling:

"It would also be more difficult to know what you are drinking because there won't be as many restrictions on labelling the wine based on where it's actually from and the grape it's actually come from."

The New Street wine shop has been taken over by the wine festival. They sell wines from all over the world but today they are holding a tasting featuring wines from Ribera del Duero in northern Spain.

Most wine drinkers know about the region of Rioja, but Bettina Lemm is informing these festival goers about the region she represents.

"I think they (wines of Ribera del Duero) are still an emerging market, especially in the UK. The UK is an important market for Ribera del Duero, it's the seventh-largest export market for Ribera del Duero but I think that we're still establishing ourselves."

But if the UK is an important export market, is Brexit going to throw the proverbial spanner into the works? Lemm doesn't seem too worried "I think at the moment we're pretty confident as we've seen year to year that exports have grown. I think that's going to continue and I don't think it's a worry that we have at the moment," she says.

Wine used to have a rather old fashioned reputation and a comparatively elderly demographic, but this has changed enormously in recent years.

The prevalence of wine clubs popping up in the UK is an indicator of wine's increasing popularity.

Tom Harrow of Honest Grapes explains why this is "I think this is because people want to engage more with what's in the bottle. It's not just liquid, they want to know the stories behind it, they want to meet the people involved. And there's the sociable aspect, you know wine is fundamentally something which we do with other people," he says.

With 125 venues across the metropolis taking part in this festival, there's plenty of opportunity to enjoy it with friends.

But with such enthusiasm for wine spreading across the country, June 23 could bring disruption, according to Harrow "It's fair to say that we're a bit concerned about the possibilities of Brexit, I think the rising price of the euro against the pound will have a serious effect on quality wine. At the moment more than 60 percent of wine that comes into the UK is shipped in massive great tankers and bottled over here and that's not something we get involved with. But that becomes the only affordable way if the pound plummets against the euro. So I think that it won't be a good thing initially for the wine consumer because the prices of these small artisan wines will go up" .

However, the future might be bright in other, unexpected ways.

"All the English wine makers that I speak to say we are half a degree away from being a perfect climate for sparkling wines at least," says Harrow, and with apologies to climate change icon Al Gore, he adds that "global warming is a good thing for the UK sparkling wine trade."

Reports by the WSTA (Wine and Spirit Trade Association) suggest there is still some way to go as the UK comes in at number six on the list of sales of sparkling wine by origin - but it's rising year on year.

600 million bottles of wine are bottled in the UK.

This makes the UK wine market the sixth largest in the world, generating 173 billion British pounds of economic activity, according to the WSTA. 10 billion British pounds are made through sales.

Also being showcased here is one of the new kids on the alcohol block, Regal Rogue Vermouth.

According to brand founder Mark Ward, vermouth, by definition, is 75 percent wine. It must have wormwood and it must have an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 15 to 24 percent. These three things have to be in place for a producer to put vermouth on the bottle or it flouts recent EU regulations.

Ward, who was brought up in hospitality, began the project in Australia where he worked closely with top Australian chefs who introduced him to indigenous herbs and spices.

"It seemed like a really obvious thing to do, marrying the herbs and spices with this abundance of Australian wine to create a New World style of vermouth. And you know the tradition of vermouth is really led by the European markets. You know, Italian, French, now Spanish - but now there are vermouths coming out of America, the UK, Germany and obviously Australia. So pretty much anywhere where you find wine now, you will find a vermouth of some sort." he says.

Ward is attempting to educate the wine drinking market which, he believes, is mostly unaware of the fact that vermouth is fundamentally a wine.

This can only be helped by a new pop up for 2016, the Vermouth Bar.

The parent company of London Wine Week is the aptly named "Drink Up London", and they're already preparing for the 2017 event - Brexit or no Brexit.