31 Days of German Riesling 2023 winner announced

By James Bayley

Published: 30 August, 2023

For the 12th consecutive year, Wines of Germany UK ran its 31 Days of Riesling campaign, incentivising sites across the country to fly the flag for Germany’s flagship grape.

Over 125 independent merchants, wine bars and restaurants took part this year, with promotion campaigns ranging from free in-store tastings, ‘meet the winemaker’ features and YouTube videos.

In a new feature, participants were offered a £75 grant to host a launch party in the first week of July, to make customers aware of the campaign and the 31 Days Riesling takeover.

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This year’s winner for best campaign went to Hove-based restaurant Fourth and Church, which impressed with its vast range of German Rieslings – 38 in total including 20 new listings.

A second-time winner, it also had daily specials to recommend to its customers and hosted two events for wine and food pairings. This helped increase its German Riesling sales by almost 400% in July compared to the previous month.

Fourth and Church director, Paul Morgan, said: “31 Days of German Riesling means we really get to focus on the exciting German Rieslings available to us. It’s a real opportunity to list a diverse range of styles of Riesling and to introduce our enthusiastic customers to the category, who really appreciate the experience.

“To win once again, is testament to our dedicated team’s enthusiasm and hard work and a loyal customer base who are always up for trying something of quality and in some cases a little leftfield or niche.”

This year’s runner-up was independent merchants Reserve Wines. Reserve upped sales across its shops and hybrid locations by having samples available for customers to try, leading to 186 bottles of German Riesling sold in July alone.

The business also installed a 31 Days homepage banner on its website, uploaded two blog posts and delivered emails and social stories with 31 facts about Riesling.

Nicky Forrest, MD of Wines of Germany UK added: “31 Days of German Riesling has built such a great reputation over the years that operators now look forward to its return every July. We’re definitely seeing a Riesling renaissance in the UK at the moment and this is in no small part thanks to the support of the independent merchants, wine bars and restaurants who get stuck into 31 Days of German Riesling and how it increases Riesling sales year on year.”

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