A wine truck is set to hit the streets of Manchester next month, and it’s featuring top tier French wines from the Loire Valley.
As part of its ‘Bucket List’ tour, Loire Valley Wines is sending out its wine truck to give people the chance to “discover the region’s finest grape produce varieties alongside the beauties of the main UK’s cities”.
And Manchester is one of the cities on the visiting schedule.
Designed to offer a taste of France’s renowned Loire vineyards, the wine truck will run as part of a wider campaign in which bespoke wine tasting menus, offers, and giveaways will be available to make the most of at bars and restaurants across the UK.
The Little Loire Wine Truck will be at the Manchester Food & Drink Festival (MFDF) on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 September from 11.30am – 7pm, with an expert sommelier on hand to take passers-by through free walk-in tastings, with bottles ranging from whites to rosés spanning Muscadet to Touraine.
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Budding wine connoisseurs can also enter a competition to have the wine truck stop off at their own home too.
As well as the wine truck popping up for the weekend at the city’s annual flagship food and drink festival, the Manchester Bucket List also features a handful of carefully-selected places to stop off at throughout September and dip a toe into the wines of the Loire Valley.
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A brand-new discovery route packed with treasures and discoveries has been curated especially for the occasion, with six Manchester bars already signed up to take part.
“The Loire Bucket List is for adventure seekers,” a spokesperson for the event said.
“Our discovery routes take you to the ‘secret’ places in your city, to see exciting and unexpected things, alongside a few carefully curated places to stop off to and explore the wines of the Loire Valley along the way.
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“Our collaborative events offer further opportunities to explore Loire Wines, from free in-store sampling to full guided tastings and of course, visits to our little Wine Truck, which will pop up around the UK.”
The wine truck will run as part of a wider campaign in which bespoke wine tasting menus, offers, and giveaways will be available / Credit: Em Zoode
The venues lined-up to host special wine events in Manchester are:
Manchester Tennis & Racquet Club
Flok
Mr Thomas’ Chop House
Atomeca
Oystercatcher
Man Bites Frog
Grape To Grain
With prices starting from as little as £15, and many still TBC, wines such as Rosé d’Anjou Famille Bougrier 2020, Touraine Sauvignon Domaine Guenault Bougrier 2020, Muscadet Polaris Batard Langelier, Clos La Cariziere, and L’Extra par Langlois Brut NV Crémant de Loire are all on the menu across each of the participating venues for wine enthusiasts to wet their whistle.
Specially-selected ‘wines of the month’, and food and wine pairings will also be available to try.
Specially-selected ‘wines of the month’, and food and wine pairings will also be available to try / Credit: Unsplash
First Look: Matcha Made and The Trafford Centre makes for a perfect marriage
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester’s newest matcha spot just dropped, and we know it’s an easy pun, but it really does feel like a match made in heaven.
Just picture the scene: there’s a big birthday or holiday coming up, so you’ve arrived at The Trafford Centre early to get in a full day of shopping, eating and being generally leisurely – but you need an early caffeine fix and maybe some light, fluffy yet still filling pastry to keep you going.
There are very few places better to start this kind of day than at Matcha Made, who’ve just opened up in the North West’s massive and most famous shopping mall.
Fronted by a lovely lineup of smiling staff who couldn’t do enough for you and are more than happy to give you advice or simply plug their own recommendations, we can see ourselves coming back here for the service alone.
They’ve arrived in the big leisure complex just in time for February half-term, too, meaning any parents needing an alternative caffeine hit can fuel up right here.
Specialising in the Japanese and super healthy green tea craze that currently has the UK in a chokehold, only directly out of a tap – almost like a zen twist of draught beer taps – the art is not only in how green the raw matcha itself tastes but in the flavours and finishing touches.
This stylish pastel green hatch might not be the only place to get your matcha on in The Trafford Centre, but it might just be the best already.
It was immediately apparent that the staff had a clear favourite: the Biscoff foam version, but they said their simple but sweet and satisfying strawberry one has also proved to be one of the most popular.
There’s plenty of fruity options to choose from; they’ve got their own take on the fellow contemporary trend of banana pudding for anyone looking for a fix, and even ume plum, or you can just go for a straight-up coffee or hot chocolate as well.
So yeah, even if your partner isn’t quite ready to admit they’re a secret ‘matcha girlie’, then they can spend a little bit more time lying to themselves over this side of the menu.
Whether you want it topped with cream, shavings or a light dusting of cocoa powder, you can make this little drink just about as decorative as you like.
Besides being more reasonably priced than we were expecting, given the ongoing matcha boom, you’ve also got the big bonus of a fridge stocked with bakes from local favourite La Chouqette. Sold.
Manchester’s tiny new tiramisu hatch Layr speaks out after receiving influx of ‘hostile’ hate messages
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s tiny new tiramisu hatch has spoken out after receiving a recent influx of ‘hostile’ hate messages and reviews.
Having only opened its doors – or should we say, shutters – at the end of last month (29 January) over in Acoats, Layr is one of Manchester’s newest independent businesses that is selling purely tiramisu, with a menu of three different flavours, each served in individually portioned pots.
Here you can expect classic tiramisu where sponge is soaked in espresso, then layered with vanilla marscapone and cocoa dust.
These freshly-made, alcohol-free and Halal desserts have gone down an absolute treat with residents and visitors to the city alike since opening, but unfortunately, it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for founder Moona who has admitted over the weekend that they have been receiving a number of ‘hostile’ hate comments and reviews that don’t reflect the service they are providing.
The statement comes after the business teamed up with The Couture Club and influencer Farron Clark for a Valentine’s collaboration over the weekend.
Layr said in its Instagram statement: “As a small independent business, we can’t stay silent when things aren’t right. It’s hard to share, but it has to be said.
“With a heavy heart, we need to address something that’s been happening behind the scenes. Over the past few days, we’ve noticed a pattern that’s been difficult to process. Hostile hate-messages, comments, and reviews. A number of one-star reviews have appeared that don’t feel reflective of real customer experiences… with some of our genuine customer photos have been screenshotted and reposted elsewhere.
Layr has spoken out after receiving an influx of ‘hostile’ hate messages / Credit: The Manc Group
“As a small, new independent business, we take all feedback on board. However instances that appear not to be genuine are disheartening to see.”
They then shared a couple of screenshot images of reviews and comments they were referring to, before adding that: “The industry is already a challenge without these instances. We all need each other’s support and I hope we all succeed in what we set out to achieve.”
The statement concluded: “Let’s spread love… not hate.”
The Manc -
2nd September 2021 
