A huge wine and fizz festival will land in Manchester this weekend, bringing over 100 different styles of vino to one of the city’s most iconic venues.
Taking over the newly-reopened New Century concert hall at NOMA, for just £15 a ticket wine lovers can spend three hours sampling as much (or as little) wine and fizz as they like.
With a fine selection of new and old world wines, natural and biodynamic varieties, and some of the city’s best and brightest wine experts on hand to tell you more (if you so wish), it sounds like a veritable wine lover’s paradise.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
Celebrating local independent retailers from the north west, the ticket doesn’t just cover unlimited wine sampling opportunities either.
As part of the £15 ticket price, some wine retailers will be serving up specially matched grazing food. You’ll also be able to take part in tutored tastings, flower arranging and painting sessions, peruse market stalls, grab a glass at the wine bar and enjoy live music throughout.
You can find the full free wine masterclass schedule below:
Friday 7 October
6pm-9pm
Bah Florals – Flower Arranging Workshop Join local florist Bah Florals to create some beautiful bouquets for you to take home and enjoy!
6:30pm-7:00pm Cork Of The North – Tutored Wine Tasting Taste through a selection of tip-top wines, with expert commentary from Cork of the North’s head honcho Marc Hough. Cork of the North’s award winning wine tastings are relaxed and informal, and are just as entertaining as they are educational’.
7:30pm-8:00pm
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Italy Abroad – ‘Extreme Italian wines”
There isn’t a universally accepted definition of extreme wines but these could be defined as “heroic” wines, wines obtained thanks to the fatigue, the sweat, the persistence of small, passionate winemakers, produced in little knows, geographically impervious areas, tiny patches of land retaken from the mountains, in between rocks, or the sea’.
Saturday 8 October
2pm-5pm and 6pm-9pm
Cork and Canvas: Painting Workshop Popup ‘sip and paint’ providers Cork and Canvas Cork and Canvas will be bringing their paints and brushes for you to learn how to paint the perfect sunset whilst enjoying beautiful wines. What could be better?
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2:30-3:00pm Cork Of The North – ‘Taste through a selection of tip-top wines, with expert commentary from Cork of the North’s head honcho Marc Hough. Cork of the North’s award-winning wine tastings are relaxed and informal, and are just as entertaining as they are educational’.
6:30pm-7:00pm
Italy Abroad – ‘Shades of Montepulciano. Montepulciano is a fantastic grape, the dream grape of every winemaker, it has all it is needed to make great wines, still it is often the cheapest wine on the shelf; it lacks the reputation it deserves. The Montepulciano grape is grown in the centre of Italy and it is the main grape of the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC and DOCG Colline Teramane, because of its characteristics it is used in many blends and appellations’.
Feature image – Supplied / The Manc Eats
News
Middleton to receive a cinema and Metrolink as part of regeneration plans
Thomas Melia
Greater Manchester town Middleton is about to undergo a huge facelift thanks to a new regeneration project, including a new cinema and Metrolink tram station.
Middleton is one of many bustling communities that make up the borough of Rochdale, and with these new plans, the town might receive a fair few new visitors who want to know what it’s all about.
The Greater Manchester town is undergoing a huge transformation with regeneration plans confirming that Middleton will receive a brand new cinema complex along with an extended Metrolink line as part of the Bee Network expansion covering this area.
This is all thanks to Middleton teaming up with the Mayor to launch the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which pushes forward regeneration plans for the town and future ideas.
Middleton Shopping Centre right in the heart of the town centre.Middleton Town Centre bustling as the markets take place.Credit: Steven Haslington (via Geograph)/@Rept0n1x (via Flickr)
The MDC considers lots of aspects of the town and even aims to create new homes and improve surrounding public spaces.
Middleton regeneration plans have been floated previously, but complications arose due to a lack of land and available funding, which ultimately brought these foundations to a halt.
Now it seems the green light has been lifted and Middleton is about to get a whole new facelift, which will not only improve the town economically but aesthetically too, along with the wider Rochdale region.
For many Middletonians, the idea of a cinema may have felt like a distant memory, with their last big screen location shutting down just over a decade ago.
This all-new high street regeneration will not only bring an array of shopping favourites back to the town centre but also the long-awaited return of a local cinema. Most importantly, the plans also include a slate of new housing, with an estimated 300 apartments set to be created in one building alone.
Early CGIs of the proposed Middleton regeneration plans.Grade II-listed Warwick Mill looks set to be turned into flats.Credit: Publicity Picture (supplied)
This all falls in line with the ‘Atom Valley scheme‘, which has been commissioned in order to generate over 20,000 job opportunities for people in Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.
The scheme also mentions how it aims to bring a combined economic boost of around £1 billion to these previously mentioned areas.
Rochdale Borough Council leader, Neil Emmott, said: “The development of 1.2 million square metres of employment space around the junction 19 area will help to generate 20,000 high-quality jobs and bring a £1 billion economic boost.”
Featured Image — Publicity Pictures (supplied via Rochdale Borough Council)
News
Scouting For Girls announce stacked UK tour with Manchester date
Thomas Melia
British boyband Scouting For Girls are heading out on an extensive UK tour with dates up and down the country, including right here in Manchester.
If the first thing that pops into your mind when you read this headline is “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know how we’ll make it through this”, then you’re on the right side of history.
Nearly 20 years since their single ‘She’s So Lovely’ reached catastrophic heights and had everyone putting on their best Roy Stride accent, Scouting For Girls are heading back on the road.
This UK tour announcement comes two years after their last project, The Place We Used To Meet, reached our ears and was coined by the band as “Our best work since our debut”.
It’s been 18 years since this Brit trio captivated our hearts with their eponymous debut album, which sold over one million copies and went number one on the UK official charts for two weeks.
Whether you know them for ‘Heartbeat’ or ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, it’s clear to say this band had their fair share of smash hit singles throughout the noughties.
This tour, however, celebrates the sophomore follow-up: Everybody Wants To Be On TV, which went on to continue their legacy and secure them their only number one, ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’, back in 2010.
Now, the boys are treating UK fans to an array of live performances, and if you can’t make one date, fear not because there are 20 different locations for you to choose from.
The group will also be playing the likes of Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and a whole host of other Northern cities, so you have plenty of chances to catch them.
If you can’t wait all the way until March 2026 for your next Scouting For Girls fix, lead singer Stride has his own cameo account where you can get the star to read out a message or even sing you a song: “‘Michaela Strachan’ in full, please?…”
Scouting For Girls are coming to O2 Apollo in Manchester on 21 March 2026, with tickets going on sale next Friday, 2 May at 10am HERE.
Georgina Pellant -
5th October 2022 
