A hospice charity’s inaugural ‘Networking on Tour’ event went down a treat – literally!

Lewis-Manning Hospice Care took an excited and enthusiastic coach full of individuals from Dorset businesses for a tour of the Langham Wine Estate, near Dorchester.

The event was made possible by the generous support of MSP Capital.

Thanks to its sponsorship all the money raised went directly to the hospice.

Tomorrows Travel sponsored the coach transport in one of the firm’s luxury coaches and facilitated the ‘networking bus’ by picking up guests, en route to the wine estate.

On arriving at the vineyard, everyone was treated to one of Langham’s sparkling wines, followed by a tour of the estate.

Attendees were enthralled to learn about the history of the 1,000-acre farm and wine estate and the methods used to create their award-winning wines.

They included tips on drainage, pruning techniques, types of vines and the processes followed.

The wine estate has 30 acres of vines with a capacity to produce up to 70,000 bottles each year.

There are currently 38,000 vines and each vine provides approximately 1.3 bottles.

Carl Pinto, Tour guide and Tasting Room Assistant, said: “We are known as a grower producer which means that we are in control of the whole process.

“We were thrilled to win an extremely prestigious award in 2020 when the IWSE announced Langham Wine Estate as ‘Sparking Wine Producer of the Year’.

“It was a huge accolade for us, in a category of 400 entrants, across 90 countries.

“The announcement was made based on a blind tasting from a 2015 vintage, we’re incredibly proud of this achievement.”

Fiona Harwood, Lewis-Manning’s Corporate Partnerships Manager, said: “What a brilliant afternoon and day out.

“After our excellent tour we were then treated to tasting various sparkling wines and learning a little about each one.

“Guests then enjoyed a delicious buffet supper.

“We’d like to repeat this kind of event, there was so much fun and laughter, it was a little different to the norm, very informative and there were so many good connections made and conversations held between guests.

“We’d like to offer our huge thanks to MSP Capital and Tomorrows Travel for sponsoring the event and to Langham Wine Estate and vineyard for hosting us.

“All money raised will go directly to the hospice, enabling us to continue delivering exceptional hospice care in our community.”

Rachel Bartlett, Head of Marketing & People at MSP Capital, said: “Lewis Manning is a core charity for MSP Capital, and we were delighted to sponsor today’s event.

“It was a fantastic opportunity to bring together supporters of the charity to enjoy an afternoon of delicious wine and food, all while raising awareness and understanding of the incredible work Lewis-Manning does for our community.

“We’re proud to support them and look forward to continuing our partnership in the future.”

Tomorrows Travel Directors Jay Thornton and Jason Cousins, who also attended the event, said: “As a Dorset-based bus and coach operator it is a real pleasure to support the event.

“We work with lots of key local community groups and organisations so it’s fantastic to support our local community hospice.”

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