VENUE DETAILS

Date: 13th September 2017
Venue: Olympia London, Central Level Two, Hammersmith Road, Kensington, London, W14 8UX
Opening Times: 10am - 6pm

Facilities – including luggage storage

Luggage room / Cloakroom

There will be a small cloakroom for you to leave coats and jackets but it will not be big enough to store luggage or bags. Please therefore arrange to leave your bags with your hotel for collection later if you are travelling after the tasting.

WIFI

There will be Wifi access available throughout the venue.

LUNCH TIMES

Lunch will be served throughout the day.

TASTING TRAIL

>> LINK TO TASTING TRAIL SECTION

PEBBLES PROJECT PARTY

Join Wines of South Africa and the Pebbles Project on the evening of 13th September. Ticket costs and details are still TBC but please get this in your diary – it’s a must attend event!

Ethical trading

The Wine and Agricultural Ethical Trading Association (WIETA) is a multi-stakeholder, non-profit voluntary organisation which actively promotes ethical trade in the wine industry value chain through training, technical assessment and audits to assess members' compliance with its code of good practice. Stakeholders include producers, retailers, trade unions, non-governmental organisations and the government.

Background to the establishment of WIETA

WIETA was formally established in November 2002. The association arose out of an Ethical Trade Initiative pilot project in the wine industry. The pilot not only assisted the ETI and South African partners in learning about, developing and refining inspection methodologies in monitoring their base code, but was instrumental in bringing together stakeholders in the wine industry of the Western Cape to discuss and debate issues around ethical trade. The experiment has had considerable success in the wine industry and this led to the members taking a decision in October 2005 to extend the work of WIETA wider to agriculture as a whole, while continuing to serve the needs of the wine industry.

What is WIETA?

WIETA is a not for profit, voluntary association of many different stakeholders in the South African wine and agriculture industry, who are committed to the promotion of ethical trade in this sector.

The WIETA Seal

The new ethical seal will testify to reasonable working conditions, based on rigorous and closely monitored qualification criteria. This is believed to be a world first among wine-producing countries. This seal is a parallel effort to Fair Trade or Fair for Life, which are also recognised as ethical certifications. WIETA will consider recognising ethical, health and safety audits by other bodies. However, the WIETA standards and audit methodology will not change. Only those brand owners who meet the criteria set by WIETA will be entitled to use the seal on their wines. Brand owners will be required to enter an annually renewable, legally binding agreement with WIETA. To ensure total traceability, brand owners will have to identify all their suppliers. At least 60% of these suppliers will also have to be WIETA accredited, while the other 40% would have to demonstrate that they were preparing themselves for accreditation

WIETA has introduced a seal, which will be used either on the front or back labels, or placed on the neck alongside the sustainability seal. The ultimate goal is to have one seal, issued by the Wine and Spirit Board, that certifies the wine of origin information (vintage, date, variety), the environmental sustainability (IPW) and the ethical treatment of workers (WIETA). Click here to read the New Wieta Seal Fact Sheet.

>> SEE MORE HERE