Sofitel, Marco Polo Cebu host wine fest

MANILA, Philippines - Sofitel Philippine Plaza recently hosted Soirée Beaujolais, the biggest annual social event of the French Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines Le Club. A popular French hotel brand, Sofitel has been named for the fourth straight year as venue of the much-awaited wine fest.

Now on its 16th edition, the event is inspired by the traditional market launch of the Beaujolais Nouveau young red wine from the French region of Burgundy. French communities all over the globe celebrate this harvest fest, making it the world’s biggest annual wine event.

Manila’s version of the wine festival is among the world’s best, with the great banquet, entertainment production numbers, and theme celebrations.

Thousands of bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau were opened, along with signature French cuisine flown in from France.

Some P950,000 worth of prizes were raffled off. The grand prize was two Manila-Paris round trip tickets from Etihad Airways, along with a 17-day free use of a Peugeot 307 HDI car courtesy of Peugeot Open Europe.

The event was supported by Le Cellier, Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, Total (Philippines) Corp., Nescafe Gold, BNP Paribas, Asiatype, Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi Aventis, PDP Digital Inc., and SDV (SCAC) Philippines, and the Department of Tourism as special patron.

Also given away were fabulous gift packages from Jaguar Cars, Jewelmer, M. Lhuillier Jewellers, Asian Eye Institute, Interisland Resorts, The Farm, and paintings from Michel Herbert.

Soiree Beaujolais moves to Marco Polo Plaza Cebu today for the third edition of the wine festival in Cebu City.