Llangollen food festival honours its saviour
Thousands of food lovers will be beating a path to Llangollen this weekend to sample the culinary delights of the town’s annual food festival.
The Llangollen Food Festival will be held on Saturday and Sunday at the international pavilion. The event, which will provide a shop window for more than 100 stallholders.
A new wine will be launched at the event to honour the memory of the man who saved the popular festival – and will be used to raise money for his favourite charity.
Friends and colleagues were devastated by the sudden death of former wine distributor, Colin Loughlin, 76 after he suffered a heart attack at his home on the outskirts of the town in February.
The red wine, appropriately called Chateau Loughlin, will be unveiled at this year’s festival and the label features a colourful caricature of Colin.
The proceeds will be used to help fund a defibrillator on a new boat, the Lady Winifred, that’s recently been launched by the Vale of Llangollen Canal Boat Trust which Colin supported for many years.
In 2011, Colin came to rescue of the Llangollen Food Festival and led a team of volunteers who took it over when the previous organiser pulled the plug on the event.
Festival committee member Pip Gale, who also runs Gales Wine Bar in Llangollen, sourced the Chateau Loughlin wine.
Pip said: “He is much missed still, and it was one of the biggest honours to be asked by him personally to join the committee for the food festival, and this does feel like a way to pay back all of the work that he put into that festival, and all of the work he did for me.
“Chateau Loughlin is a lovely, easy drinking wine from the South of France, made with predominantly with Syrah grapes. I’m sure Colin would approve."
A trout farm and smokehouse whose delicacies once tickled the taste buds of James Bond has lined up a legendary new treat for visitors the festival.
Chirk Trout Farm Shop and Smokery, which has supplied smoked trout to the Orient Express among other prestigious establishments, will be unveiling its luxurious new smoked pancetta.
It will be the latest in a growing list of delicacies to have won the hearts of food lovers near and far – including iconic silver screen star Sir Roger Moore.
The late Bond actor, who became an international star after playing the secret agent a record-breaking seven times, once described Chirk Farm’s smoked trout as “the best he’d ever tasted” while tucking into lunch at a local restaurant.
“It’s great to be returning to one of the loveliest food events in the country with a new product,” said former veterinary nurse Rachael Simpson, 40, who joined the firm run by the Simpson family after marrying her husband Richard, 44, who manages the smokery and trout farm."
