I met a lass called Clara a few months back who very kindly stuck me on a “wine geeks’ dinner” mailing list. It’s a group of mates who get together every month at different restaurants round London, have a good dinner, and do a BYO on bottles of wine. The first few months I was busy with my own dinners or random other things, but last week I managed to make it down for the first time.
For a few days leading up to it I was genuinely nervous. Bear in mind we all bring different bottles of wine in order to give the others something new or something to think about. Bloody hell! What the heck do I bring with me? My wine racks are full of wines from Piemonte or Bordeaux. As great as they are, in the most part they’re not exactly undiscovered gems are they?
I ended up taking the Syrah from Morocco that I’d received from the Vinspire Secret Santa over Christmas. Surely that was a new one on most of them. So in I wandered, bottle in hand, and bumped into the first person in the group, a lad called Nik who started up the now very successful Red Squirrel Wines. “Ah nice, I love that Syrah!” he said. “For f@£k’s sake!” I thought.
I needn’t have worried too much. A mixture of eastern European whites, my first ever orange wine, and reds from across the globe were strewn across the table. Even New Zealand Pinots that I’d tasted before were tough to turn down. It’s all still great wine!
It’s funny being a blogger and an entrepreneur in the wine industry. I don’t actually spend all that much time with other wine-o’s in the industry. So to be able to meet up with them all, listen to what they’re saying, what their personalities are, and what they’re looking to do with their love of wine was great for me. It was also lucky that they were good people. Makes life a lot easier, doesn’t it?
Looking forward to the next one already!
Cheers
