I’ve probably said this before but I’m going to say it again anyway. I didn’t get in to wine off the back of trying one glass of wine and having some “eureka” moment. My path to not just seeing wine as a means to get strawpedo-style drunk was spending time with some winemakers up in the North West hills of Italy. They work their arses off for next to no money (mostly) working ridiculous hours. But they bloody love it, and that’s completely infectious!
Wine Geek Questions
As a now fully-fledged wine geek, talking to the winemaker is the dream. As lovely as they are, the sales and marketing teams can sometimes offer fairly stale and processed answers and information. It’s not what I, nor most of the wine punters that I know, are interested in hearing these days. The questions you can ask or the attitude you take away from these lads and lasses is the way forward.
Not Easy To Get Them Away From Their Vines
The winemaker is the silent king of the piece, and a direct chat is a huge bonus. Slight issue about these winemakers is that they’re really hard to pull away from their vines. It’s a full on job where getting away from “the office” is a once or twice a year gig. If you get a chance to jump on a plane and follow them round whilst they’re working then great stuff, but not exactly practical for everyone is it?
So What If The Winemaker’s Not There?
This Thursday we’re running a Live Tweet Up session for Villa Maria, the Nez Zealand wine producer. We’re really lucky as the head winemaker at Villa Maria, Nick Picone, has graciously agreed to knock himself out of bed at daft o’clock in the morning and join us on the Tweet Up. All of a sudden those attending and our followers have access to ask this guy what you want to know.
So whether you’re with us, in an old shipping container in South London, or in the comfort of your own home gearing up for Question Time this Thursday, get some questions ready for Nick. He’s up with the birds for this, let’s make it worth his while!
Cheers
Join the Live TweetUp from New Zealand Cellar in POP Brixton by following and linking in @PBMMW on twitter and using the hashtag #GoodAsGold from 7pm this Thursday night
