As I get to know more people in the wine trade, I feel like my luck is just booming up. The amazing ladies Bryony and Rachel, who invited me down to a great day at Hambledon a few weeks back, sorted me out with a ticket to the impressively sounding “Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Challenge” awards night last week. Would I like to come? Does a one-legged duck swim in circles??
I managed to squeeze (literally, my head looked like a tomato with all the blood trapped above the collar!) into my old tuxedo I’d had back in my uni days, and I headed on down to the Vintners’ Hall in central London. This impressive place has been going for 700 years and is steeped in equal measures of history and booze. Sounds like a good night, right?
The great and the good from the sparkling wine world were there. It was great to meet up again with the lovely (and very stylish!!) Camilla from Ferrari Wines in Trentino, and her brother Matteo, whose tuxedo made mine look a little bit shit 🙁 Then to sit next to the ultra funny Christina from Berlucchi in Franciacorta. I’ve got some travelling round northern Italy to do in the new year!! 🙂
Big issue about this night was that I hate, absolutely hate, spitting stuff out when the wine’s that good. Especially when it’s an awards do. You’re meant to have a couple, right? Trying very hard not to make a complete tit of of myself, I sampled everything I could and was still standing at the end. Captain Impressive!
Ok, the awards were sent out and there were lots of very happy winners, but this was much more about seeing how widespread the sparkling wines of the world are. Great wines from UK (natch), NZ, Chile, Hungary, and China were all on show and all very high quality. It’s not a bad time to be a lover of bubbles at the minute!
Cheers
