We tried 6 different wines from around the world over the course of the evening. A couple of whites and three reds and he explained a bit about each wine before we tried it, where it was made, what latitude it was grown at and how long it took to ferment. Then he invited us to try each one and asked us what it tasted like - responses varied from 'a honeyed aftertaste' 'smells a bit like gooseberries' to 'tastes of sour wood'.
He also gave us some top tips winewise:
The sweeter the wine, the worse the hangover so if you are planning a big night out and want to avoid a headache then the dryer the wine the better
Cheap french wine is worse than any other kind of cheap wine
Roughly £4.50 of the cost of any bottle of wine is taxes so a £5 bottle of wine contains just 50p's worth of wine so an £8 bottle contains £4 pounds worth and that is something to bear in mind when buying wine.
Using bits of leftover wine to cook with isn't worth it as if it's not good enough to drink then it's not good enough to cook with.
There were lots of other bits of winely wisdom he imparted but I'm afraid by then I was so enthusiastically trying the wine I forgot to write them down.
You see we weren't doing anything as vulgar as spitting the wine out but drinking it down properly in a civilised manner so I'm afraid the evening is a bit of a blur but it did involve cheese and biscuits and of course WI loveliness.
