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A weekend in the Languedoc - Part Deux: Every wine has a story
One of the fabulous things about the Languedoc is that you are never far away from wine. There are vines everywhere you turn and in every village there will be someone making their own wine (in Liausson, it’s the village mayor, as introduced to this story in Part One). There are also larger wineries and shops where you can see big production close up and, of course, try and buy the wines.
Sud de France Annual Tasting 2018
I love visiting the South of France and there are three things that never fail to make it a wonderful trip – the weather, the food and the wine. Visiting small local vineyards is always part of it; making an afternoon of it and taking a tasty, inexpensive bottle (or three) back to enjoy with a home-cooked supper and friends. The charm of this part of the world keeps its devotees coming back time after time, living their dream of buying crusty baguettes in the morning and local wine in the afternoon, but now it seems they have even more reason to stick around (and sip around), as the region’s reputation for high quality wine is skyrocketing.
WSET Level 2 Award in Wine & Spirits
Hooray! My WSET 2 course is done and dusted. I’m excited because there’s a qualification at the end of it (I hope!) but a little sad that the learning is over – I was just getting into the swing of things.
London Wine Fair 2018
There are three days in the calendar that I block out every year, as soon as the dates have been announced. Pity the fool who has a birthday or a wedding during that time (luckily, none of my friends have a birthday around then, and I can always vet any new ones I might make; weddings are trickier, but so far, so good). Frankly, there is not much that will get in the way of immersing myself in enough wine to fill Olympia London – which is precisely the opportunity that the London Wine Fair brings.
To WSET and beyond!
It all begins with an idea.WSET stands for Wine & Spirit Education Trust and it’s the largest provider of wine, spirits and sake qualifications in the world – a WSET qualification is globally recognised as a mark of professional knowledge. It took me 32 years to find out about it, but once I did, there were about 12 hours in between hearing of its existence and booking a day release course for the WSET Level 1.
Why Wine?
I’ve always had a good relationship with wine – we’re tight. I grew up in a house where there was a healthy attitude towards drinking wine – my parents drank red wine with dinner (not all dinners, and mostly with a roast on a Sunday).