Month completed: February 2010

The common phrase about wine is that it gets better with age.

I think the same thinking applies to wine appreciation. Only with age have I started to appreciate wine properly. Growing up, it was all about beer or spirits (Bundy and coke was a popular combination), but I am starting to enjoy a bottle of wine instead when the occasion arises.

I am a fan of all varieties, but wanted to know a little more. So last weekend, Nat and I, and two of our friends (Mark and Christina) popped along to a free wine appreciation course run by Majestic Wines in London.

We tried a range of wines, mostly from France and Chile, learnt how to inspect the wine for quality, smell the wine properly, taste the wine properly, and tried the wines with a range of different foods to see which foods complement which wines.

We also had to guess the retail price of each wine we were drinking, which we all failed miserably.

All in all, it was a good session, with all of us leaving a little inebriated but a little more learned in the fine art of wine-tasting.

p.s. Pinot noir is my favourite, followed closely by a nice fruity riesling.