I’ve been wine tasting once before- it was a full day trip
in the Hunter Valley in Sydney, Australia. With over 200 years of winemaking
and 150 wineries, it’s safe to say there is a lot of grapes to go around.
The guide drives you to a select few vineyards along the route, and you go in
and try a selection of their finest offerings and eat a few pieces of cheese
and a cracker or two. In the whole day. So, you could say it’s a preeeetty
boozy day out. BUT it was a brilliant day and it made my thirst (‘scuse the pun)
for finding out, and remembering, more about one of my favourite tipples.
I’m always on the lookout for new date night ideas to try in
London (hence this blog series!) so when I got the opportunity to attend the
California Dreamin’ Premium Wine Tasting Workshop at Bedales Wines, I was
really excited to try something new and actually take some wine knowledge away
with me. If you haven’t heard of them before, Bedales are an independent,
family-owned wine bar, renowned for their fabulous selection of fine and
interesting, unusual wines.
The wine tasting classes have very limited availability to
make sure each one allows for questions and curiosities throughout the evening.
Ours had about 10 people in and was located in a beautiful private room of Bedales
Leadenhall, so it had a really nice relaxed atmosphere. It felt more like I was
having drinks with friends as opposed to my presumption of a ‘workshop’ where
we were going to be talked at for 2 hours. Speaking of being talked at, this
was quite the opposite, and this brings me nicely on to our host! Dan Belmont
is the resident wine expert at Bedales, and he was absolutely brilliant! He was
so knowledgeable about the region, and he had so many facts and funny little
stories which had us laughing throughout the course of the evening. Every time
we moved on to the next wine, he opened the table up for discussion about what
we could smell, taste and see, before he shared the finer details. He was
absolutely faultless, and I would highly recommend him as a host.
As well as drinking a lot of vino (we got through a flight of
6 premium wines and a prosecco on arrival) there were delicious platters of Charcuterie
and cheese down the table for us to nibble on throughout the evening, which was
a lovely added touch.
I would highly recommend Bedales wine tasting evenings for date
nights, something different to do with a group of friends or just those looking
to try some different and delicious wines! Especially with Christmas on the
horizon, if you purchase 2 tickets to their next workshop, it’s basically a
present for yourself too!
No comments:
Post a comment