Winefriend

‘Pre-eminence in the vine is so much Italy’s special distinction that even with this one asset she can be thought to have surpassed all the blessings of the world…’ (Pliny the Elder, d. AD 79, Natural History, translation John F. Healy, Penguin 2004, p. 183)

Burgundy villages 2004 tasting

For me wine is pleasurable exploration – through grape varieties, wine styles, landscapes and countries, and of course in encounter with producers and wine people.

My path in learning about wine has been slightly circuitous, as befits a subject involving alcohol.   Red Burgundy started all this and there is really not much to trade up to from its subtle and complex wines.  I have a particular passion for Italy - with a firsthand knowledge of  the Tuscan Maremma, basically South of Pisa, along with other key regions.  Slightly curiously, I really got into Italian wine through mid-life learning of the language and then wondering what to do with the language once I had taken the trouble to learn it.  Getting to know the Italian wine scene in situ has been worth all that trouble with grammar and irregular verbs.   But I also love French classics and its regions and of course I like good wines wherever they come from.  WSET study is also playing an important  part in broadening my horizons.

As a result of this exploration I run a wine group in Hampshire, England (Andover Wine Friends) and a wine appreciation course in Tuscany in the summer for the British Institute of Florence.  And, of course, this website is an expression of this journey of exploration.

There’s so much to enjoy in the world of wine: the landscape, the places, the growers and merchants, the grape varieties, what happens in vineyard and cellar, the literature … and that’s before you get to the best bit, tasting and drinking.  So enjoy the website and the journey, with a glass in hand.

Click here for my approach to wine Contact me: Winefriend

Website credits: I decided, rightly or wrongly, to learn enough about websites to produce this one – with massive help from WordPress. The predecessor site was on the awesome blogging machine which is WordPress.com and I have now graduated to WordPress.org, which gives you total control, and, worryingly, total responsibility.  The overall look of the website was created in Artisteer. My favourite plugins for WordPress are YD Recent Posts (which allows the preview of what is on the blog on the home page) and I am experimenting with NextGen Gallery, which is good but I find a bit clunky in operation.  I would like to learn more about how to use a grid based approach to design and especially how to implement it on WordPress.

The great bonus of a website for me is the combination of words and photos. Most of the photos were taken on a Canon EOS 400D; for me it’s a virtually perfect combination of lightness and control. As I am very fussy about carrying stuff, it could be smaller yet!  I have a macro and a telephoto lens to give it greater versatility.  Recently I have put Janet on photographic duties as it is difficult, simultaneously, to talk to growers, take notes, take photos and taste wines – and I’m certainly not going to skip the last duty!

Although I have really enjoyed learning Italian, it is well beyond my competence to translate these pages. For this I am hugely indebted to Vita Maiullari, from Santeramo in Colle, Puglia, who was the Italian assistent in Winchester in 2010-11. Vita and I worked on the pages – it certainly improved my Italian and I hope it helped with her English. Many thanks to her for her continuing contribution and all the very best for the future!

Personal acknowledgment:  All in all, what with the language, the website, the photography, the wine, the places and the people, this website tries to capture what has been an amazing journey of discovery: about myself, the world in which we live, and all that I have had the good fortune to encounter.  The biggest acknowledgment is due to Janet, number one winefriend and so much more,  who – apart from many other contributions – on one sleepless, hot summer’s night in Tuscany helped me to understand why I put myself through it.  I was having a mini existential crisis at the time.  Why had I decided to come to this strange place and spend my ‘holiday’ struggling with the Italian language – rather than having a normal holiday like anyone else? After hours of reflection I worked out that I was learning Italian because … I wanted to.  And from that, hardly earth-shattering discovery, has come this project which has filled the last five years and promises so much more.

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