People in the wine industry are interesting aren’t they? They are from all walks of life, but one thing brings them together – the love of wine. I attended the Wine Pleasures Wine and Tourism conference in Barcelona, on February 1-3, 2010. The first pre-event session was a Cava tasting. Looking around a room of unfamiliar faces is often difficult, but knowing they were there because of wine made it a lot easier. After a couple of glasses of very good Cava everything became a lot easier.

I have been on conferences before, however those have all be in a completely different industry without my own business in mind. So this conference made this event daunting, but exciting at the same time. Networking at any conference is always the same. Get to know the right people who can help you. I was not attending the conference to sell or influence anything, rather to look and listen to other people’s experiences, to see if I could pick up as many tips as possible. What I found however is that when you get people with a common interest in a room, especially if that common interest is wine, people soon become friends rather than business contacts.

Did I get as many tips and insights to the wine tourism industry as I wanted? No, not really… I got some which were very handy but, I was expecting some talks to be a little different. Did I meet interesting people? Yes! The mix of wine makers, wine tourism providers, wine experts as well as the social media and marketing people made the experience far more open than most conferences I have been to. This meant conversation outside the conference room was not all about one industry, which, no matter how passionate you are about it, can get a bit monotonous.

With some new friends and new ideas I feel more excited about getting my business up and running as well as I can. For me personally, it is important, but I also want it to run well for the wine industry, in Portugal, and in general. The small group of people I have met at the conference has justified my decision to move to this industry already.

People in the wine industry are interesting. They are also passionate, down to earth and often have a great story to tell. I am sure anyone who has visited a winery and talked with the owner or wine maker will agree. So get out there and visit a winery. If you are in Portugal look us up , take a great value tour and get to know the great wines and people of this stunning country. It would be my pleasure to share this wonderful experience with you.

With all the lists around I have decided not to do one. There are some great contributions among the blogs I have listed here. I am a big believer that wine is about experiences. To list and rate an experience is very difficult, so I will just share with you a few of the many enjoyable wine experiences I have had in the last 12 months. So in no particular order here are some of my memorable wine experiences from 2009:

Touring in the Alentejo region in Portugal

There is little not to like about the Alentejo region, if you enjoy food, wine and spectacular landscapes. In May, I travelled around this region once again, this time I tried to view the wineries, restaurants and landscapes as if I were seeing it for the first time. It is difficult to do when you know there is another fantastic view over the next hill.

The trip this year was very special however, because I took more time with the wineries to discuss their wine. I find the more you are interested in a winery the more you get from the owners or the staff working there. In the 3 days there, I managed to visit many wineries, but the best experience was settling down at the end of the day with some local hams and chorizo, cheese and olives, olive oil and bread and enjoying a great bottle of 2006 Red Reserva from Herdade do Esporão.

It helps that the Alentejo region has had a huge influence on my choice to move to Portugal in 2010. I hope to share this region with people and hope they have a fantastic experience too.

Cofield dinner in Melbourne

When I visited Australia recently, I was lucky enough to be able to attend a dinner given by the Cofield Winery. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew we would have good food and wine, which is always a good start. The rest of the experience I was not sure about. Would we have only a few of the wines to taste? Would we have a big sell to get the attendees to buy some wine? Would there be stuffy people there who wanted to show off about how much they knew about wine, but had little to say apart from sound-bites from tasting notes they had read earlier? Well obviously, as this experience is being shared with you, I had none of these negative expectations.

The pre-dinner drinks were an experience in themselves! Damien Cofield who was hosting the dinner, disgorged some of his sparkling Pinot Noir-Chardonnay. This was rather spectacular to watch. Tasting the ultra-dry result was quite refreshing after another day over 35°C. Following this was the Sparkling Shiraz, which would have been a highlight in itself if I had just come and tasted this great wine.

It was then time to eat. The company was very pleasant. I was there with my parents who were happy I was there, and the others on our table were very interesting. Damien came and talked about his wines with our table a couple of times and the food was better than I expected – and I was expecting some very good food. Over all it was a great evening and well worth it for me and I would like to thing for the winery also.

Lunching in Ribeauville in Alsace

The Alsace region in France is another place I have visited a couple of times before. This year however, I was there in the summer when The Tour de France was near by. Seeing the tour whizz by was something I have always wanted to see in the 8 years I have been living in Europe. The spectacle and sense of theatre was great as the approach of the peloton drew closer. The sponsor’s cars giving out free samples create an expectation among the thousands lining the streets. Then the helicopters tracking the cyclists come into range and everyone gathers in anticipation on the footpaths. We were lucky enough to have a break-away form just before the rider approached the small town we were in. The only negative to that was the break away of 5 riders, as well as the peloton, were at full speed. They went by so quickly it was over very quickly.

After the excitement of Le Tour, we visited the town of Ribeauville in the heart of the Alsace region. Before visiting the likes of Trimbach and Metz Frères in the small town, it was time for some lunch. A simple café in the main street was decided upon and I enjoyed an onion tart with a local Sauvignon Gris in the afternoon sunshine. It was a special experience, not because of the opulence of the meal, in fact just the opposite. The simplicity of the food and wine matching so naturally in the town where the same meal would have been served to rich and poor alike for hundreds of years.

New Year’s Eve in Paris

My last experience I wish to share happened just a few days ago. Technically half of it happened in 2010, but who is checking? We decided to visit Paris for the New Year this year. The 31st of December started with a trip to see the Eifel tower, Gallery La Fayette’s food section, the Latin Quarter and a street market with exceptional food on display. The end result was an accumulation of fantastic food and a few bottles of wine. The end result of this was the ingredients for a perfect pre-New Year’s meal. We decided to have our dinner in the hotel room due to the excessive prices for a meal on New Year’s Eve in Paris. It turned out to be a great meal with more variety and a better quality wine than we could afford otherwise.

After a rest from too much food, we headed out for the evening. It was pretty cold in Paris, so we were pretty well rugged up. We found a place in the Champ des Mars near the peace monument. We had a bit of cover from the wind, a perfect view of the Eifel tower and even a small group of people with some music playing. The park got busier and busier as the night progressed. By 11pm it was a montage of people all the way to the tower.

At 11.30 it was decided to put the beer away and get the champagne open. I had brought a 2003 Louis Nicaise Champagne from my last visit to the Champagne region (another great experience but in 2007). Thanks to the natural fridge that was the Paris night, it was a perfect temperature. It went down very well during the count-down to 2010. When the Eifel Tower changed to it’s sparkling finale at the strike of midnight it was cheers, fireworks and bonne annee all round. A fantastic experience of Paris at it’s best!

There you have it. A selection of the best experiences I have had during 2009. I wish you all the best in 2010 with great experiences with wine, food and friends!

I was able to visit the Bendigo/Heathcote region, then up to the Rutherglen region then down to the King Valley and Yarra Valley regions. Each area has very different terroir and therefore produces different wines. The peppery complex dark red wines of Bendigo/Heathcote to the fortified wine capital of Australia which is Rutherglen to the lighter and more delicate European varieties grown in the King Valley this relatively short trip for Australia – it was around 1000 kilometers for the round trip. Over the coming weeks I will share some of the best wines with you.

Prior to setting out on this trip, I attended a dinner set up by the Cofield winery to showcase their latest products to regular customers in Melbourne and a couple of gatecrashers like me. Damien Cofield, the main winemaker at the family owned winery was on hand to describe his wines. His party piece at this dinner was to disgorge his sparkling Pinot Noir-Chardonnay. This involved dipping the neck of the bottle in liquid nitrogen which freezes the excess sugar and yeast. This makes the wine extra dry. It also makes for a spectacular way for opening a bottle of sparkling wine.

The other pre-dinner fair was the Sparkling Shiraz, which is one of (if not) the best example of this wine made in Australia. On a warm evening in Melbourne, there are very few drinks that can compare to a glass of this remarkable wine.

A few days later, I visited the winery itself and spoke to Damien at the winery in the picturesque Rutherglen region in Northern Victoria, close to the Murray River. I got a few more insights to his latest products and of course purchased a couple more bottles for my travels. Therefore this week’s Wine of the Week is the Cofield 2007 Sparkling Shiraz. Australia is famous for its big, deep and hearty Shiraz wines. It is made just about anywhere vines grown in the country. The sparkling version is still a deep purple colour and still keeps the traditional chocolate and cherry aromas. Tasting the wine provides you with the summer fruit and rich chocolaty and some spicy flavors but with freshness that the bubbles and cooler serving temperature provides. The more you drink the more you find. It has such a long finish, that if you can stop drinking it for a period – which is harder than you think, then you will find it will fill your mouth with further wonderful dryness to complement the initial fruitiness at the beginning.

It matches many foods wonderfully well. Anything from a simple steak and salad, to tomato based pasta dishes. However I think anything with a gamey taste is ideal to match with this wine. Venison, Duck, or Kangaroo if you can get your hands on it, are a delight to enjoy with this wine. That is provided you do not finish the bottle before you have finished cooking, which is a very difficult task on a warm day. So I suggest you get 2 or 3 bottles if can find the wine and you are planning a dinner with friends.

I hope you are able to find this wine where you are. It is excellent value if it is anywhere near the $28 Australian dollars it costs at the cellar door. Even if you add all the extra costs of transportation tax you will be getting a fantastic wine.

The exhibitors were diverse. Many were wine importers in Hong Kong offering a variety of wines from around the world. Others specialized in regional wines from one or two countries. Then there were some stand along wineries represented who were trying to build a reputation in the huge Hong Kong market. I found that the wine producers who made the effort to attend were very well frequented, so I think their investment of time and money to be there was well worth it.

French wines were in the majority at the festival. This was a little surprising to me because of the proximity to Australia, New Zealand and the growing Chinese wine producers. However because the majority of stalls were for importers, this was to be expected I guess. Also, because the grounds where set up in two sections, Old World and New World, so there was more space for French, Italian, Spanish and German exhibitors compared to the smaller section for all the new world countries.

Hong Kong is more of a beer and spirit drinking culture, the demand for wine per capita is not high. The large ex-pat community would consume far more wine per capita than the local people. But there is definitely a growing taste for wine among the Hong Kong people. It is seen as a status symbol as well as something to compliment your evening meal. Because Hong Kong has long been seen as the gate-way to China I was surprised there were not more individual wine producers there. Maybe because this is the first event of the kind held in Hong Kong, it may have been a bit of a set into the unknown.

I think the organizers have seen it as a success and plan to hold further similar festivals in future. This would be an ideal way to introduce wine on a more personal level to the massive market in Hong Kong.