So much wine

On Monday night, we headed to an Edinburgh University Wine Society wine tasting in Potterrow. What a great night.

We arrived at the wine tasting late, meeting a massive queue of those eager to try the huge array of wines for just £6.

Having made our way inside, a whole host of factors came into play. The merchant with the longest queue, the merchant with the smallest queue (I am an extremely impatient man), and so on. Admittedly, I don’t actually have a clue about wine itself, so the ones with the easiest access were our choice.

I totally knew what I was doing…

There were seven different merchants at the event from Edinburgh, and each had a nice arrangement of Malbecs, Sauvignons, Proseccos and gins. Don’t be fooled by my terminology though, I haven’t the faintest idea what to look for in wine.

So we sought help from an assistant who advised that we follow the path of: fizzies, whites, reds and then what remains.

Having taken her advice, we sampled a few fizzy wines, a Prosecco or two, maybe a Cava? We did evetually stray on our own path however.

The queues were large and though some people knew what they were looking for,   professionally swilling the wine around their glasses, others like myself just milled around trying to distinguish one red from another.

Wine tasting can get quite sensual, if you know what you’re doing.

After a few glasses each we had both found the wine that we preferred, but with it being just a tasting, second glasses are not allowed.

So, what was the logical option? To leave? Don’t be ridiculous. We moved onto gin. You might say it was a mistake, you might say it was genius. As I write this, I can’t help but question how good an idea it was, at the time it was the right thing to do. My favourite drink of the night was an Edinburgh Raspberry Gin topped up with Prosecco.

Last year I brewed 21 litres of my own “high-quality” wine. The extent of my wine knowledge.

So what have I to say about the wine tasting? A phenomenal success. The EUWS seem to have a good handle on what people want. I’ll be there next time.