In April, member Alastair Dudley and I were invited to visit the Slovakian Embassy in London, where they were hosting a wine tasting of wines from Slovakia.   It's fair to say that the wines we tasted very much exceeded our expectations.   So this month we welcome Lucia Dovalova, Director of The Naughty Grape, which retails wines from Slovakia in the UK.   Her passion and enthusiasm for wine is remarkable and her knowledge exceptional. This is a tasting not to be missed.

In September, we welcome back Mark Bedford, owner of our local wine merchant Caviste.  Mark will introduce the people and their stories behind 9 wines that Caviste has sold over the years.  It takes commitment, skill, vision and a high degree of craziness and self-sacrifice to make many of the wines that we enjoy. We shall endeavour to identify both the terroir of the vineyard and the personality of the winemaker, while Mark amuses us with the stories behind the wines.

It is with enormous pleasure that we welcome back Alun Griffiths to present our October tasting. Alun is a great friend of our Society and needs no introduction to many of our members. We know that his evenings with us are always informative, interesting and fun. For the benefit of our newer members who may not know Alun, he has been a Master of Wine since 1991. For many years, he was Wine Director at Berry Bros & Rudd, following which he was based in Hong Kong for several years.  Back in the UK,  Alun lectures on wine and has been a panel judge at the International Wine Challenge and the Decanter Wine Awards Competition. He’s a regular member of the Decanter Magazine tasting panel. 

This month we welcome James Booth, Director of New Generation Wines. His company imports and distributes wines to independent merchants across the UK and the London-focused on-trade, as well as supplying selected lines to multiple retailers. The focus of our evening will be New Zealand pinot noirs.  James will also include one or two whites, wines which he regards as rather special and which he wants to show us.

Tonight we'll be celebrating Christmas!  And back by popular demand, we're going to do that in style by raiding the Chair's Cellar! Yes, as he did last year, Keith will be digging deep into his cellar to bring you some superb wines, which will hopefully get us in the mood for the upcoming Christmas celebrations.

Tonight we welcome Claudia Hussain, who is presenting to us for the first time. Claudia is an enthusiastic and lively ambassador for Noble Green Wines, who are an independent wine, craft beer and spirits merchant located in the Twickenham area. 
Claudia will present her pick of volcanic wines.

We have many wine enthusiasts within our Society and it’s always good to taste wines which are recommended by them. That's why this month we will open the floor to eight of our members, who will each introduce a wine of their choice. These evenings are hugely popular with our members, so you won't want to miss it.

This month we welcome Svitlana Tsybak and you are all in for a real treat as you taste some fantastic wines. from small and medium sized wineries across Ukraine.   This is a tasting I think we will be talking about for a long time.   You will also be supporting the winemakers of Ukraine at what is a difficult time for their country.

Last time Tony presented to us, we had a fantastic evening tasting Spy Valley Wines, from New Zealand.  It was one of the best tastings that year.   So we have no hesitation in welcoming him back to taste a new selection from this prestigious winery.

It's been four years since we last welcomed Robert Boutflower to present to us. We had a great time on that occasion, so we have no hesitation in giving him the opportunity to talk to us again. Robert is a Director at Tanners Wine Merchants, a long established retailer, well known to many of our members. This time, Robert will present his selection of wines from Rioja.