Mark Bedford is a great friend of our Society so we're pleased he is able to present our October tasting. Mark has many years experience in the wine trade, so this month he'll be taking us on a kaleidoscope journey through the world of wine. We will start with a French wine region where the sparkling wine is older than Champagne. We'll then taste a wine from the tiny strip of land called the Lebanon where the vineyards are as old as the Bible, to the Antipodes where the vines are older than the oldest in the Old World. On to Northern Portugal where, by some accident of fortification, the British created a strong sweet dark wine to fortify the troops during the Napoleonic Wars. We shall unearth some ancient grapes in Georgia, home of the oldest winery in history and dip south to Lake Balaton where the famous sweet wine was given each year to Queen Victoria, on her birthday, by Emperor Josef. How does the new generation of drinkers perceive the world of wine within the ever changing world of flavour and fashion? ‘Why Wine?’ is Mark’s personal journey from underage drinking of his father’s bottles at home to his own business and current home of Caviste, the local wine merchant to the Whitewater Valley Wine Society.

By popular demand, Simon Taylor of Stone Vine & Sun will return to present our Fine Wine Evening. We had a great evening when Simon last presented two years ago, and we look forward to tasting some more fine wines from his portfolio.

Booking is now open, members have priority booking until 16th September.

This is Duncan's first visit to our Society, so we'll be giving him a very special welcome. The wines of Argentina are incredibly popular with our members, so this evening looks likely to be a sell out. Duncan is Sales Account Manager at Berkmann Wine Cellars, a long established merchants which has been awarded the prestigious title of Great Value Wine Merchant of the Year four years in a row (2011-2014) by the judging panel of the Sommelier Wine Awards.

This tasting will be held just 11 days before Christmas, so you should all be in festive mood! We'll be inviting eight volunteers from our membership to present a favourite wine of their choice, maybe to drink at Christmas or maybe to put in your cellar for a Saturday evening with friends. If you managed to avoid being press-ganged into presenting, then come along and support your fellow members as they will all appreciate a good crowd.

Your Chairperson Margaret and Secretary Keith first met Tim in May this year when he led a wine tour in the Piedmont region of Italy. So we know first hand that his knowledge is excellent and his enthusiasm incredible. We've asked him to present wines from Sicily, a region which we're sure will be popular with our members. And if you find yourself yearning for more wines from Sicily, then speak to Tim as he'll be running several well priced tours to the region, both this year and next.

Regulars will know that we get the AGM part of the evening completed swiftly, thus enabling us to get on to the fun part of the evening - tasting the wines. Society members Jim and Keith will present a selection of their wine gems for 2017. They'll be keeping the list of wines under wraps until the night, but expect there to be plenty of new world wines in their selections!

Tim's is a relatively new start up business which has been set up with one aim - to share artisan wines which he's discovered during his travels in France. Tim has spent a lot of time in France, getting to know the different regions and for 18 years he worked for France’s largest exporter of wine, establishing it in the UK. Few of his wines are available in the UK. Tonight Tim will present his selection of wines from the Loire valley.

This event is now full. The Whitewater Valley Wine Society celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2017 and our main celebration event of the year will be our black tie dinner at Elvetham Hotel in Hartley Wintney. Our guest speaker will be Robin McMillan, who is Chief Executive Officer at The Wine Society. Robin has been CEO of The Wine Society for four years and has worked in the wine trade for more than 25 years.

Our Society has had a long association with Ellis Wines. This month we welcome Chris on his first visit to our Society and he'll be presenting his pick of wines from New Zealand. It's a country whose wines we haven't tasted for over two years, so we are well due a return visit. Expect some familiar New Zealand grape varieties, plus a few surprises!