For our second outdoor gathering of the summer, we are meeting Al Fresco at The Falcon at 7.30pm on the evening of Wednesday 11th August. The Falcon is a pub/restaurant in the beautiful village of Rotherwick, just 3 miles from Hook. Many of you will know The Falcon as we've had several Society events there in previous years, which we have enjoyed very much.

Our group will have a reserved area in their garden, where we will be served a BBQ style meal, prepared in the kitchen by the Falcon's highly regarded chef and his team, overseen by Falcon owner Lee.

We return to The Raven on 8th September!  And I'm deleted to tell you that our evening will be presented by Mark Bedford, owner of local merchant Caviste.  Mark has has been a loyal supporter of our Society for many years, so it is very appropriate that he should lead our first evening tasting for some time.

This month we welcome Tony Hill of Bordeaux and Beyond.   Tony will take us on a "Wine Tour de France", covering many different appellations, some famous and some not do famous.  Tony will give the storty behind the wines and the reasons why he decided to import them. Bordeaux and Beyond are a specialist wine importer concentrating on wines from small independent vignerons in France, not usually available elsewhere.

This month we welcome Lynda Mellor on what will be her first visit to our Society.  Lynda will be presenting wines from South Africa, an area which she is well regarded for her knowledge and enthusiasm. She came to the wine industry by mistake, having been offered a sales position by a South African wine importer. She took the job, found her calling and has never looked back!   In recent years, Lynda has been UK Ambassador for Holden Manz wines, so these wines will feature amongst other wineries which she knows well.

For our Christmas tasting this year, we'll be taking members back to the 19th century! Society Member Nesta has come up with this brilliant idea and she will be coordinating our evening.   Nesta discovered that Charles Dickens was a “bon viveur” who had a wine cellar at Gads Hill Place in Kent.  The list of the wines he held there reveals that he purchased most of his wines from the three Ellis brothers merchants. The wine company the Ellis brothers created now trades as Ellis Wines, so it is fitting that their Business Development Manager Chris White should present the wines.

Our planned tasting with Tim Syrad has been postponed until Wednesday 9th March.

Our AGM will be held using Zoom. The AGM papers and Zoom joining instructions will be e-mailed to members in late January. This will have similar content to previous AGMs, including the regular reports and members' acceptance of the annual accounts. We expect the meeting to last about 30 to 40 minutes. We'd like to encourage as many members as possible to attend the AGM, so please put this date in your diary.

This month we welcome back Tim Syrad. Tim is well known to many of our members as both an excellent presenter and also an organiser of great wine tours. This time Tim will be presenting the wines of Portugal, introducing wines which have been well received by enthusiasts on his wine tours. We will taste a fascinating array of grapes encompassing wines from a number of different regions.

Condor is a UK-based independent specialist importer of Argentine, Chilean and Uruguayan wines. and was awarded ‘Specialist Merchant of the Year (South America)’ by the International Wine Challenge in 2019. Tonight we welcome Condor's Regional Manager, Aaron Irons.  He's worked in the wine trade since 2007 and at Condor since 2019. Aaron also holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines & Spirits.

Some of you will remember Nik Darlington, who presented to us a few years ago when he was at Red Squirrel Wine. Nik has now created Pip, an independent wine merchant based just down the down from us in Seale near Farnham.  It's a local wine shop, run by locals, for locals - with around 200 wines on the shelves. Tonight Nik will present his pick of Pip's best selling wines, so there will be something for everyone.