Our master of ceremonies for the evening will be Nesta Downey, who has organised an evening of interactive tasting, chatting, conferring and light hearted competition. We have many wine enthusiasts within our Society and it’s always good to taste wines which are recommended by them. That’s why at Christmas time, we open the floor to eight of our members, who will each introduce a wine of their choice. I'm confident that we can expect to taste some great wines and the evening is guaranteed to get us in the festive spirit! We will be seated in our usual layout at The Raven. More details in the December newsletter.

We start 2019 by welcoming Serhat Narsap, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Sonvino, who is visiting our Society for the first time. Sonvino imports great value wines from boutique producers in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Turkey. The wines are made by artisans of the wine industry, skilled winemakers who put their life and soul into making small quantities of excellent quality wines.

Now a regular feature in our calendar, Jim "Order please" King and Keith "The Magnum" Cooper will present their wine gems. This year, all of their chosen wines will be from the new world. The tasting will be preceded by a brief AGM.

This month we welcome back one of our Society's post popular speakers to present one of our Society's most favoured wine regions of the world. Yes, it's Simon Taylor of Stone, Vine & Sun, who will present a tasting of wines from Argentina and Chile. Simon has travelled widely in Chile and Argentina, and his discoveries earned Stone, Vine & Sun the International Wine Challenge Specialist Merchant for Chile award in 2015. This tasting should display the breadth of wine now being produced in the Southern Cone, from cool climate, coastal Chilean Riesling and Pinot Noir to the ripe and dense reds from Malbec, Carmenère and Syrah grown in the sunnier zones either side of the Andes. This will be a great tasting and is sure to be popular!

For our April tasting, we welcome Nik Darlington of Red Squirrel Wines on his first visit to our Society. Nik will be showing us wines from the Azores islands in the Atlantic Ocean and North West Spain. The wines from the Azores are absolutely superb and it will be our Society's first opportunity to taste wines from these islands. The wines from North West Spain reflect the indigenous grapes grown in this part of the country and I know this is already a favourite region for many of our members.

We have enjoyed wines from the Red Squirrel portfolio once before, back in 2014, when Robert Woodhead presented to us.  Jancis Robinson MW describes Red Squirrel as "one of the newer, younger independent merchants that has flowered in Britain".   And Steven Spurrier declared their range of wine “inspiring”. So we're looking forward to tasting some more of their wines this month.

Reflecting popular demand, we return to the Donnington Valley Hotel and Spa, where we have enjoyed such great dinners in past years. The hotel is a country retreat situated in the Berkshire countryside near Newbury. Enjoy the facilities of this four star hotel on both the Saturday and Sunday, including the top rated spa, an 18m swimming pool, sauna, steam and aromatherapy rooms, and gym.

This month we are pleased to welcome back Richard Girling, Fine Wine Director for Fells. The company can trace its roots back to the mid 19th century, so is one of the longest established wine importers in the UK. Over the last 20 years, they have made a strategic move to focus on the premium and fine wine sector. Richard is a popular speaker at our Society and this time he is going to focus on two classic grape varieties - chardonnay and pinot noir. So we'll be able to experience classic style wines from Burgundy and the old world alongside examples of how these grapes are used to make stunning wines in the new world. Comparing single grape varietals is not something we do too often at our Society, so this should make for a really interesting tasting.

It's always a privilege for our Society to welcome a Master of Wine, the highest qualification in the wine world. This month we are delighted to welcome Master of Wine Jo Locke, a buyer at The Wine Society, who will be presenting to us for the first time. One of Jo's specialist regions is South Africa and she will present a range of this country's wines from The Wine Society's portfolio. Jo says that South Africa is recognised for great value for money and, increasingly, for quality. She finds it exciting because it's a re-emerging wine industry. There are a lot of bright young people working there and it's the most dynamic of the world's wine regions which she is lucky enough to visit.

In July we welcome Leah Seresin, from Seresin Estate in New Zealand's Marlborough region. Leah is daughter of founder and owner Michael Seresin and she travels the world promoting Seresin Estate and its excellent portfolio of fine wines. We are very fortunate that Leah has managed to fit us in to her busy schedule, so this is an evening not to be missed!

For our summer event this year, we have organised an exclusive, private visit to the award winning Cottonworth vineyard, set in Hampshire's beautiful Test Valley near Andover.  Cottonworth is home to the Liddell family who have been farming there for four generations. Over the last 10 years they have selected 30 acres of prime vineyard for the production of sparkling wine.  The Liddell family also produce excellent wines at their vineyards in Burgundy. Booking is now open to members and guests.