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!
It has been five years since we had an evening tasting dedicated to English wines, so an opportunity to discover their excellent progress is long overdue. The Hawkins Bros. business deals exclusively with wines produced in England and their tasting tonight will feature some great sparkling wines, which will be followed by whites and reds.
It's been 9 years since Chris last presented to us. So in our 30th anniversary year, it's great to be able to welcome him back, Chris will be presenting his selection of wines from South Africa, always a favourite of our members.
Sarah is in great demand as a wine judge and speaker at home and abroad, She is counted among Decanter’s “experts par excellence” in her capacity as Regional Chair, Portugal at Decanter World Wine Awards, the UK magazine for which she writes regularly. She has also been awarded Portuguese Annual Wine Awards Wine Writer of the Year. So this is going to be a very special evening and we are looking forward to tasting Sarah's pick of Portuguese wines.
Our summer event this year will take us to The Falcon at Rotherwick where we will enjoy a BBQ meal in their lovely garden. Bookings for this event have now closed.