A weekend in the life of Exel Wines

It is not an unusual statement to hear that people are quite envious of a life in the wine trade and I have to be completely honest, I love it. So I thought that with this entry I would share a little more indepth some of the more interesting goings on over this weekends rather manic events.

We start on Friday afternoon, after having spent a luxurious morning off (the first for a couple of weeks I might add, no weekends in this game!) I hit the office to get myself, the stock and some notes for this evenings tasting for the Helensburgh Wine Society. I will be presenting an introduction to a number of different vineyards and styles of wines from Spain. It will be a drive of more than an hour and a half to get there but before I set off I also need to get things prepared for the weekends festivities at the 3 Wine Men tasting in Edinburgh, so corkscrews, business cards, slow pourers, wines and much more besides all need organising so we can be off at 9am prompt tomorrow, Phewph!

Back to Helensburgh, and whilst it is a long old drive it really is quite the beautiful one. We are kicking off at 7.30pm and I get there in good time so I can stop by the shops and pick up a drink and a sandwich based dinner to gorge on while I re-read my notes and make sure that all the interesting facts and funny stories stick in my brain. Whilst I am not a natural speaker, I have always forced myself into it and I genuinely enjoy being able to introduce people to new wines, new information and more tan anything simplify the attitude towards wine. This one I must confess though I am struggling with, last weekend was all about Brazil and the wines that we import from this emerging country and in the back of my mind is begining thoughts about the wines that we are showing tomorrow. I arrive however at Helensburgh at the local yacht club and get myself set up and meet the first arrivals of a truely kind and friendly bunch of wine enthusiasts and most of my anxieties are laid to rest.
We kick off with the Cava Rosado from Bodegas Escudero in Rioja, followed up by a variety of light refreshing whites from the Mercedes Eguren Sauvignon Blanc, through the White Rioja from Heredad Ugarte up to the Verdejo from Protos that I know if all else fails is alwasy a show stopper.
The reds are a fairly standard run through in terms of the style: Crianza, Reserva, Gran Reserva etc. The wines however are really interesting and gretly recieved the Crianza and Reserva both from Heredad Ugarte appeal to different people depending on their preference. The Gran Reserva goes out of Rioja and on to Protos from the Ribera del Duero. A 2004 Vintage this is a corker of a wine and really interesting to delve into and watch it evolve in the glass as the air gets to it. We finish (as I always try to) with something completely different. A Rioja, a reserva by technicalities but just sublime and to my taste owing more to a complex Bordeaux this is the wonderful world of Bodegas Valsacro and their wine Valsacro Dioro. from Ancient vines, they could have kept this in oak for a few more months and stuck a shiny Gran Reserva label on this, as it is they do not even advertise the reserva! Instead they opted to use the amount of oak this wine actually needed and left all of the evenings attendees finished on a high.

After the gruelling drive home it was straight to bed with no supper at 11.30pm for a solid nights rest before an early start to get to the office to catch up on a little of Fridays office work beore packing up the car (note to self always take the car to Edinburgh parking a van for a full day in Edinburgh is neigh on impossible, learn from experience!!) with the wines, trolleys and extra bits and bobs to see us through the weekend.

Today we are off to the 3 Wine Men event in Edinburgh where we are sure of some interesting chat, lots of enthusiastic wine enjoying public and of course the charismatic 3 chaps themselves, Oz Clarke, Olly Smith and Tim Atkin. For this we have the old faithful Reserve de Sours (great we can use the old "It's £12 per bottle, yes you can buy it from M&S but you pay £20 for the priviledge" line to its death!), 3 entirely different Gruner Veltliner from Aigner in Austria, 2 Shiraz from Songlines Estates (made by the legend John Duval), and finishing off as always with something totally different a Pinotage unlike any other, the unbelievable Welgegund. From the off the selection seems to have done the trick everyone loves the reserve de Sours, the 3 Gruner Veltliner spark everyones interest, the Shiraz speak for themselves and their legenday winemaker and the Pinotage is forced upon everyone if not by me then by all three of the Wine Men coming back for more after more after more! The event works on the Saturday in 2 sessions from early afternoon and a late afternoon stretching on until 7.30pm by the end of which everyone is dead on their feet from a long day but thoroughly enthused by such a positive reaction by everyone.

Home for shortly after 9pm for a few minutes relaxation follwed by another sound sleep before up and out again on the Sunday for the final session of the event this time from 12 noon till 4pm.