Event: South African tasting with Henry Butler

After a fairly lengthy winter hiatus, due in no uncertain terms to excessive workloads on the vinous front, it gives us great pleasure to invite you along to the next instalment in the wonderful wine based non-fiction novel that is Geek Wine Thing.

To those of you who have been familiar with Geek Wine Thing from its very early days, when Danny was Master of Ceremonies and we didn’t frequent such salubrious venues as Hotel du Vin, we have a very special ‘return of the mack’ event for you this time around. After a little haranguing and promises of an enthusiastic and heckle-free audience, we are extremely excited to be welcoming back our dear friend Henry Butler, from The Butlers Wine Cellar, to decorate Geek Wine Thing with his unique and down to earth wine education and tastings technique.

You can all get very excited indeed as Henry will be arriving at Geek Wine Thing fresh off the last jumbo to touch down from the Cape of Good Hope, where he will be on a reccy to source South African wines for his fantastic shops. He will regale us all with stories and offer up some cracking South African wines for us to try whilst trying his best to educate the collective Geek Wine Thing palate in all things ’saffer’ wine.

As usual, the link at the top allows you to pay for your ticket and secure your spot at this popular event. Please book early to avoid disappointment, as we do expect Henry to draw a crowd! Its going to be good, as anyone who has met Henry will testify.

winebox.tv

I recently came across winebox.tv, an interesting video blog starring local vintner and ex Geek Wine Thing host, Henry Butler (of the Butler’s Wine Cellar).

Henry helped us get our little group off the ground way back in 2007, so I though it would would be nice to repay him by granting access to the vast readership of the Geek Wine Thing blog.

The recent Halloween episode of winebox.tv

Here’s what Henry has to say about his project:

The idea came when Euan attended a wine tasting at my shop, The Butlers Wine Cellar. We immediately had a laugh with the wines; Euan went away saying “You my boy, need to be on TV.” Lots of people say that, so I generally smile and pay no attention; two years and several beers later we have winebox.tv.

The Butlers Wine Cellar is my family business; we’ve been operating for over 30 years as an independent wine shop. People immediately have some preconceptions about it, as we don’t look like a chain, because we aren’t a chain! We sell great wine from £4.99 to £499, we sell locally and nationally, in fact internationally too. We hold many wine tastings, we make them fun. Lots of people in my mind forget that wine is just an alcoholic drink; it needs to be fun not complicated.

Euan and I thought for some time that the City has become so much more food conscious – we’ll vote with our feet on organic and seasonal produce and try new things. But we felt wine was the one area where people tended to revert back to what’s safe. There are many famous and consistent labels out there, but they’re boring: why stick with one brand when there are so many surprises out there to be explored.

We wanted to capture the unique atmosphere of our wine tastings on film. This is where Euan comes in, having years of experience in TV and IT, none of which has really amounted to anything, so he has latched onto me and won’t let go. I have no acting experience and have no wish to become an actor, but all is ok, as Euan has a heavy hand with editing and his makeup drawer is extensive. Wine TV programming has been hugely popular in the USA and we want to grow a network in the South East of people who want to know more about wine, and break through that sometimes stuffy façade. We’re lucky: the South Coast is tech savvy and has an inherent community spirit, which is ideal to grow our wine network. As a result we had over 1,500 visitors to the site in this first week.

Importantly, we want this to be a South East initiative – tourism will become increasingly important to the South East, which is why we have extended the range of our wine information with uploads of restaurant wine list reviews and visits to local vineyards. We think our proactive approach can only help to improve the collective industries. We have already filmed in Sam’s, Chilli Pickle, The Dyke Tavern, amongst others, and we will be filming our current wine course at Plumpton Wine College shortly.

We’d be happy to showcase any local businesses that have a wine angle they want to share: for example we are currently looking for people to review the many iPhone wine apps on the market. We want this model to grow quickly, we are keen for people to join us, participate, offer advice through Twitter. It is an experiment we are enjoying and really believe in the model.

Henry doing research in Portugal

Great Wines of Piedmont Thing

PIEDMONT? PIEDMONT? Where on earth is Piedmont? I hear some of you, who opted for History over Geography at GCSE decision making time, say. Well geekwinethingers, Piedmont is a province of north-west Italy nestled in between the Alps and the central plains that lead down to Tuscany.

Why Piedmont? Those of you who attended our Italian Wine Thing way back when, may remember my rather splendid map drawing indicating where it is, and you may also remember us discussing fine wine from Piedmont and in particular the likes of Barolo and Barbaresco. Well, we are very lucky to be able to warmly welcome a representative from a very exclusive wine merchant (Rebecca from Monforte Wines) who deals ONLY in Piedmont wines and who has a fantastic collection of stunningly made wines from the region.

The timing of this event is aimed to showcase the perfect time of year to be sampling Piedmont wines, attendees will be able to sample and realise how wonderfully autumnal/early winter these wines are and also what autumnal/early winter cuisine to match them with.

Rebecca has written a short note on the wines and her intentions for the evening, which I am very grateful for:

With Christmas just around the corner what better time to indulge in the sensory delights of Barolo and other fine wines that Piedmont has to offer? Rebecca Nightingale from Monforte Wines will introduce and take you through each of the wines with a bit of background and discussion on how they are made and the nature of the terroir that influences the wines from Piedmont so much. This will be a fantastic opportunity to find out what makes these wines so special!

The evening will begin with a short introduction to this noble wine producing region accompanied by a fantastic vintage (méthode champenoise) sparkling wine from arguably Italy’s finest producer of sparkling wines, Rocche dei Manzoni.
You will then taste an outstanding white and a Barbera, from Piedmont, before moving on to the star of the evening, the Barolo, where you’ll taste the latest vintage release (2006, which has been vaunted by critics as classic, comparable to the great 1996 vintage), from one of the areas rising young stars, alongside a much older vintage or two from one of the regions top producers.

This will be an evening of some truly unique and wonderfully expressive wines and we are very lucky indeed to be welcoming along Rebecca from her busy schedule to help educate us in Piedmont and what it has to offer. I know a few of you have been requesting Barolo tasting, so here is your chance to see what the fuss is all about.

We look forward to seeing you there on Tuesday 16th November from 8pm at Hotel du Vin, Brighton!

Geek Wine Thing team

Montes Wine Thing

WOW! For our next Geek Wine Thing we are delighted to be welcoming a genuine Chilean from Chile! Eduardo from Montes Wines will be winging his way over to us to showcase the best of the Montes Wines range.

Montes Wines have been around for some time now and are widely recognised as being the pioneers in exporting Chilean wines, they have given us such hugely popular wines as Montes Reserva series, Montes Alpha series and iconic fine wines such as the ‘Purple Angel’ and ‘Montes Folly’. The story of Montes Wine is an in-depth one which Eduardo will do his best to explain and demonstrate with a fine selection of the wines which have established the name worldwide.

pic: johnmariani

This is truly a fantastic opportunity to meet and quiz a representative from such a highly respected winery. A minimum of 8 wines will be on show and we have negotiated for at least one of their iconic fine wines to be present on the wines list. In addition to all of this we will be again sampling the delights of the Hotel du Vin kitchen, with their wonderfully diverse and extraordinarily tasty canapes.

A genuine Chilean from a genuine Chilean winery, amazing wines, great stories, the chance to learn more about Chilean wines AND great canapes! What more reason do you need to attend Octobers Geek Wine Thing! Lets celebrate autumnal evenings in Chilean style!

Tickets are available as always at 20 GBP per head and should you have any queries please drop us a line at james.reina@gmail.com

SEE YOU THERE! 8pm Tuesday 19th October, Hotel du Vin Brighton

Big Wine Dinner #2

Another quarter, another Big Wine Dinner. This time we invite you to attend our second one. After the great success of the first dinner where some fantastic foods were matched up with some interesting and very appetising wines, we will once again be venturing into the realms of great three course, Hotel du Vin kitchen-work and lovely vibrant wines.

This time round we will be reversing the task set out before us, starting out by suggesting the wines to be served on the night and asking the kitchen to come up with food matches with the esteemed assistance of the sommelier team (who shall once again be offering a representative for the evening to explain their choices).

pic: winedin.com

For those of you who attended the first one, I think you will agree it was a lovely evening of great food and company, washed down with some tasty Chenin Blanc, Syrah and Muscat. As the wines have not been selected yet I will ask for preferences to be tweeted for the starter and main wines. Would you prefer a white or red starter or main? Just drop us a line on @geekwinething. Dont worry if you arent bothered, its just interesting to see what people prefer. Also if you have an opinion let us know if you think it would be good to know the menu and the wines before the evening.

So, we look forward to seeing you all once again on Tuesday 21st Sept at between 7 and 7.30 in the Balfour Room for some meet and greet.

As always, any questions regarding allergies or anything else please either tweet us or email at james.reina@gmail.com.

GeekWineThing team

Sparkling Wine Thing

Ladies and Gentlemen, we cordially invite you to attend Hotel du Vin Brighton’s Balfour room on Tuesday 17th August at 8pm to help address the ongoing dilemma which exists in the consciousness of wine drinkers all around the world. The dilemma which can force wine consumers to shell out more than they need to, on occasions, and can also trick good folk like you and us into spending less but regretting it. ‘What is this dilemma?’ I hear you cry in sheer desperation. To champers or not to champers?

Wine with a bit of sparkle in has generally become more and more en vogue in recent years, due in some part to the improved affordability of this once super-premium style of drink. What used to be solely for the high society, politicians, royalty and anyone else living in a gated mansion with a groundskeeper and butler, has now become all things to all people. It has transcended the class barriers which once so perfectly encapsulated it and has come out the other end better for it, as producers compete for the all important mid price market share (£8-16).

So with this in mind Geek Wine Thing will present to your goodselves ‘Sparkling Wine Thing’. The aim will be for us to maybe help debunk some of the common myths associated with Champagne and Sparkling Wines and to put on show and taste a selection of fizz that will help us to discern the differences in style of a lot of these sparkling wines. Additionally, after much haranguing at Geek Wine Towers in the boardroom, we shall be tasting these wines blind in the first instance and discussing the merits of each before divulging the identity. I trust this will add a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ (quite literally) to the evening and make the experience all that more subjective for the attendees.

With all this in mind, it remains for us to say come along and join the fun as we get bubbly. Tickets are same price and available at the top of the page as per usual. Any questions fire them to me at james.reina@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing you there and bring along as many probing questions about the subject (or any other wine related matter) as you want, we are there to share our knowledge!

Geek Wine Team

Summer Wine Thing

Surely July is mid-summer? I dont know about you, but it certainly feels as though for once we have gotten away with a pretty good summer so far! (fingers crossed it continues). In which case, Geek Wine Thing will be trying to find some refreshing lighter styles of wine that would go down a treat at the beach/festival/garden party/barbecue etc…

So for our Summer Wine Thing we will be rolling out 8 wines that we feel either do a good job of refreshing those parts that are hard to reach, or offering a slightly different stance on the lighter end of the vinus spectrum.

In all honesty I’ve never been a big fan of lighter reds or rose wines but I have had my mind changed recently by a few which we will crack open , imbibe and discuss. As for the white wines, lets just say we have a couple of interesting summer numbers that will certainly appeal.

We do hope you can come along to our mid-summer tasting. As usual for our Balfour Rooms based meets, there will be 22 tickets available at 20 GBP each, and if you have any queries please drop me a line james.reina@gmail.com.

For your diaries the next events following this one will be 17th August and 21st Sept (next big wine thing dinner). See you there!

Photo: Amonja

Big Wine Thing: food & wine matching

June will be all about the food and wine. We will be cordially inviting you to attend a wonderful evening of good food and fine wine. The theme of the evening will simply be food and wine matching. Three courses lovingly prepared by the Hotel du Vin Head Chef and his team will be complemented by some exquisite wines chosen to match the food by the Geek Wine Thing team. A food and wine face off, if you will, but with the ultimate aim of marriages made in culinary heaven.

pic: winedin.com

This special evening will be hosted by previous Geek Wine Thing hosts James, Fergus and Mona, with Phil (General Manager) and one or two others present to make your evening a one to remember.

The menu will be set and there will be a vegetarian one on offer as well. If anyone has any specific food allergies or any specifications that the kitchen need to know about please let me know at james.reina@gmail.com.
In the meantime if there are any other questions feel free to either tweet away or send me an email.

Return to the Motherland, The Italian Rennaisance

Another month, another Geek Wine Thing. I start this blog by introducing a new method of naming our illustrious monthly gatherings, from now on each ‘Geek’ Wine Thing will be known as (Adjective) Wine Thing to make life easier in referring to past ‘things’, future ‘things’ and proposed ‘things’. The event is still affectionately known as Geek Wine Thing but this will facilitate a rather spiffing reference method. So we shall commence with the month of May 2010 and what will be ‘Italian Wine Thing’ as opposed to “that Geek Wine Thing we did in May 2010 where we all tried lots of Italian wines”.

Vini Italiani. Perche I Vini Italiani? Roughly translated as Italian wines, why Italian wines? Wine in all its forms owes pretty much everything to the Romans who came, saw, conquered and got bloody pissed doing it. They were the forefathers for our modern day oenological consumption, so I guess it should be important to see what their great, great, great, great, great etc. grandchildren are up to in the vineyards and wineries of Italy.

Now I am as guilty as anyone else in having a rather blinkered opinion of Italian wines that was formed off the back of a Sicilian father who fed me rather boring one dimensional tannic monsters. You either got a Chianti, a Valpolicella or one of them weirder named ones that you didn’t fancy ‘cos you hadn’t heard of them before. As for whites well don’t get me started, well alright get me started and then finished after two short words..Pinot, and then Grigio.

In the last 2 years though I have started to realise that Italian wines are quite possibly the most exciting wines that we have yet to discover. There is something for everyone. With the realisation that they too can produce Cabernet based ‘super’ wines without appellation control and charge in excess of 50 GBP per bottle for it, the Italians have taken to widening their portfolio. They have been searching out ancient grape varietals that have for so long sat dormant or growing wild in some moustachioed, beret wearing pensioners garden/land in deepest darkest Umbria. These searches have dug up some truly delightful grape varieties that offer something different and prove that the Italians really do have winemaking in their genetic make-up.

So please do come with us on a little trip down adventure alley or learning lane if you will. In a similar format to our Spanish soiree, we shall be having 4 whites and 4 reds and some chit-chat and sampling hosted by myself and Fergus.

So don your smartest Gucci, wear your pongiest perfume, drape your jumper over your shoulders and rev up your Vespa (after consuming some Gnocchi and Pesto). Tickets now available places limited to 22. Any questions feel free to either tweet away or send me an email to james.reina@gmail.com.

‘A pronto’ as they say in Italian or see you soon!

Fine Wine Thing

So here it is, at last a chance to indulge in Roman style oenological excess, obviously without the toga’s and the gratuitous carnal behaviour, ahem!

Geek Fine Wine Thing has arrived, Tuesday 20th April at 8pm in the Laroche Tasting Rooms at Hotel du Vin, 42 sterling pounds per head.

Be prepared to be taken on a worldwide journey of Fine Wine by our host Mona Khalife, Head Sommelier at Hotel du Vin. We have listened to attendees and we have answered with a chance to taste examples of Fine Wine from all four corners. White, Red and Dessert wines will be on show on the night. This will be a night NOT to be missed as Mona delves into the depths of her cellar to extract some corkers (pardon the pun). French classics, Californian stonkers, Italian Masterpieces, New World wonders, boy am I looking forward to this! as I hope you are too.

Places are limited to 12 as we will be staging this in the tasting room to get the full effect. Please book early to avoid disappointment!

These wines will be crackers and with the helpful guidance of an authentic French head sommelier to tell us a little about them and their style and why they are so bloody expensive, I am sure a great night will be had by all.