Wine appreciation update April 2021

The Dawlish and Distract u3a Wine Appreciation Group has continued to meet every month since Covid 19 hit us all in March 2020. During the lockdowns we have continued to meet via Zoom, and after a few months, we became more familiar with it. Meeting online wasn’t as convivial as meeting in a home, as we used to do, with 14 people around a table, but we gradually settled down to 4 couples, meeting in their own homes. Wine was purchased for each household to try, and arrived via a doorstep delivery – much more interesting than the old milkman!

Of course, not everyone felt comfortable with Zoom, missing the human contact. However, at our June meeting, we will be meeting in small groups – live, but still linked together by Zoom. And if all goes well the July meeting should see 15 of us together again, in one venue, with a table laden with lots of bottles for us to taste and compare.

One of the many things we have learnt over the past few meetings is that good wine needn’t cost a fortune. German Supermarkets sell a good selection of very drinkable wines at competitive prices. A recent foray into Uruguayan red wine proved to be not only a ‘first’ tasting from that country for most of us, but a real eye opener, with an unusual Tannat grape proving the point that ‘cheap’ is not  necessarily ‘poor’. Roll on July? I’ll drink to that!

Graham Pestridge
WAG Convenor