St Albans Wine Club and Wines From the French Loire Region

 

Left Trevor Sharot, member of the Wine Writers |Association. Right Thibault  Lavergne, of  The Wine Story Club based in Little Hadham, Hertfordshire.

Verulam wine tasting club meets in St Albans, Verulam is the old Roman name for St Albans. Being a member of the wine club gives you the opportunity to taste new and old wines. The cost of joining for a year is low, only £10.  Members and their guests have the opportunity to socialise with about fifty local people, enjoying a Saturday night meal tasting a small measure of half a dozen or more wines. In the picture you can see on the table the two wine measures.

During the meal you are entertained by a talk about the wines. The cost of a meal with a chance to taste half a dozen or more old wines which have had time to intensify their flavours, wines at prices which some of the people attending would only pay for wines for special occasions.

My husband is a wine educator and a member of the circle of wine writers. I have only level one of the WSET but he has level four, the diploma, the highest level you can take unless you are in the trade such as a sommelier, wine shop worker. We drive out of London to Welwyn Wine Society, St Albans' Verulam club, and events at the Wine |Society's huge shop with an upstairs restaurant in Stevenage, as well as the Civil Service Wine Club meeting in London and other events such as the London Wine Fair. 

On Saturday Feb 2026 we met for the Verulam Wine Club's monthly meeting and looked forward to a seated meal, tasting ten wines, along with cheeses, salads, olices, bread and pate, all for only £18 per person. Plus an entertaining talk about each of the wines.

How do you manage to stay awake and sober enough to drive home? You can appoint one of your group as a designated driver, and he can just sip the wine and spit it out into a spittoon.  Usually spittoons are provided, for you to tip out leftover wine after sipping it, and the water used to wash out the glass.

In theory the organizers could ask the speaker to supply a couple of low alcohol or no alcohol wines among the selection but this is rarely done, except at huge wine fairs and conferences where those items are promoted by the manufacturers and distributors and advertising agencies and supermarkets.

Alternatives are to take a taxi home, call a family member to pick you up, or stay at a budget hotel overnight, booking early to allow time to shop around for a good rate.

On February 7th 2026 the guest speaker was UK based Frenchman Thibault  Lavergne, of  The Wine Story Club based in Little Hadham, Hertfordshire.

I like sparkling and sweet wines. and as usual, we started with a sparkling wine which as usual was my favourite until the last wine, a sweet wine, which took top place in my list.

We were supplied with a sheet about the wines, with space to write comments on the colour, aroma, flavour, and finish (whether it left a lip-smacking after-taste in the mouth).

 I also enjoyed all the cheeses including French brie. And  chutney dark red like strawberry jam but slightly savoury. The large olives were unusual. I should have asked the club's volunteer organizers where the olives were bought.

The Evening's Entertainment

Each table of the three long tables was given a laminated map of the Loire valley in northern France where all the wines came from.

Chinon is associated with author Rabelais, who lived about a century before Shakespeare and his name in French equivalent of Rabelasian, means epicurian, a lover of wine and food, French food and wine of course.

The local stone is carved out into caves which are cool for storing wine.

You can stay in an underground cave, an A and B. 

My wine of the night was Coteaux du Layon.

As usual the prices were only revealed at the end. That way you have an unbiased view of the wines. (we'd previously at another recent event had a comparison of Lidl and Waitrose wines, where about half the room preferred (voted for by a show of hands) the Lidl wine at under ten pounds.) However, tonight we had an opportunity to taste more expensive wine and most of the wines were about £29.

As usual the speaker offered a discount of ten percent off the wines he had displayed to those attending the event. 

Budget Events For the Public

If you want to attend a wine club event, or start one, you can link up with events in your area through Meetup and Eventbrite. Social clubs sometimes hold evenings of affordable wines. 

If you are organizing a special event such as a birthday, wedding, anniversary, Christmas or summer party, you might be interested in going to a dinner as a guest or member, or starting your own club. 

Clubs for financiers and investors, bankers, lawyers, university alumni, and trade associations, and wine educators and students, offer a chance to watch slide shows and enjoy tutored tastings of more expensive wines at more expensive events, which are free to wine suppliers, distributors, sommeliers, and those big buyers from supermarkets and others with big budgets working in the trade.

Raffles For Wine Bottles

At the Verulam Wine club at the door on entry you can buy raffle tickets for one pound. Half a dozen bottles were raffled, some being leftovers from the club[s previous events, Mostly it's a bit of fun and we don't win. But this time we won a bottle, which added to the jollity of the occasion. 

Prize Bottles And Gifts

You can also ask the organizer or speaker to arrange for the supply of bottles for the raffle. Or present a bottle as a gift to an organizer, speaker, or somebody celebrating a birthday.  

The Wine Story Club. 2 Hadham Hall, Little Hadham SG11 2AU, Hertford.

Wine Tasting Clubs & Wine (Buying) Clubs

Wine Tasting Clubs enable you to meet others to enjoy educational tastings.

Wine Sellers have wine clubs which offer subscriptions services delivering cases of wine each month. Some of them also organize wine tastings in shops.

The club cannot order wine at wholesale prices and sell them on to members at retail prices without getting a trading license. However they could buy a case at wholesale prices to serve at events such as a Christmas party. And they can serve tiny tasting measures without the license needed for selling or serving full size bottles. If you need or want to know, check the latest regulations in your building, area and country.

Event Alcohol Bans And Permission

In addition to legal requirements, some premises such a churches, temples, and schools, may forbid the serving of alcohol on their main premises and hired rooms, annexes and outbuildings. This could prohibit serving wine at a Christmas party, wedding reception, or a visiting speaker offering the audience glasses of wine. Check alcohol permission to be sure the fun and informative event you envisage will be allowed.

Useful Websites On Wine Clubs

The Wine Story Club

https://www.thewinestoryclub.com/

Cave Hotels

https://www.anjou-loire-valley.co.uk/eat-stay/where-sleep/gites-cottages/troglodyte

Verulam Wine Tasting Club

https://www.vwtc.org.uk/

Organizing Wine Tasting Wine & Food Quantity Versus Networking/Dating Meetup

https://www.reddit.com/r/EventProduction/comments/1fkyq2g/hosting_winetasting_eventhow_many_bottles_for_30/

Legal Wine Measures

https://www.popall.co.uk/news-publications/news/legalwinemeasures

Wine Measures

https://www.virginwines.co.uk/hub/wine-guide/wine-basics/how-many-glasses-of-wine-in-a-bottle

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

British Heart Foundation & Bottle and Glass and Measure Sizes

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/wellbeing/resolutions/be-a-savvy-drinker#:~:text=A%20standard%20(750ml)%20bottle%20of,bottles%20(just%20over%20two%20units

Wine Selling Clubs

https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/food-and-drink/article/wine-guides/best-wine-clubs

Please follow my blogs (on travel, wine and dine, dress of the day, writing comic poetry, save by bookmarking and share links to your favourite blog posts.

Angela Lansbury is the author of twenty books and ebooks on weddings, toasts, quotations, poetry and writing poetry. The latest book about travel and teaching and public speaking problems is called 

Embarrassing Moments.

Blind Tasting Wines, With a British Fish & Chip Supper

I went to a blind wine tasting at a wine club.

At wine shows, only experienced drinkers try to guess in contests oor people who hope that randomly they might win a free bottle.

 How do you blind taste a wine and guess grape and the country of origin?

1 Colour

Usually darker means older

2 Aroma

3 County

You can check which grapes are grown in each region and allowed to be used in a local wine with a specific coutnry or region or vineyard and winery origin.

4 Bottle

Darker bottles protect wines from light. Especially white wines. But customers don't like brown bottles so bottles are made greek occasioally blue.

5 Bottle cap

Some countries favour corks. Others favour screw caps.  

We went to a blind wine tasting in St Albans.

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Peter enjoying a guess the wine blind tasting evening at wine tasting club in St Albans. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Peter at a blind wine tasting, guess the wine, four whites and four red, with a small wine tasting measure for each person, and covered bottles. Best guess wins a bottle. Tie breaker is guess the price of each bottle. you hand in your sheet with your guesses and your name. After the winnders are announced you can take the covers off the bottles. 

We had a fish and ship supper, a pre-selected choice of three meals, two kinds of fish, hake or bream, or vegan, with chips or vegetable, served in  box, by a catering company.

Fish and chips. Photo from Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Many cities have a wine tasting club or group, or wine and dine group. Wine importers and shops can arrange wine dinners or attend an event where they bring wines for you to taste and compaare and buy a bottle or a case at a discount. 

This can be free, or subsidised, or paid for. 

Finding a Wine Tasting Group

IYou can find wine clubs and events for fund raising for groups. 

Starting A Wine Tasting Group

If you cannot find one, you could start your own. Over fifties and retired people, look for a group such as at U3A (Univeristy of the third age for the retired in the UK),. Alternatively, worlwide, you can find one or start one through Meetup.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Useful Websites

https://www.meetup.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans

Honey Bees In Dessert In The Ivy, St John's Wood, and Ivy restaurants in England, Scotland and Wales

Dessert at The Ivy, St Johns Wood. Photo from Sharot family.

For main courses my family had pate as a starter. For main courses the four diners had duck curry or duck salad as main courses. (The duck salad selection could have been bigger, said my hungriest relative who is a big chap.)

The dessert was honey them. In our picture you can see the honeycomb design, also the bee which is edible, chocolate.

My family have eaten there several times. The decor is kitch rainforest stained glass.
 

My family in London went to the Ivy in St John's Wood. Not the famous Ivy in central London.

St John Wood is a short high street in a smart area of London. Around the corner from Lord's Cricket Ground, which has a museum, and the zebra crossing where the famous photo of the Beatles was taken. Not far from Regents Park, London Zoo, and Baker Street with the Sherlock Holmes museum.

The Ivy in St John's wood had delightfully presented desserts.

The Ivy

120 St John's Wood High Street

NW8 7SG

Other branches are in the England, in Cardiff, Wales, in Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. The ones in England are in Marlow, St Albans, York, and other places. 

My family member says, "It's turning into an upmarket chain. Same every time. No surprises. You don't go there for novelty."

I thought the bee dessert was a great novelty.

Useful Websites

https://theivystjohnswood.com/

The Delights of St Albans from the Romans to modern times

 

Just driving through St Albans is a delight, especially at night. I love the uphill street with the ancient buildings. The black and white style of medieval buildings o Shakespeare's time were copied by the Victorians. 

Now the big chains have added the familiar menus of modern times.

Britain at its best, from all eras. Further on, other shops are on level ground.

By day I have visited the cathedral and the Roman remains.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury was born and bred in Britain, and has lived in the USA and Singapore. Her family has worked in or lived in Spain and Switzerland. 

She is the author of several books on public speaking and quotations.

She is a member of Toastmasters Clubs meeting on Zoom with visitors from the UK and USA, India, Sri Lanka, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Through the Toastmasters mentoring program Angela has connected with individuals in Vietnam and Romania, and Belize, a different connection each month. Please come to the next BHA Toastmasters meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon every month.

Angela is a member of Harrovian Speakers, London (two Monday evenings each month (BST or GMT) currently part in person and part on Zoom, and VP PR for BHA (1st Monday evening and 3rd Saturday afternoon Singapore Time; and TCA, one Tuesday evening a month, both currently on Zoom, as well as secretary for Singapore Online Dynamic which is online only and always, Friday evening 9.30 pm Singapore time.   

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Welsh Names, St Albans, Welsh For coffee and a toilet on trains to Writers' and Artists' Holidays in Wales - Live and Learn!

Window on Wales from Fishguard Bay Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Fishguard Bay Hotel, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury

Problem 1
I am going to Wales soon for Writers Holiday in Fishguard. I usually go in summer, but for 2018 the summer course has stopped but a long weekend course is available in February. I was emailed that new posts had been made in the forum of people who were learning Welsh on Duolingo. Another leaner asked?
How do you pronounce Welsh names?

Answer
If it's a living person, just ask them. If it's a character in a book, they are not around, consult a reference work.

I looked up a list of Welsh names, just out of curiosity. It reminded me of Welsh pronunciation of place names.

The big surprise was discovering the meaning of an English place name. Alban is Latin for mountain.  So St Albans - now I know a way to remember the name, and a Latin word.

Problem 2
I wrote on a forum on Duolingo:
Would somebody please tell me, for Welsh (and other langauges) a few phrases I can use on a train and at a railway station, such as 'where is ..' 'a cup of coffee' and 'the toilet'.

Another reader answered:

Ble mae'r . . . . . ffôn (Where is the . . . . . . phone) ....................tŷ bach (toilet) ................. allanfa (exit) ................. afon (river) .................. gwesty (hotel) .................. tacsi (taxi) .................. bws (bus) .................. trên (train) .................... tŷ bwyta (restaurant)

Faint ydy'r . . . . . tocyn (How much is the . . . . . ticket) ............. paned o goffi (cup of coffee) ............ bwyd (food) ............ brechdan (sandwich)

English - Welsh
bus - bws
coffee - goffi
exit - allanfa
food - bwyd
hotel - gwesty
How much is - Faint ydy'r ( my way of rmembering it is thinking : Have you a faint idea how much is ..?)
of - o
phone - ffôn 
river - afon
sandwich - brechdan
taxi - tacsi
toilet - tŷ bach 
where is - Ble mae'r

Welsh - English
allanfa - exit
afon - river (like the River Avon which is the same thing said twice in two languages)
Ble mae'r - where is
brechdan - sandwich
bws - bus
bwyd - food
Faint ydy'r - how much is
ffôn - phone
gwesty - hotel (think of a hotel guest)
o - of
tacsi - taxi
tŷ bach - toilet

Useful Website for Welsh Words
Welsh names
http://www.namenerds.com/welsh/trad2.html

Learn Welsh on
http://duolingo.com

Welsh Holiday Information:
http://visitwales.com

Writers' Holiday in Wales:
http://www.writersholiday.net

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on learning Welsh and other languages such as Italian, French, German, Russian, Hebrew. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Harrow Council Chamber, The Lights, The Mayor and The Mace

Harrow Council chamber is a wonderful tiny modern theatre with perfect acoustics. Our speakers from Harrovian Speakers (a branch of Toastmasters International) were fascinated by the lights and control of meetings. At Harrovian Speakers we limit speaking times with green orange and red lights, like traffic lights. But at Harrow Council they make do with only green lights. When the green lights are on you may speak. When the green lights flash you have one minute to go. When the light go off you must be off. If you refuse to go the mayor can stand up and walk out and the meeting is over.

Should a speaker be so irate that he attacks the mayor, the mayor is defended by the mace. The mace was originally a club, though now it is disguised by beautiful ornate decoration so you might not know its real purpose.

In 26 years of Harrow Council meetings the present holder of the mace has never needed to use it. Once in St Albans an irate person went to attack the mayor and was hit with the mace. This being modern times, the irate party tried to sue. However, the law was on the side of the man with the mace. So now, please sit down, children, and do what you are told!

(Many, well-behaved, school groups are invited to entertaining talks and walks around Harrow Civic Centre.)

Angela Lansbury, author, speaker.