What you can see and do at the Wine Society in Stevenage

 

The Wine Cellar at The Wine Society. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The wine society is about wîne but there is lots to entertain and impress those who are not wine drinkers or don’t know much about wine.

So it is a good place to stop for a break on your way out of London going north or back on your way from Cambridge. 

1 I am always entranced by the spiral staircase under circular glass leading down to the wine cellar.

2 Another novelty is what you can do with cork or imitation cork. Make a stool.

Corks at The Wine Society. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

3 You can take them your old corks for recycling. The donated corks are sent to Portugal.

What's free or cheap?

At the door on Wed 29th October 2025 we were offered a tasting of two Greek wines. 

The Enomatic Machine

Except on special occasions, the enomatic machine is free offering you a teeny taste of several wine which they are promoting. 

Enomatic, which I have previously thought of as a generic name is actually a brand name, so it must have a capital letter for a proper name, and not be used for any device other than their own branded product. Eno is related to the name for wine, and matic as in automatic, a wine dispenser, operated by a card. In shops and restaurants or restaurant-bars such as machine is operated by a card which you buy. Like a train card, you can add amounts of money to the card, and keep using it until the money runs out, then top it up. 

The Wine Society has a well organized double room or shelving. You can look for a country. Or a style of wine such as Spritis or Sweet Wine, Red, white. Also beer. Low and no alcohol.

If you are not a drinker, or are driving and want to taste and spit, or sober up, or entertain a non drinking passenger, there are coffee dispensers which have drinking chocolate as well as fresh milk in a minifridge. Also water. And toilets. 

What to buy for yourself or non drinking friends to eat, or just general gifts? And chocolates. Seasonal items, for Christmas, when we were there. Boar pate. Duck pate. Olives. Crisps and nuts. The selection changes all the time.

They also have ends of stocks at reduced prices. And mixed cases of six bottles with damaged labels for about a hundred pounds or more. The tops of the boxes were open so we were able to look in and see what was there. You might not want to serve a bottle with a damaged label for a festive occasion, or in a restaurant to a VIP customer. But for yourself, or a friend who likes a bargain, that is an option. 

Useful Websites

https://www.thewinesociety.com/

Driving From London to walk in Cork in Ireland via The Fishguard Ferry, and back to London walks

Sculpture of Fish on Lower Harbour, Fishguard, N Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I go to Fishguard every year to Writers' Holiday. From the Fishguard Bay Hotel on the top of the cliff at Goodwick you see the trains arriving below, bringing passengers from London and cars driving up to catch the ferry going off to Ireland.

If you stay in Fishguard at a b and b, three things you should do:
1 See the museum on the upper floor of the town hall (a green building on the central square), featuring the tapestry of how the indomitable Welsh women wearing red coats and tall black hats fought off and captured the French would-be invaders. A proud moment in history.

Fighting Welsh Women In The Tapestry
Creating the tapestry is a modern achievement - see the video of how they commissioned somebody to do the drawings. First, they had to research. It is not a myth but a true story, well documented. Who was the lady who led the Welsh women to march around and frighten the French?

Whether your interest is Wales, history, motivation and morale, art, embroidery, women's achievements, or project management, or negotiating prices, the story of the embroidery creation will interest you. The designer researched suitable scenes, the buildings still standing, checked characters and colours described in historical accounts.

Then each scene was drawn to size, with enough action or background to each scene in the entire square. The drawings were converted into stitches. They had to source the hessian backing, find matching embroidery silks at the right price, find embroiderers to do each section. Finally, stitch together all the scenes. Then mount the embroidery.

Later, of course, display lighting, preservation, security, opening ceremony, publicity, and finally making the video - which had either be filmed, started earlier, or involved going back to find the people and places.

Check museum opening times which vary seasonally. You have a library and town hall and a shop on the ground floor. If you can't see the tapestry, or if you can, allow time for the shop which has tourist literature as well as postcards and souvenirs of the tapestry.

Drive or Walk to Lower Fishguard
Around the edge of the bay you can walk past the old cottages and a tea room and shop to the sculpture at the end. Seagulls will follow you. If you stop to sit on a bench and admire the boarts in the bay, while you eat a sandwich, the birds will hop around your feet, watching, hoping for a crumb or two or more. Look up and see Fishguard Bay Hotel. Check the opening times of the bar and restaurant in Fishguard Bay Hotel.

Go up to have a drink or meal,or Welsh cake for tea, admire the view from the terrace at the front. Read about the movies of Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (who visited and died in the USA) and about Liz Talyor and her husband (twice married to him) Welshman Richard Burton, who stayed at this hotel, and probably stood where you are standing, after they had filmed in the bay.

Fishguard Bay Hotel For Views and News Of History
2 Yes, go up to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where the terrace gives a lovely view on a fine day - longer hours of daylight in summer. From the bar or the tables by the window in the dining room you can look out over the bay. If you are in Fishguard just for one day or evening, go for a quick drink. If you are taking a holiday, go there for a birthday or celebration or first night or last night drink or meal.

Where do the passengers go? I've looked up Rosslare, and can't see much there.

Answer
I just spoke to a friend in London, whose family live in Cork. He said they used to drive regularly from London, along the M4 to Wales, up to Fishguard, stay overnight in a b and b. In the morning, they would catch the ferry across to Rosslare. They would not stop in Rosslare but drove straight across to Cork where they stayed at a b & b called Sea Breeze, nothing special about the decor, just friendly people who are their friends.

What is there to do in Cork? Mainly walks, rambles. The complete opposite to London.

You can imagine the walk around Cork. The crowds in Oxford Street in London. However, I must defend London. If you go to Cork and come back to London, looking for places for pleasant walks you will find them. The Japanese are impressed by London's parks. In the city centre, you have Green Park, Regents Park with the zoo and summer theatre in the park.

If you want to walk in London, there are many walks and the London Loop, which is signposted through parks and alleyways and pedestrian bridges and the old Grims's Dyke.

In Fishguard you can walk down from a car park to a promontory with ruins. See my previous posts on Fishguard for more information on places and more links.

Handy Websites
AA driving and routes
Ireland
Ferry
Wales
London

Britain
https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en

Fishguard Bay hotel
tapestry
Writers Holiday

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please save links to your favourite posts and pass them onto your family, friends and colleagues.

Bottle Basics - how to store those bottles you bought on holiday - and the cheese

Bottle Cork.

Problem
My parents stored bottles of Champagne upright in the house for years for special occasions. One or two of them had gone off. What a disappointment. Also an embarrassment, when we opened them specialilly for our visitors from France.

What went wrong? Now I know. But we recently visited friends living in the same street and they also had bottles in the house stored upright. What's wrong?

Now that we know, we assume everybody else knows. But they don't. So here's a reminder for you, and to check your family firends, nieghbours and colleagues, to be sure they are not storing bottles wrongly. Who should you learn from? We learned from the French and the professionals.

Horizontal?
Which bottles should be kept horizontal? Unopened bottles with corks. That way the cork is kept moist. If the cork shrinks, the air gets in and out. The bubbles escape. The aroma escapes. Hot air gets in and the wine spoils and goes vinegary.

Metal and Cork?
Many wine producers are turning to metal cap bottles. However, some prestige wines are still made with corks because it looks traditional and prestigious. If you buy old wines, or inherit them, or buy them for prestige or an investment, they will probably date back to the days when corks were widely used.

Answers
If you buy Champagne, you have probably seen bottles stored in warehouses, shops and cellars in a horizontal position. They are also stored for years in cool cellars. This is not just to hide them. It is to keep them cool.

Are other bottles not stored horizontally? Why? Are they kept in a chilled cabinet and just brought out for an event?

Champagne. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

A bottle stored in your warm kitchen near the stove is in a hot place. On top of a cupboard is a bad pllace because heat rises. In summer the heat is even worse. As for the tropics - !

Bad places to store good wines
Upright on the top of your kitchen cupboard.
Next to the hot oven and stove.
A well heated house.
On the table in the tropics.
Upright in the rack in a wheeled trollery.
A little cheap freestanding rack in a warm kitchen.

Good places to store include
A cool cellar.
An unheated outbuilding.
An unheated pantry with a grill to the cool outdoors.
An old fridge - temperature adjusted to suit the wine.
A wine compartment in a fridge.
A horizontal bottle rack in the kitchen only for items you will use soon.
A garage.

I don't like bottles kept in garages or sheds unless they are in a dedicated wine cabinet with a list of contents on the inside of the door or inside wall or a book stored in the cabinet. When you find an odd bottle or two in a garage or shed, you can never be sure somebody has not filled an old bottle with cleaning fluid or other undrinkable products.

Warning About Garage Storage
(In one case, people in the UK cleared out the garage of a deceased relative and gave a bottle, still with the label, to a raffle. The results were disastrous. I recall one permanent injury. One fatality. )
A couple in England were lucky to not suffer long-term effects:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1318462/Couple-nearly-die-drinking-antifreeze-thought-vermouth.html

Anther accidents in Spain involved a wine bottle used for another product then placed in a fridge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/man-dies-after-waiter-accidentally-serves-him-glass-of-detergent-instead-of-wine-10324018.html

Also check drinks which are not served from a bottle. In Indonesia I was served alcoholic drinks from a coconut. I was once in a group when everybody was served the same 'non-alcoholic' house special cocktail, at a time when alcohol was supposedly banned because of an election. I always ask to see the bottle.
http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2013/09/10/3845522.htm

A wine fridge can be expensive. The bigger and better ones have a lock. You can also store chocolates and medicines and photographic equipment. In the tropics you can use a wine fridge to store biscuits out of the way of rodents and insects without actually freezing the food. A white normal fridge suits a kitchen. A black wine fridge with a see-through door might be a decorative addition to a less used and cooler dining room or spare bedroom.

Blue cheddar. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Cheese
If you buy from a cheese shop, ask them how to store the cheese. A big cheese protected by a wax covering is protected from the atmosphere. As you cut it up and more of the cheese is exposed, it lasts less long. A cheese will have different shelf life if it is organic, soft, grated, wrapped in plastic, in a fridge, on a cheesboard under a glass cover which is sealed, or not a good fit. And so on.

Cheese Outdoors
We once had an au pair girl who kept her cheese on her bedroom windowsill in winter. The cheese bag handle or string was attached to the window handle so she coudl retrieve it from inside and so it could not fall off the ledge. (After that we were very careful about cleaning her outside windowsill regularly.)

Now we have cats and foxes and I don't like food stored outside unless it is protected. Restaruants have to aboide by regulations covering food, to prevent rats and other rodents, mice and so on, either eating the food or simply scampering across it and urinating into it.

I have given you a simplified version of what to check and why. I suggest you ask when buying wine. Most major supermarkets emply a master of wine as their buyer. You can ask to speak to staff or write to customer services. Also look for the manufacturer or importer and research the type of wine, wine bottle and closure.

Cheese
The same goes for cheese. Different cheeses, cut to different sizes, hard and soft cheese, protected by rind, or not, require different treatment. Some cheeses contain dried fruit, garlic, added salt. Labels may tell you. If not, ask.

Vineyard, Champagne And Wine Tours
You can take vineyard tour and go to wine tasting all over the world. When the guide asks 'any questions?', you can ask them how to store any wines you buy.

A good place to learn about wines is at the Denbies complex south of London in England. In summer you can buy tickets for either the outdoor tour, showing you differnet types of hillside, in sun or shade, from the hilltop. The other cellar tour shows you how the wine is made in barrels and stored - and you end up with a tasting. It's all in English, too, no struggling to understand a guide with a foreign accent.

Cheese tours are also fascinating. Again, ask about storage.

Travel websites
visitbritain.com
English wine. Scottish whisky.
visitwales.com (Welsh wineries and stays and tastings)

Wine tours and tasting UK
https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en/food-and-drink/beer-cider-and-wine

Wine tours and tastings France
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187070-Activities-c42-t205-France.html

Wine tours and tastings USA
https://uk.viator.com/USA-tours/Wine-Tasting-and-Winery-Tours/d77-g6-c21

Wine Tours, Tastings & Education
Several companies specialise in wine tours of Europe, South Africa, Australia, USA and worldwide.

You can also join wine tasting club in major cities and take a beginners' course with WSET (Wine and Spirits Education) in England and other countries. (I did level one. My husband did levels 2, 3 and 4 and has a diploma.

I go to several club dinners and tastings, and tastings, talks, dinners, at the Wine Society in Stevenage.  They hold events around Britain, London, and other cities, with talks by their own staff and/ or visiting winemakers from the UK and other countries.

Berry Brothers & Rudd, who have a big shop in London, England, also run more expensive wine tastings and dinners all year, good for a birthday or anniversary present or Valentine's Day gift.

Tips
To test whether your wines are still drinkable, buy or borrow a Coravin. This takes a tiny sample through what looks like a small Metal straw. Expensive to buy, but saves you money and embarrassment. See their website for pictures and demonstrations of how it works, as well as stockists.
www.coravin.co.uk

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my previous posts about wine tastings in the UK, England, Wales, Italy and worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

The Secret of Stoppers Instead of Corks In Your Wine Bottle

Problem
Which wines have stoppers instead of corks and why?

Answers
Madeira, port, sherry will have stoppers. They are all fortified wines. they don't need to breathe through the cork. The purpose of a cork in a bottle is to allow maturing in the bottle. But fortified wine such as Madeira, and any spirit, is sold ready to drink, doesn't need a conventional cork.

A stopper is a cork at the base, but it has a plastic top. You can pull it out easily, without a corkscrew, and push it back easily.

In addition, you need to put the stopper back it, because you might drink a whole bottle of wine between two or four people over the course of an evening, but fortified wine with its higher alcohol content is too strong, so you need a stopper to keep it - because it's too expensive to throw away.

Madeira In Cooking
What about keeping it for cooking? Apparently Madeira is used a lot in French restaurants. That is to say, according to books by experts, the wine is sold more to the trade than the public.

So there you have it. Mystery solved, about the corks. But another mystery, about uses for Madeira.

There is an antiquated sauce Madère which uses Madeira. We have been trying to find out for ages what French restaurants use Madeira for.

Maybe just for a tipple after the chef's finished the evening of cooking? Maybe the happy owner has counted the takings!

Nope. It is used for cooking. How do we know the Madeira is used for cooking? It is adulterated by salt and pepper because alcoholic drinks in every country are taxed, the charge is lower, so it can't be used for drinking, so the seller and buyer don't fiddle the customs and excise people by using it for drinking.

Containers
There's no chance of your being sold an undrinkable Madeira, nor of a burglar making off with the wrong kind by mistake. Madeira for cooking is not even sold to restaurants in the drinking bottle, but in bulk containers. I don't know what it looks like. I don't have a picture. I haven't seen one, so I can't tell you. But when I get to Madeira I shall report back.

If you know the answer, please tell me. It is all, as they say, a trade secret.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please see my other blog post on Luxurytravelforless.co.uk

See Ireland In A Week With Five Drinks, Waterford glass and Limericks

Map of Ireland from Wikitravel.

Ireland is known as the land of saints and scholars, and called the emerald isle.

Problem
From Guinness to Galway. Where to go, what to do, how much can I do?

Answer
I and three friends have been to Ireland. Here's a one week tour:

Ferry
Drive to Liverpool and catch the ferry to Ireland. Which one?

The eight-hour ferry is cheaper and my friends chose that. But now my friends say next time they'll pay the extra for the shorter crossing about two and a half to three hours. My husband went to Ireland on business by ferry and was in a violent storm and was violently sick and instead of taking the ferry back insisted on flying home.

Guinness In Dublin
First stop is Dublin's Guinness Museum.
It's world famous. Even if you don't drink Guinness, take a tour. (Spell it with double n and double s.) What else is the family famous for? Guinness Book of Records.

Jameson Whiskey in Dublin
From beer to whisky, no, Irish whiskey, spelled with an e. Jameson's. They have one branch in Dublin, another is County Cork. Take a tour of James's whiskey factory. You get a certificate to prove you have done it. My friend hangs his framed in the downstairs cloakroom.

A certificate from Jameson. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

If Whiskey is too strong for you, go off for lunch and finish with Irish coffee or a Baileys Irish cream. Unfortunately, there's no tour for lovers of Baileys

.Irish coffee. Picture from Wiipedia.

Waterford
Tour the Waterford glass factory. You might be able to buy a glass for your whiskey.

Clonmel
Are you tired of touring? A fine four-star hotel, with a swimming pool and spa, (not cheap), might be your base.

Apple Cider

Apple Juice
"A small company showed us how they make their juice. Everything is thrown in and pressed. Out comes a cloudy apple juice.

Tipperary
You will recall the wartime song, It's a long way to Tipperary.

If you can't sing, you might hope to get the gift of the gab. For that yo go to Blarney Castle. If you are brave, you lean backwards over the parapet, with somebody holding your legs, and kiss the stone which is above you.

One friend said, "Noo, Thank you." He claimed, "I've already done it before."

I also declined. I don't think my insurance covers it. Think of all the bad things which could happen to the man holding my legs. He might get stung by a bee. Or struck by lightning.

Limerick
You have to send home a postcard or email with a poem about limerick, a limerick, don't you! You can have plenty of fun in a pub writing a limerick with the help of friends or even strangers who will soon become friends. You need only one word to rhyme with Limerick in the second line. The word Limerick can go at the end of the first and last lines. Any rhyme will do for the third and fourth lines.

There once was a tourist in Limerick
Who caught a bus from town real quick
Never alone, didn't want to go home
Because he had kissed the Blarney stone
On a side trip to Limerick.
By Angela Lansbury.

I have several rhyming dictionaries at home. The internet will do the same trick. After I looked up the potential rhymes for the word Limerick on the internet I found several more ideas, such as the word lovesick.

I'll improve on my first limerick:

A lovesick tourist in Limerick
Caught a bus to the town, real quick
After he kissed the Blarney stone
He was never alone, didn't want to go home
From the lovely girls in Limerick.

How about this:
I went as a tourist to Limerick
I ate so much good food that I was sick
The hotel called me a doctor quick
Ever so helpful, he was a brick
They're lovely and friendly in Limerick.
By Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you want to write a limerick, words which rhyme are:
airsick, Alnwick, antic, ballistic, bedtick, Berwick, boychick, brick, candlewick, cherrypick, click, Dick, drumstick, flick, knick, lick, lovesick, Mick, Nick, nonstick, pick, prick, quick rick, Rick, sic, sick, shtick, slapstick, slick, spick, stick, tick, tic, trick, thick, unpick, unstick, Warwick, wick, yardstick.

Belfast and The North
If you have more than a week and want to tour the whole of Ireland, the top of my must-see list is the award-winningTitanic Museum, Belfast. The north also has the Giants' Causeway and The Game Of Thrones tours.

Useful Websites
Amazon (for a Christmas gift of the Guinness Book of Records, a guide to Ireland or a rhyming dictionary)
www.amazon.com
www.amazon.co.uk
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com
For Rhymes Online
https://www.morewords.com/ends-with/ick/
wikirhymer.com/words/sick
https://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme

FOR HOLIDAYS TO IRELAND
http://www.ireland-guide.com/ten-of-the-best/brewpubs-craft-brewers-and-cider-makers---10-of-the-best.11709.html

Guinness Storehouse and Brewery, Dublin
Beat the queues (Americans say lineups) with a pass, they say
https://www.dublinpass.com/dublin-attractions/guinness-storehouse

Waterford Crystal, Ireland
https://www.getyourguide.com/waterford-l1643/house-of-waterford-crystal-1-hour-factory-tour-

Jameson's Whiskey
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Products-g186605-d216616-Jameson_Distillery_Bow_St-Dublin_County_Dublin.html

Eire tourist board
http://www.ireland.com/en-gb/articles/jump-into-ireland/

http://titanicbelfast.com/Visitor-Info/
https://www.viator.com/Belfast-attractions/Titanic-Belfast-tours-tickets/
http://www.gameofthronestours.com
http://maggiecobbett.co.uk/general/across-the-irish-sea

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Saving Souvenir Corks

Problem
What can you do with souvenir corks? They have fond memories. They clutter up the kitchen drawer. You have more than you need to re-cork half-opened bottles. It seems a shame to throw them away. One day they will be a rarity.


Answers
1 Frame them as souvenirs in an oblong frame.
2 Use them to frame pictures of wine events or wineries.
3 Turn them into clocks.
4 Photograph them in blocks of nine and them throw them away.
5 Frame them in a circular frame like a barrel.
6 Frame them in a triangular frame.
7 Make a cork board or pin board. If desired, slice them up into lots of cartwheels or each one into two long semi-circular humps.
8 Keep them in a sewing box to stick pins and needles into them.
9 Use them on strings around a brimmed hat to keep off flies. (An Australian idea. I find it irritating as the corks keep bumping your face and head. Only for dressing map.)
10 Use one as a doorstop.
11 Display them in a giant glass jar in a bar or bathroom.
12 Use them to frame an unframed wall mirror.
13 Hand them as dangle ear-rings for a wine and cheese cocktail party.
14 Cut in half, make a slit, and use them for holders of place name cards at a dinner party.
15 Cut off a slice to re-balance a wobbly table with a short leg.

Story
Some wine tours or dinners include a demonstration of cutting the cork off a bottle with a sword.
S a b r a g e - cutting the cork off with a sword. (Don't try this at home.)

Tip
To remove a cork from a bottle without risking it hitting anybody in the eye or doing damage, instead of holding the bottle and twisting the cork, hold the cork firmly and gently twist the bottle.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Follow me on Facebook, like my pages and share my posts.

How you can identify bad wines and choose good wines at restaurants

Corked wine smells of damp cardboard. It is still drinkable but the smell is gained by an unsterile cork. Some harbour bacterial infections which get in contact with the wine. A particular chemical called TCA is the culprit. The maker can't tell. This problem is eliminated by screw tops.

Corked wines, pretty obvious, smell musty. A sommelier will detect lower quantities. The wine waiter would if he tasted it. Given the opportunity, if you are in doubt, he would often frown and grab it from you.

Wine can be maderised, kept too hot, smells like Madeira wine, storage problem, oxidation, smells like fruit cake.

Wine can be oxidised because too old, depending on how old you like your wine. Some would accept it, thinking it leather-y. Others would not drink it. Some people will collect wines back to the late 1970s. Others will only buy, drink immediately, or collect for drinking later, winds from the 1990s.

What about a wine that smells and taste completely sour so you want to spit it out?

This is not the same as people who don't like the wine, make a bad choice? You should really have the wine matched to your food, because this will alter the apparent taste. You can check styles of wine with food at home. For example, if you always order chicken and chocolate desserts, or if somebody in your family always orders steak and tiramisu, you can try out a wine at home so as not to waste money in a restaurant..

Serve two meals at home with particular wines. Note on a card index card how the first wine tastes with the main course and dessert. Check how a sweeter wine tastes with dessert. Then how the sweeter wine would taste if you tried it with the main course as well. Make a column on the back of the card index card of the wines which go well with your favourite dish or dishes. Make another column for wines which don't go.

Check the restaurant menu online to see which main courses and wines they serve. You can also check the year of the wine. Do they have wines at two prices, more for the older wine, or less for the older wine? Do you care?

This is up to the sommelier. Some sommeliers have an open bottle (left over from another table? - sh! - or more likely used to serve wine by the glass). Some sommeliers, it's even been offered to me by bartenders at a cheap place such as Water's Edge in Ruislip, if you ask, or are hesitating they might offer - they will pour you a tiny sip. Sometimes just one of the wine you are considering, or two if they have two rose wines by the glass.

I try not to try to many if I don't like either of the first two I'm inclined to refuse more out of politeness or embarrassment. Occasionally at a restaurant or a wine shop which has lots of open bottles for a wine tasting, you are offered even more, even three, (if you are pally or a regular or a big spender or at a wine tasting more) until you like one and choose to stick with drinking and paying for that one.

If you want to try regular tastings, a local wine shop might offer weekly events, sometimes free in the hope that you will buy wine. (Many regular customers feel reluctantly obliged to buy something.) Others are very happy to buy a bottle of one of the wines offered. Alternatively, if they don't like any, quite happy to buy somethings, in exchange for an hour or two's entertainment: drinks and nibbles for two members of their family, a chance to chat to the wine shop owner, a visiting vineyard owner, local shopkeepers, local people, visitors from overseas. if you'd had two glasses of wine in a local wine bar it would have cost the same and you would not have had a bottle of wine to take home. So it seems a reasonable deal to voluntarily top up from the shop (rather than the local supermarket) with one of the wines you want for the next weekend or for taking to a friend's party.

I have two birthdays and an anniversary to attend in the next three months. I will probably have at least one meal at home and at least one meal out.

I have already asked my family which sort of restaurant they would like. One member of my family likes Indian food. I wasn't expecting that. I prefer non-spicy, Italian. They have named a restaurant. Time for a sneaky peek at the menu to choose my dishes. Then at the wine list to select my wine. Rather than arguing on the day, I can discuss in advance.

Studying Wine
I have reached only WSET level one. That involved about 20 hours of studying with self-marked tests which you keep doing until you reach more than the pass mark. Then a one day course with teaching and tasting and tests, ending with a multiple choice test. (The first level might be taken by a waiter or would-be sommelier and worker in a wine shop, or wine buyer or wine enthusiast.)

Every meal with family and friends involves discussion of wines, vineyards, the wines, or the recent discoveries on the internet.

Another member of my family has passed level three and is studying for the diploma, which involves several exams, which are several weeks apart, spread over a couple of years, with many people re-sitting some modules.

We plot our travels around vineyards, wine shops, restaurants, wine events. We check the vineyards on google maps to see the slope, the sun and shadows, the rainfall, the vineyard shop, the local village or city shops selling wines and restaurants serving meals with the local wines.

Talks and Workshops
I am Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker. (Not related to the actress, who does wonderful publicity for the name which is shared by at least four people on the internet.)

I am the person you can contact f you would like a free talk to Toastmasters (of which I am a member of two clubs in the UK, probably joining another in Singapore) or a low price amusing talk to a group of under 30 for amateurs and novices on wine labels and wine personalities such as the merry widow, Verve Cliquot. I can also do a well-organised proper formal talk or workshop for a higher price for businesses or charities with a larger audience. (Anywhere in the world via Skype or if you pay for transport and any accommodation needed such as at a conference.)

If you want a workshop with slides and vertical tasting, the same wine such as one from Rioja through the years to compare different styles or production, go to grape deal.com

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, CL,  ACG, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker.
More about Angela Lansbury on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Amazon, Lulu.com

Wonderful Wines For Weddings, Romance & Surprise Novelties: Icewine For Valentine's Day, Wedding Wines, Cork Showing Klee; label with Dirdl

1 Squashed Wine Bottles Displaying Business Cards
The Austrian wine show at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall, London showed Austria's latest wines and wine related gifts. Business address cards were displayed on a flattened bottle. You can buy these bottles and use them to serve cheese and biscuits with wine.

For a special occasion such as a wedding, anniversary, Valentine's Day, birthday, or birth of a baby, you can have your wine or champagne bottle flattened afterwards as a souvenir. I found flat-bottles.co.uk . Their charge in Feb 2014 from the website was £12+£9 postage for a bottle without label. (You remove your label and save it and stick it back afterwards.)  With labels £18 plus postage. They also do champagne and beer bottles. Other sellers offer bottles as olive trays or spoon rests, with a wine quote (old wine like old friends  better with age) and personalised. The bottle in my picture was at the Austrian wine trade show in London and was made for Weingut Hellmer by an Austrian company. I thought it was flattened by www.mth.com.at but I haven't yet found the website. The bottle itself is from Weingut Hellmer, www.winzer-hellmer.at office email office@winzer-helmmer.at tel:+43 (0)2738/3149

2 Ice Wine In Icicle Thin Bottles
I loved the ultra sweet ice wines which have to be picked at night when the weather is icy, sold in a bottle slim as an icicle. I first found this delicious wine in New Zealand, then in Canada, and did not realise it was closer to home in Europe, from Austria. My favourite eisweins were by Lang; and by Zantho whose bottle labels feature the winery's local lizard.

 Lizard Logos On Bottles Of Sweet wine - how sweet!

For the lizard logo on bottles of ice wine www.zantho.com

3 Dirndl Dress On Labels
Wandering through the show was a girl wearing a wonderful iridescent skirt. The same outfit, a folk fashion of Eastern Austria, is worn by the girl pictured on bottles of wine. The Dirndl dress has a laced corset-style bodice, a full circular skirt, and often a white puff sleeve blouse, skirt lengths varying from knee length to ankle length. You can buy these dresses in various colours for girls of all ages from babies to brides up to grannies, and co-ordinating lederhosen for boys and granddads too.

This wine with its wonderful label is brand new, so they are looking for importers to the UK. If you want to buy a dirndl dress, google dirndl or Salzburger dirndl. The pretty dirndl dress featured in the film Sound of Music so many little girls would love to have one. I met Bianca, above, the daughter-in-law of the people who run the winery.

More details of the wines from www.schmelzweine.at

info@schmelzweine

t:+43 (2715) 2435. 

4 Klee Paintings on Corks & Labels
Another novelty is a portrait from a Klee painting on a cork. Klee was an Austrian painter. The whole painting is shown on a wine label.

For the klee labels and corks check out wwww.szigeti.at

5 New Baby Bottles With Hearts and Keys For Valentine's Day and Weddings
The same company makes miniature bottles, the smallest bottles in the world, holding just a glassful of wine, 125 cl, with trinkets around the bottle neck as gifts. You can have little hearts or keys. Or anything you want to order. The bottles come in conventional colours or silver.

More Details From:

For the bubbly bomb baby bottles, with Bubbly Bomb Vienna designs, Bubbly Bomb Christmas Designs, Bubbly Bomb Wedding Designs - www.szigeti.at

You can buy the bubble bottles from Selfridges, Conran, the British Library or from the producers' website. They specialise in sparkling wines. The bottles with the hearts and keys cost about £8.99, while the ones with silver bottles and pink ribbon are about £12.99.

www.austrianwine.com

For anybody in the trade some more details:

Szigeti, Am Anger 31, 7122 Gols

T: +43 (2173) 2167 F: +43 173) 2514

E:sektkellerei@szigeti.at

W:www.szigeti.at

Contact: Hans-Peter Hofmann

Importer Grays & Feather Ltd.

Haider & Malloth make little lightweight glassy coloured printed papers to go under glasses (in German Glasuntersetzer) Vol.1.

They also double as circular business cards for their marketing staff:

Christopher Malloth MSc, marketing und Sales, Haider & Malloth OG, Am Schrandlsee 2, 7142 Illmitz, Austria.

www.weingut-haider-malloth.at

tel:+43 1 512 29 90-0

More details from:

Facebook: www.austrianwine.com/facebook

Twitter: www.twitter.com/austrianwine

Austrian Wine Marketing Board

www.austrianwine.com

Visit their Webshop shop.oesterreichwein.at

info@austrianwine.com

Next year I hope to go back to their trade show and taste the other sweet wines I missed by wineries: Fritsch; Haider & Malloth Weinkellerei OG; Etz; and Weubrueder

WINE QUOTATIONS

Finally a few quotations on wine:

A glass of wine and thou.

Drink, drink, drink. (Drinking song.)

In vino veritas.

In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it. (Napoleon on Champagne.) 

Wine, women and song.

Angela Lansbury is the author of Quick Quotations which you can buy on line from lulu.com