Chris Reed

I've only been to two London Bloggers' meet-ups, but I'm hooked. Organised by Andy Bargery, they're a great informal mix of chat, booze, interesting people, and...in last night's case, wine. Plenty of wine.

Rob Macintosh of Wine Conversation set up a table in the corner of the room, and invited London's bloggers to sample a selection of 9 wines (if you include Port and Sherry), all of which have blogs devoted to their production.

Vivanco Viura/Malvasia 2007, Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco - courtesy of thirstforrioja.co.uk
Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Weingut Clauer (and if you are really nice to me, a taste of Riesling Auslese 2003, Weingut Clauer) - courtesy of winzerblog.de
Higueruela 2007, from Sta. Quiteria - courtesy of tintoralba.com
Dinastia Vivanco Crianza 2004, Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco - courtesy of thirstforrioja.co.uk
Bellamarsilia 2007, Poggio Argentiera - courtesy of poggioargentiera.com
CVP 2007, La Casa de las Vides - courtesy of casavides.com
Syrah 2004, Cortes de Cima - courtesy of cortesdecima.com
Antique Oloroso Sherry from Fernando de Castilla - courtesy of jerez-xerez-sherry.blogspot.com (who also writes about sherry here)
Special Reserve Tawny Port, Quevedo Port - courtesy of Quevedoportwine.com

(pic by Peter Marshall)

Do vineyards make good bloggers? I'm not sure yet. But the idea of using blogs to add a bit of personality to wines has got to be a good thing. I will regualrly default to buying wine from a vineyard I've been to (both of them) if I see it for sale. And I guess a blog is one way to keep your vineyard's visitors updated wth news, should they want it.

And no doubt about it, Rob Macintosh is passionate and authoritative about wine. My favourite (which as luck would have it I seem to have won a bottle of), is the CVP. Looking forward to pulling the cork on it this weekend...