A month or so after entering the Trade, and the largest annual event was coming to town, The London Wine Fair. Now for those of you that have never been…..it’s Massive!! Tables full of bottles for as far as you can see, with wine from all over the globe. Many from new winemakers, whom are desperate to find an importer into the UK market. For me, it was purely an exercise to experience new aromas and familiarise myself with all the different varieties. Obviously!!
I was accompanied to the event by a friend Ed Burnett, who was at the time an influential seller of Charles Taylor Wines. As a result I spent most of the morning hiding behind him like a little boy. However after visiting several of the Argentinian tables, dutch courage kicked in (I wasn’t really spitting for reasons I’ll explain in a later post).
I began to wonder off, like a bird fleeing the nest for the first time. Finally, I found an empty table and was engrossed in conversation for about fifteen minutes with a Portuguese winemaker. His wines were pretty good, and I was just so excited to be holding my own. The chat was flowing, and we were laughing at each others jokes whilst I complimenting his wines, he was complimenting me on my “shop assistant” role in my shop (it was written on my name badge). It was a kind of business flirting.
Ed suddenly appeared and before he had introduced himself, he had a half glass and the winemaker’s complete attention. And before I could say “Ed, back off! I saw him first!” The pair of them were swapping business cards. For a split second, I felt like the ugly friend. Then realisation hit, it’s all about who you are and who you know. I lacked on both!
Although I did manage to get one business card from a German winemaker, called Mr Kuntz….so I was happy.
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