The wines of Valencia

Recently there was a tasting of the wines of Valencia in Dublin. It turned out to be a really good tasting with some very tasty wines to try, from good Cavas, to fresh whites, some interesting reds and a few nice sweeties, including, paradoxicaly, a French Vin Doux Naturel (VDN)! Indeed, the range of varieties for tasting vould easily make you think you were in France - cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot, pinot noir, chardonnay and syrah.

Go west, Diploma!

And south, as well! On Tuesday 27th, Barry Geoghegan MBA was back in the saddle as the Diploma circus headed west and south to learn all about the Americas in one day! He started in North America (he even included Canada - probably only because there is a Canuck in the class LOL), headed into the USA then, after lunch, covered Chile, Argentina and other south American countries. The wines were, if I do say so myself, pretty darn good.

Diploma in Italy

Oh begob, back when I was a nipper, studying Diploma we had David Gleave MW for the Italian lecture. A hunky, smooth-talking Canadian he was always popular with the women in the class. Nowadays, we have Michael Palij MW, a hunky, smooth-talking Canadian...is there a pattern emerging here?

Landmark Masterclass

Yesterday, Tuesday 3rd November, Wine Australia hosted a Landmark Masterclass at which I was asked to present a range of wines which represented Landmark for me. In all, we had 18 - so it was a pretty severe selection from the 578 tasted in Australia!
The Masterclass was held in the Constitution room of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin - a lovely setting for the event. The selected guests included those who had applied last year as well a handful of journalists.