Rotary Club of Billericay
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Home | Membership & Social Events | Wine Festival
Fri Apr 27th 2012
A very enjoyable social event - a day out at the Sunday Times Wine Festival.
The Sunday Times wine Club organizes an annual Vintage Wine Festival for its members and their guests, and this year's Festival was the best yet. The Festival hosted
Rotarian and Attendance
There was a full program, with every event planned and catered for from the moment we stepped into the car in Billericay, through the pre-bacchanalian snacks, then the highpoint of the day in the variety and scale of the drinks at the Festival, followed by the celebratory dinner and final journey home.
Most members
On arrival at the venue, we met up with our fellow participants and retired to a local Italian restaurant for some internal “insulation” before joining the queue for the Festival. Once inside we collected our “free” tasting glass and show guide to all the stalls, and started planning our route around the huge selection of winemakers and agents stands in the Hall.
As we made our slow progression around
Everybody took
A very enjoyable social event - a day out at the Sunday Times Wine Festival.
Sunday Times Vintage Wine Festival
The Sunday Times wine Club organizes an annual Vintage Wine Festival for its members and their guests, and this year's Festival was the best yet. The Festival hosted 
75 stands from 17 countries and over 260 wines for participants to try. Plus there are stands for food to help "blot" up the wine, and stands for wine accessories.
It's an opportunity to meet the people who make the wine, stop at stands for wine which we haven't heard of, or tried, and pass a totally enjoyable few hours as we struggled to sample the many wines on offer - somebody had to do it - - - and we did our best.
Rotarian and Attendance 
Officer Keith Wood had organized this very 
enjoyable day at the Sunday Times Vintage Wine Festival, held at the conference centre of the Royal Horticultural Hall near Victoria Station, London.
There was a full program, with every event planned and catered for from the moment we stepped into the car in Billericay, through the pre-bacchanalian snacks, then the highpoint of the day in the variety and scale of the drinks at the Festival, followed by the celebratory dinner and final journey home.
Most members
who participated met at Keith’s house in 
north Billericay at 3.00 p.m. from where we left for London by hire car.
On arrival at the venue, we met up with our fellow participants and retired to a local Italian restaurant for some internal “insulation” before joining the queue for the Festival. Once inside we collected our “free” tasting glass and show guide to all the stalls, and started planning our route around the huge selection of winemakers and agents stands in the Hall.
As we made our slow progression around 
the Hall, 
sometimes we tried new wines together, and at others, split up to pursue tastings at different stands as our particular likes and dislikes took us in different directions.
Whatever the wine, it was useful to compare notes on the different wines, and to find how different people liked or disliked different wines. One man’s wine certainly was another person’s poison.
Everybody took 
notes of their favourites and we exchanged
our thoughts and ideas as we made our slow way round the Hall, finally and regretfully leaving as the show ended.
We did make valiant attempts to sample the full range of 260 wines, but regretfully we failed and we had to leave, defeated, at the end!
Once outside, the car was waiting to take us for a restorative meal at "Gaucho" - a great Argentinean steakhouse in Swallow Street near Piccadilly Circus.
After a very good meal, and a chance to sample some 
more wine, we once again boarded the car to take us back to Billericay.
Many thanks to Keith for arranging such an enjoyable, and memorable experience!