The Real Wine Fair - Welcome to Flavour Country
Every wine event has its own unique feeling, one animated by the energy of those exhibiting feeding off the moods of those coming to taste. The wines are the further catalyst for the enjoyment, but they also give their energy to and take their energy from the dispositions of those present. The buzz of collective enjoyment and sheer involvement is what raises these fairs to another level.
“Sensing Wine” at The Real Wine Fair (memories of ’14)
In the aftermath of any large tasting part of you wants to crunch facts and figures – publicise the nitty-gritty stats detailing how many people sailed through the doors, how much wine was poured, how much money was disbursed and generally dissect who did what to whom how many times under the wheels of what around the walls of where. The other better part of you would like recollect the emotion of the occasion in a moment of rare tranquillity – and bottle the positive feelings engendered.
Looking at the photos and little movies taken of the previous Real Wine Fair, impresses into my mind the fizzogs of the growers and the visitors, as well as the personalities of the wines themselves, in all their gloriously diverse shades, shapes and sizes. You can’t place a monetary value on the quality of interest, education, discovery, enjoyment and fellow-feeling generated during the two days of the fair and throughout the Real Wine Month with its associated events – it is not about seminal moments or the absolute marketable quality of such events per se but the sense of collectively moving inexorably forwards in the understanding of such wines, seducing hearts as well as opening minds (organic change, dare one say), a process similar to making new friends and keeping them for life. The circle of like-minds continues to widen as more people are brought into the conversation. That an agenda might be as simple as the desire to demystify wine, seems to mystify those who stagger under the weight of their preconceptions or have so much difficulty with the idea that good wine can be made without additives that they can’t bring themselves to taste the wines, let alone discuss them with a modicum of rationalism and humility.