It was a very strange RAW weekend in London for me this year!
Usually when I go to RAW,
I come a few days before and arrange meetings, tastings, events, etc to make
the most of my time, and to make the expense more worthwhile. But this
year, due to 'circumstances', I wasn’t able to do that. The reason being that I
had no wine available in London to use at said events; because my importers
Otros Vinos had sold it all and the last shipment that I had sent over quite
recently had been seized by HM Customs and Excise, and there wasn’t time to
send over another shipment!
Of course
there was lots of wine sitting at the RAW venue which I had shipped over
specially for RAW, but due to HM C&E Regulations, I wasn’t allowed to
remove the wine from the venue until after the fair – even though I’d already
paid duty on the wine. Go figure! But anyway, such is life.
The upshot
of the matter was that I had some extra days in London – with nothing to
do!! Apart from to relax and enjoy, that
is. But I seem to have forgotten how to do that! I always seem to be active,
running around, doing tasks, ticking items off my to-do lists, etc J
There were
many events being held in the days before, during and after RAW in restaurants and winebars which I could have gone to (see this RAW page), but my mind and
body seemed to be telling me to just stop it, let go and do nothing till Sunday
12th (the first day of the Fair). So I did. I went for a walk,
bright and early, in Battersea Park, had a coffee by the lake (and started
writing this post!).
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| Battersea Park Lake Cafe Anglo-Saxon Table |
But I was
soon interrupted - by the call of duty. There was champagne to be drunk! It so
happened that Caroline Henry was signing copies of her new book “Terroir Champagne”:
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| Cover of the book |
It was
being held at a nice winebar and restaurant called Cellar, at 1 Voltaire St in
Clapham. Within walking distance of Battersea Park, so off I walked!
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| Cellar, at 1 Voltaire St, Clapham |
It’s a
really interesting book, especially if you don’t know much about champagne,
like me! There’s a brief history of the Champagne region and an explanation of
why so many grapegrowers there use chemicals and why it’s so difficult to stop
using them. Then there’s photos, interviews and info on about 60 champagne
makers who are either organic, natural, biodynamic or generally respectful of
the environment.
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| Moi avec le book et le T-shirt |
So I ended
up staying there all day, tippling champagne and chatting to all the people who
came along to buy a signed copy of the book and to have some food and champagne;
which for the occasion was in fact Fruit de Ma Passion, by Vincent Charlot.
I met quite
a few interesting people over the course of the day and evening, though of
course I forgot to take notes and photos!
One person that I met was Cain Todd, a philosopher! Who’s also written a book –
called The Philosophy of Wine. We’ve agreed to barter a copy of his book for
some bottles of my wine! J
Another person that I met was Rosanna McPhee, a foodie blogger:
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| Rosanna McPhee, right (with Caroline Henry, left) |
And so it
went, until it was time to go for dinner!
The first
day of RAW was awful! I felt really bad and hungover. Not surprising really, as
I drank far too much Champagne the day before! And more wine at night! But still, I managed to do what
I had to do, ie pour my wines and talk about them for 8 hours non-stop. And it
was a busy, busy, busy for those 8 hours. It was so busy that it was really difficult to escape from my table
to go for a pee or to nip outside to smoke a quick cigarette, or even to get something to eat! J
But it
helped that all the wines I drank were natural. So they didn’t contain any
noxious chemicals which is what makes hangovers really bad. The only horrible
hangover effects I got were from the alcohol itself! Which can be dealt with,
by the passage of time and lots of water!
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| Me and my wine bitch! |
The second
day was much better, from a physical point of view, ie I went to bed at 10
o’clock the night before and slept like a log till next morning! The fair was
just as busy as the first day; I finished all my own business cards AND my UK
importer’s too! Day two was also easier easier because I had a helper at my table, so I was able to sneak off more often!
And so it went, another year at RAW. Am now back to the normal surreality of a small independent winemaker, ie pruning vines, fixing fences, bottling up, sending samples, preparing orders, going to tastings when I can, ...
Cheers!
PS, My next post, which I'm working on already, will be Part 2 of my previous post "Sierra de Gredos as a Wine Region", which I think focussed far too much on the negative side of the coin. The next post will focus on all the good stuff that's happening there.
