Welcome!
| 11 October 2009
Welcome to my brand-spanking new website. I’m so excited!
For those of you who know me through my events, I’m sorry! I know I have been prattling on about getting a site like this one up, but it has always been pushed to the back burner.
This is the site where I will be putting my reviews of events – those that I organise, those that I attend, accounts of wineland travels, meetings and the odd interview with wine people, thoughts on wine and tales of debauchery. As broad as that is, the ‘blog’ part is less fettered – a place for short entries, a bottle over lunch, ramblings, gripes, harebrained ideas, stuff.
For those of you who don’t know me, hello! Wine was my hobby and something of a growing obsession when I lived in my native New Zealand, but in 2002 it was time to do wine full time and that meant one thing – moving to London. Seven years on and I think of myself not as ‘English’, but certainly as a Londoner – naturalised British in two days’ time – but always a Kiwi at heart! Following an MBA in 2002-3 I was still naive enough to want to set up my own little venture - The Fine Wine Experience, and with the help of my wife Aiko, I haven’t looked back since.
It hasn’t made me wealthy, but I have become rich with fine wine experiences. I just love it! I get to taste, drink, eat the best, travel and meet amazing people. I’m not a snob, but I do believe in an elitism of a sort – there’s nothing wrong with striving for perfection. Indeed, the area that interests me the most, is where wine, food, dining and beyond are created by people with that sort of fire in their belly. Brett Graham at The Ledbury personifies that in its most relaxed, un-snobbish, Antipodean way. The first four pieces to go up on this site relate to 46 hours of back-to-back meals there. Those, and the other four cover the past two weeks.
I have numerous ideas for this website and there’s a lot I’d like to add, but I need to crawl before I walk, and with the great help of Philip Walsh of Terra Prime Hosting, wanted something clean and functional. Any feedback welcome send me a note via the contact page.
