Busy couple of days coming up. This afternoon it's the Richards Walford portfolio tasting - they have some cracking wines on show, including northern Rhones from Chave and Barge, south Africans Sadie, The Foundry and Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards, fantastic Austrians and too many more to mention. I'm quite excited by the prospect. Then this evening it's the Association of British Science Writers annual party (I've recently joined) where I'll be meeting with new Mitchell Beazley Commissioning Editor for Wine, Susanna Forbes. Then after catching the 05.06 train in the morning to Gatwick, I'm off to Switzerland for a couple of days to taste the top Swiss wines. I don't know much more about this; the reason I'm convinced it will be a good use of my time is because I'm going with Sam Harrop MW (pictured). Sam's a dude, as well as being a serious rising star of the wine scene, so if he thinks it's worth doing, then so do I. We'll have some fun, with any luck. I really don't like the sound of the 05.06 train, though...