Day 1, London wine trade fair

It has been a long and busy day at the London International Wine Fair.

It began early, and Shrek nearly died. He’s our younger cat. As regular readers know, we have a dog, RTL (Rosie The Labradoodle). She joined the family after the two cats, one of whom we adopted from Eric Clapton (the musician), and the other of which we got as a kitten (that’s Shrek).

RTL wants to eat the cats, so they live upstairs. RTL is restricted to the ground floor. This morning, as I came down at 6 am to fetch the pet food, Shrek followed me into the kitchen. RTL woke up and headed to the kitchen also. RTL saw Shrek and mounted a passionate pursuit.

Shrek headed for safe ground on the worktop. There was a stand-off, which ended when I chucked RTL out of the back door. It was a close thing. Why can’t they all live together in peace?

I arrived at Excel in time for an 0800 meeting with Elevage, the company I am involved with that is organizing the next sparkling wine symposium. This was followed with a tasting of Touriga Nacional that I was conducting for ViniPortugal, and then some tasting (including Equipo Navazos Sherries and Tapanappa). In the afternoon I was chairing the oxygen in wines debate, which went really well.

This was followed by a wonderful dinner at Chutney Mary in Chelsea. It’s a serious, high-end Indian restaurant. The wine list is really good, with a modest but broad enough selection, well chosen for matching with Indian food.

Now for bed.