I’d forgotten what it was like to leave work on a Friday afternoon. When you are a freelancer, every day is weekend. But after spending five days working at the International Wine Challenge, it was nice to begin the wind-down to the weekend on the journey home.

I have really enjoyed the last week, but it has been physically challenging (yes, I know many people will be laughing to hear tasting wine all day being described as hard work). Today our panel tasted just under 120 wines, and it felt like just the right number. That’s good, because we really need to treat every wine fairly. We finished the day with a flight of sweet Sylvaners from Franconia in Germany. Five of the six were in the cute half bocksbeutel (the flat flagon-shaped bottle), and one was in a conventional bottle. We deemed five to be medal worthy, and they were delicious.

Now I’m almost ready to drink some wine. I’m looking forward to the football tomorrow (Man City play Man Utd, while Chelsea and Spurs are also involved in a significant game: optimum result, City and Chelsea win, giving City a great chance for fourth place). But I also have to catch up on all the work that I haven’t been able to do over the last few days.