Just a brief post this evening. I’m tired, after a week’s enjoyable but thorough tasting at the IWC.

Today was another good day, with another fun panel (above). From my perspective the best thing about the IWC is the chance to work alongside colleagues, getting to know new people, and learning from the experience of tasting with others.

We did 90 wines today, which was quite a comfortable number. I’m really not into this test of bravado that some competitions seem to revel in, where judges do 150-200 wines without even breaking sweat. Every wine needs to be given a fair chance.

I got home quite early, had a quick kip, and then wrote a short article on Portuguese wines (deadline was looming), before settling down to look at proofs of Authentic Wine. I even made a start on the index, which according to my contract I have to prepare (or pay someone else to do it). I’m familiar with indexes (or indices?) from my time as a science book editor, but I’ve never actually prepared one myself before. As I read the proofs I’m writing all the relevant terms in the margin, then incorporating these into the index in as intelligent a way as possible.

This work is accompanied by a rather good red wine from the Alentejo: Solar dos Lobos 2008. Dense, structured, yet really fresh with good acidity and some stylish oak. It’s tight at the moment, but has the potential to develop into something really serious. A proper review will follow.