Essex Wine School Review

With Christmas just around the corner, on Friday night the Essex Wine School (EWS) offered the perfect opportunity to indulge in an evening of champagne, port and cheese. Essex Wine School is an independent business that runs wine and spirit courses for everyone - from the casual taster through to fully accredited qualifications for sommeliers.

Neil, who set up Essex Wine School a year ago out of a life long enthusiasm for wine, had arranged the event at the function room of The Two Brewers in Chelmsford. A cracking venue that allowed for an intimate session with the group of 14 which varied in age and expertise.

Proceedings kicked off with a glass of Laurent Perrier 2004 vintage champagne and then we travelled through an array of white, ruby, tawny, late bottled vintage and then vintage port. Each tasting was combined with a different cheese (except the lbv for which we had chocolate brownies … yum) and engaging explanations from Neil. We were taken from novices commenting on alcohol percentages through to slurping tasters using a vocabulary of "prune", "citrus", "grapefruit".

What sets Essex Wine School apart from many other wine events is Neil's clear expertise and ability to engage the interest of the group and that he does NOT sell the products. This enables him to give independent advice and lets tasters relax without a hard sell.

Having only found the spittoon at the end of the two hour session (to be fair never looked!) we all left merry and ready for the short walk into town. Special mention to the finance team from Essex university who joined Jo and I in some further wine and beer tasting...

Essex Wine School can be found at http://www.essexwineschool.com where there are details on a variety of upcoming tastings around Essex.