It’s wine time

California, thanks to its great climate and fertile soil, produces fantastic wines. With a tradition of harvesting great grapes dating back to the 1700s, it has real pedigree. But to ignore the rest of the world’s wine producing regions would be a foolish move. In fact, there is so much wine grown around the globe, it takes real experts to tell the difference between a Californian Chardonnay and wine from Chardonnay!

If you enjoy a glass with a meal, and really want to know what it is you are drinking, don’t you think it’s time for a lesson or two? With the help of experts you could be soon testing and tasting the best wines from around the globe.

Pretty soon it could be you who has the eye for a fine bottle of Beaujolais, or could get the dinner party rocking, with a full-bodied Rioca.

Italy, France, Germany, Spain all have vineyards that date way back, but let’s not forget the influence of El Paso as a centre of early commercial wine making.

And there are the so-called ‘new-world’ wines of South Africa, Australia and South America to discover.

Light and fruity, crisp tasting, elegant and well structured, how do you describe a wine?

We all have our preferences, but those in the know, know that a wine is judged on both its smell and its taste, and is best suited to different types of food.

So tell us, what separates an average wine from a good wine, and how could we learn the difference?

Wine tasting experiences could be the push you need to finally follow your love of wine, past just drinking it.