It’s the time of year for good will to all, isn’t it? But in this technology drenched world, despite it being C* time, cowards continue to hide behind the anonymity of the internet and get fired up over the strangest of things. The C** word in question is Chardonnay. If you didn’t know already it’s experiencing a revival, and it’s got a bunch of C*** words seriously het up! Victoria Moore, wine columnist at The Telegraph got the brunt of it, she’s been blazing a trail of glory for Chardonnay all year (see here) and although I despise most of the use of the comments section following her piece, it has at least proved that wine really can get the pulse racing!!

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Here’s a little insight into what happened at the Ideal Home Show Christmas Drinks Theatre the other day, for a breakdown of my top wine picks and what they tasted like stay tuned for my seven days of Christmas series featuring all wines and gifts I presented at the show. Starting on the 1st December. There’ll be singing and everything…!
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With huge thanks to Harvey Nichols, Piggy Bank wines, Hardy’s, Concha y Toro, Sopexa and the guys at knockknockstuff.com who helped make my debut tastings at The Ideal Home Show happen.

People that work in the wine trade always have a story: a wine moment that sealed their destiny and career direction forever. Being born with a nose on the wrong side of dainty meant a lot of my fate was written genetically but my wine moment was relatively simple. I got a job at Christie’s the auctioneers in their education department, it was my first job after I graduated and I was organising the logistics and subscriptions to their wine tasting evenings. The nights were hosted by esteemed Masters of Wine that I had no appreciation of at the time and were attended by rich middle class men, their chums or their wives. As you can imagine, some of the wines we poured (and got to take home the leftovers of) were outstanding, nothing like I’d ever been exposed to before. ………

It’s the 1st November, which in my book means it’s officially time to start thinking about Christmas. It’ll be our first Christmas with Baby Bouquet so it’s going to be a really special time and I’m already thinking about decorations, presents, food and the root of all merriment…. Christmas wines. Our purse strings are even tighter than usual, maternity leave does that to your bank account, but you don’t have to splash out to serve some great wines! ………

MissBouquet.com is 3 years old this week! Can you believe it?

I’ve learnt so much along the way that I’ve realised I’m now fuelling my day job with knowledge I’ve learnt on the Miss Bouquet journey, rather than what started the other way around. I’ve found a whole new network of peers, inspiration and friends through Miss B that have nourished my thirst for wine, for creativity and for all things e-based. Electronic-based, I mean.

Twitter, facebook, Pinterest, WordPress, Blogspot, Vimeo, Youtube, iTunes, the iPhone, the iPod, the iPad….. Miss Bouquet would still be a twinkle in my eye if it wasn’t for all these electronic tools, gadgets and software. So it seems quite fitting that to mark the third anniversary of Miss B I’ve been invited to become a contributor at a new website called evines! If you haven’t come across it yet don’t worry you will, it’s a new kind of wine site where independent and savvy blogs, wine reviews and affordable wines deals meet in one place and feed off each other.

Give the e-world another three years and my bet is you’ll be seeing a whole lot more of this sort of e-co system around….