RECENT MEETINGS
APRIL 20TH 2023
Society's Own Dinner
Presented by
THE TWAS COMMITTEE at
Quex Park, Birchington, CT7 0BH (The Function Suite next to the Quex Museum)
Note: Black Tie Event.
At 7.00pm for 7.30pm
MARCH 23RD 2023
Laurence Page from Page & Sons Wine Merchants
''My Life in Wine'
Lawrence Page, Honorary President of Thanet Wine Appreciation Society
At 7.00pm for 7.30pm
Followed by a two course supper
DECEMBER 14TH 2022
Christmas Party
Presented by Karen and her Committee at St Augustine's, 125 Canterbury Road, Westgate-On-Sea, CT8 8NL. At 7.00 for 7.30pm. A three course dinner with wines selected by members.
NOVEMBER 16TH 2022
'Wines off the Beaten Track'
Presented by Merein Overbeeke, Retail Trade Manager of Laithwaites Wine. Held at St Augustine's. 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Talk followed by two course supper.
OCTOBER 20TH
'Portuguese Wines - Dynamic & Diverse'
Presented by Sarah Ahmed at St Augustine's. At 7.00pm for 7.30pm. Talk followed by a two course supper.
SEPTEMBER 22ND
The AGM for Thanet Wine Appreciation Society
The Society’s Annual General Meeting was held at St Augustine’s Westgate with 46 present. Our Chairperson Karen presented a two-page report, a copy of which may be obtained by members on request. There were no contested positions, all officers and Committee members continuing over from 2020/21, except as specified below. Members present voted in our Chairman, Honorary Secretary, a new Honorary Treasurer, 1 continuing Committee member and 2 new. There remain 2 vacancies for further Committee participation. The elections were followed by brief debate with individual presentations to members and colleagues from the Chairman. We then sat down to a two course meal.
JULY 13TH
A Grand Day Out
Our amazing GRAND DAY OUT had a contingent of fifty on a coach arriving at Tenterden in time to grab a coffee and use the station facilities and board the Kent & East Sussex Railway which then departed for Bodiam where our coach then took us to The Goudhurst Inn where a Fish and Chip and Ice Cream lunch awaits. After lunch we took a short drive to the Hush Heath Winery - part of the Balfour Estate in Staplehurst. There was time both before and after the wine tasting for exploration. At 3.00 p.m. a 'Cellar Door Masterclass in Wine Tasting' was held in a marquee right at the edge of Nanette's Vineyard and a knowledgeable tour guide introduced a tasting of six Balfour Wines in a fun and relaxing way. The coach then departed homewards at 5.00 pm.
This was a fitting end to this, one of our most successful years and a tribute to the wonderful support which Karen and her Committee have received from the members, no thanks to Covid but thanks to Zoom!
APRIL 28TH AT 7.30PM
Society Dinner at St Augustine's
The Black Tie Event at Quex went off splendidly on 28th April 2022 at St Augustine’s. Eighty members turned out for an excellent dinner with wines expertly chosen by the TWAS committee. Many thanks to all involved. A fitting conclusion to our year, with our Grand Day Out on 13th July as a bonus (see “Future Meetings”)!
The Committee has taken on board members’ comments during the year concerning late starting and finishing times of our meetings. Unless there is strong opposition, we have in mind to bring forward the timing of meetings by 30 minutes, i,e., 6.30 for 7.00 pm. Your views on this are important and would be most welcome. Contact anyone on the Committee.
MARCH 16TH 2022 AT 7.30PM
Visit by Patty Green
First time visitor to TWAS, Patty is a member of the Association of Wine Educators. Her company name is Grapetaste (www.grapetaste.com). Patty holds the Diploma (with Honours) of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and the Sherry Institute Scholarship. She is a Member of the Circle of Wine Writers and is a WSET Certified Tutor. Her company offers services in corporate events, private tastings, courses on wine and trade and sommelier training. Her specialities include sherry, Bordeaux, Champagne, and food and wine matching.
Patty is a popular speaker with many wine societies, offering a wide range of events, competitive and otherwise. Her particular favourite is themed food and wine events but she encompasses any wine related topic.
Patty has been creating the wine selections for a broad range of bars, restaurants and hotels for over 20 years. To produce a commercially successful menu is a complex process which many businesses fail to master.
A very successful evening was had! Patty explained the creative process, sharing some of her secrets and experience, and introduced a selection of tasty and interesting wines to illustrate her tips and tricks.
FEBRUARY 17TH 2022 AT 7.30PM
Chris Scott’s Inaugural Wine Tour
Chris Scott will be familiar to TWAS members. During 2022 Thirty Fifty will be hosting a series of wine tastings in different UK locations under the name of “Chris Scott’s UK Wine Tour”.
Members of TWAS were very pleased to be included in this project. Chris is an outstanding speaker whose enthusiasm is matched by tremendous delivery and encyclopedic knowledge of his subject.
Notwithstanding the usual apologies due to Covid, nearly eighty members were in attendance.
JANUARY 20TH 2022 AT 7.30PM
Twazoom!
A very successful meeting was held by Zoom.
We carefully considered the format of our January meeting, having regard to traditional factors which affect attendance, such as the gloomy weather, absences on foreign sunny holidays and general “celebration fatigue” when we aim for something low key. Over 50 members joined in.
Robust support emerged in the production of the evening and we are grateful to our to wine presenters, members Karen, Gini, Anni, Jim, Anne and Peter all of whom actively participated with carefully prepared information on the wines to be tasted.
These were:
Tesco Finest Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough (W)
M & S Dog on the Tuckerbox Chardonnay (W)
Tesco Italian Blush (Rosé).
M & S Dog on the Tuckerbox Shiraz (R)
Barefoot Merlot Tesco (R)
Apart from number 3 (Blush), which had few adherents and attracted such comments as “like talking to yourself”, the other four wines were well received and our laser-controlled voting system threw up a clear winner in the Tesco Barefoot Merlot (£6.75 per bottle or £2.00 for 187ml).
Peter gave us a most entertaining talk on the “Tuckerbox” brand. All in all, a most successful evening.
The next meeting of the Society is to be at St. Augustine’s face to face on Thursday 17th February 2020 and will feature our long-time favourite Chris Scott of ThirtyFifty.
DECEMBER 9TH 2021 AT 7.30PM
'Would I Lie to You' ('WILTY')
As enjoyable as a speaker evening, but a lot less serious, this was a “home grown” event. It featured two teams of three TWAS members, each presenting anonymised wines for identification by the tables in the face of grossly misleading representations, aka porkie pies. Think of it as “Call My Bluff” out of “Pointless”? Hopefully, it repeated the success attracted by this formula on first presentation some years ago.
There was a very tight schedule bearing in mind how much chattering there was likely to be, between offerings! Teams were asked to talk for a maximum of 2 minutes each. The women’s tea, (aka the “Likely Ladies”) presented one white, one rose and one red, while the men (the “Beaujolais Boys”) presented one white and two red. Each team in turn took steps to confuse its opposite number and all tables of members present into identifying the correct wine. Amidst some hilarity and eloquent, albeit mischievous presentations, the Likely Ladies were popular winners. They received bottles of wine, as did their male opponents, but the latter had to make do with 0.187 ml.
The meeting concluded with a 2 course meal and an opportunity to consume the featured wines.
NOVEMBER 18TH 2021 AT 7.30PM
Clive Barlow
Clive Barlow, an old friend of TWAS from The Goods Shed in Canterbury, spoke on: “From Galicia to Rioja - A Spanish wine tasting.” This was Clive’s fifth appearance for TWAS, in response to overwhelming demand from the members. He did not disappoint, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject and humour. He’ll be back!
OCTOBER 21ST 2021 AT 7.30PM
Visit of Victor Maguire AWE MIH
It is with much pleasure that we report that no fewer than 82 members of the Society attended this meeting. Apart from being the first meeting in Chairman Karen’s new year, it represents the first face-to-face speaker meeting which we have been able to arrange since Lockdown struck in March 2020.
Victor Maguire is a highly respected speaker, who last visited us in 2017. He is a member of the Association of Wine Educators (AWE) and of the Institute of Hospitality (MIH).
His talk was entitled “To Oak or not to Oak – Is That The Question?’, a subject on which he revealed considerable expertise and some fascinating facts on the tradition of “Oaking”.
SEPTEMBER 15TH 2021 AT 7.00PM
The AGM for Thanet Wine Appreciation Society
The Society’s AGM was held at St Augustine’s Westgate with 57 present. Our Chairperson Karen presented a 5-page report, a copy of which may be obtained by members on request. There were no contested positions, all officers and Committee members continuing over from 2020/21, except as specified below. Members present voted in our Chairman, Honorary Secretary, a new Honorary Treasurer, 4 continuing Committee members and 1 new. The elections were followed by lively debate with individual presentations to members and colleagues from the Chairman. We then sat down to a two course meal.
JULY 22ND 2021 AT 7.30PM
Freedom Garden Party
The sunny afternoon in Preston started with a welcome drink, followed by Andy Maclean’s Swing Band playing for everyone.
The Hog Roast Supper was served at 5.30pm, followed by more music.
Wine was available throughout.
During the afternoon, members and their guests could try their hand at croquet and other garden games. Karen’s pool was also open for everyone.
Carriages were at 9.00pm.
A good time was had!
Thanks to member Olivier Wright for this spectacular drone picture.
WEDNESDAY 12TH MAY 2021 AT 7.30PM
Talk by Quentin Sandler - On Zoom
Quentin Sadler, one of the Society’s favourite speakers paid us a virtual visit. Quentin’s talk was wide-ranging but included:
Training - how and who
Wine critics - where do they start from?
Differences between high end and bargain basement wines, apart from cost
Interesting wine growing vineyards, countries
Buying recommendations
Anything that might interest us!
He also talked about two wines locally available, of his choosing, to accompany a home tasting.
WEDNESDAY 14TH APRIL 2021 AT 7.30PM
“Minis From Around the World”
The meeting was conducted by Zoom on the above date. Members were invited to collect the five wines suggested below, in bottles of 187mm available from Sainsbury’s. Each of them had a brief introduction from the members shown. They were as follows:
Mateus Rosé (Chairperson Karen)
Mondelli Catarrato – Pinot Grigio (Maureen Dunderdale)
Clearsprings – Sauvignon Blanc (Olivier Wright)
McGuigan – Merlot (Peter Pheils)
Campo Vieja – Rioja (Hon Sec)
This was intended to be a social occasion as near as possible to an actual tasting, members being free to provide their own nibbles! We asked each participant to prepare 5 scorecards numbered 1 – 5. We suggested large writing on A4 card or paper, which can be held up to your screen in a straw poll, including a prominent tick-box for “Would You Buy Again?”
The winner was the Campo Vieja Rioja.
