The More I Know About Wine, the More Emphasis I Put on the Story
By Tom Surgey, Author, TV Presenter & Wine Expert
There are people I love spending time with, whom I would never dream of hugging. We’ ve sat for hours and shared stories, gossip, insight and advice with total ease. I mean it deeply when I say“ look after yourself, see you soon” as we say goodbye. We’ ve bought each other wine and raised our glasses. Then perhaps another. That is our hug.
There are other people I hug instantly. Some I’ ve known longer, others for an instant. It’ s intuitive. Some of these people I have known their whole life, thrown in a bath, read stories to, put to bed at
the end of a busy day. With others, we’ ve arrived in each other’ s lives for a moment at lunch, a meeting, a weekend with friends. There is a natural energy that connects us, an easy informality; a wry acknowledgement that it’ s nice to be in each other’ s company for that time. Wine isn’ t necessarily a feature here. In fact, I’ ve had to stop drinking wine while bathing the children.
My greatest feeling, and I’ m sure yours too, is a comfortable, natural human connection. It is the greatest contributor to a good day. In fact, it is rarely a good one without it. Wine for me is so often a fasttrack to that position. It isn’ t the alcohol. I’ ve learned that over many years of diligent social experimenting. It’ s the theatre. The shared experience. An invisible thread connecting us. The acknowledgement of the moment. It doesn’ t have to be wine- but it so often is.
Wine has always been about this connection for me. Even in my most geeky and studious phases, I arrive at a natural line at which further investigation, analytical tasting and cataloguing of data becomes reductive. Sometimes it’ s almost immediately, sometimes it’ s after a minute or two’ s conscious consideration, but very swiftly wine slips back to being an emotive,
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