Let’s Drink Wine

As I am writing this, I am now back home in Cambridge for the Easter holidays. It’s a couple of weeks in now and I’ve been back to work pushing the boats up the river Cam, working on my 4,000 word project due at the start of next term (yikes) and also enjoying the time that I have with my family, which has been great. Just before breaking off for the Easter, me and my housemates for the second year of university, all decided to go out for a very special evening. This evening was a wine night that was organised by the students in charge of the wine society at our college, St Cuthbert’s Society. At the time, most of us had just completed our summative essays so we were looking for a fun activity to do to celebrate the end of Epiphany term (the second term at Durham). As such, the wine social was the thing we went to in the end. It was my first wine social of the year so I had to pay a £5 student levy to become a member of the society, on top of the £10 that I had to spend for the evening. However, this did mean that I don’t have to pay an extra £5 for any wine socials that I may attend in the future. Although I wasn’t too sure how the wine social was going to be at first, it now seems as though the £5 was definitely well spent. I’m sorry, just £10 in the future for 10 glasses of wine. Don’t mind if I do! Yes, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist or the smartest mathematician in the world to see the problem behind that proposition.

I tend to be that sort of person who starts off with a wonderful plan about how certain things are going to be, then when I begin to put the plan into action, life gets in the way and my schedule has to change because of my weird way of organising things. When I got ready for the wine evening, I convinced myself that I was going have a nice meal, get dressed into a nice outfit and get myself prepared for the evening ahead, remembering to bring a bottle of water with me (because you know, it’s wine!). What instead happened was that I didn’t give myself the most amount of time to make dinner so in the end, I ate a dinner that didn’t end up coming together as I had initially planned due to the constraints on time. I then went to have a shower, only to get back into the clothes that I had worn that day already because I thought it was a nice outfit. Then I packed my shoulder bag with my phone, my wallet and my keys, only to walk out the flat without my water bottle, which was my only key to not getting completely drunk that night. What I also packed in my bag was a massive bowl-plate and a knife and fork. When I left for university back in September, my mum wanted to make sure that I had everything that I needed, without over-packing the car. As such, she asked me, “Why bring a bowl and a plate to university when you can have a bowl and a plate in one?” This question eventually led me to this one rogue wine night, where I was carrying my bowl-plate and cutlery in my tiny shoulder bag, in preparation for the food that would also be there. When people tell you that I only prioritise food, believe me when I say that they are not lying! When everyone’s thinking of the drink, I’m sat there wondering what type of cheese will be available. Overall, this meant that whilst I could have been prepared for the night ahead, I arrived thinking I had everything when in reality I had nothing. I was the literal definition of someone with all the gear who had no idea.

The wine night was a night that felt sophisticated. As I walked out of my flat, I met up with a few of my housemates for next year and we all walked up to the Bailey to one of the student houses, where the wine night was taking place. I was quite surprised by how well set up it was on the whole. It took place in the living room of the student house and on the mantle piece, there were the imminent ten wine glasses and ten bottles of wine from various regions in Italy. They had very small, dessert glasses but they were wine glasses nonetheless. Beside the mantle piece was a small table with bowls of crisps, cheese and crackers that I began to stare at imminently. Around this setting, were a congregation of young people from two spheres of the student cohort. Those who stood close to the mantle piece were the executives of the society, ready to narrate the history of the bottles they were sharing. Those who gradually began to fill the sofas around the executives, were those half interested in the sophistication of the overall practice of sharing the wine and also half interested in getting drunk. Once everyone had arrived, one of the executives lightly tapped the edge of his glass with his spoon to get the attention of his audience. From here, he gave a brief description of the white wine he was holding, a Pinot Grigio, that was also getting distributed round to the rest of us. It was here that the night began. As we drank the first Pinot Grigio, we all told ourselves “One glass, only 9 more to go!” and we jotted down our opinions of the first bottle on printed out score sheets that we were given.

There was a general dichotomy to the evening. In the first half, there was genuine interest expressed and genuine conversations taking place about the Italian wines we were drinking. After one executive gave his opinion about a wine, another executive went around to us individually to ask us what we thought of the taste of the wines and why. I was expecting to attend quite a relaxed evening but we began to get technical about it quite quickly. I am half French so whilst I am a wine-drinker, I do feel as though wine tastings can get a little pretentious at times. I did enjoy saying what I thought about the wines and the flavours that I could taste. However, one of the executives sat down in front of me and my housemates and took one sip of his wine and said, “I can taste grass and a hint of pear.” One of my housemates asked how he could taste pear in the wine and he said that the wine doesn’t necessarily taste of pear but it tastes like you’re biting into a pear. I nodded enthusiastically but deep down, I was still confused. At this point, one girl was happily tucking into the cheese and crackers so I decided that it was socially acceptable to do the same.

The second half of the evening began to taper off a little bit from the first. In the first half of the evening, the executive who was explaining the wines to us, tapped lightly on the side of his wine glass with his spoon and that was enough to get everyone’s attention. After glass number 5, they began to move onto the red wines and the room turned from a socially awkward space, to an area where everyone was quite happy to talk to one another. Unfortunately, the executive’s light tap on his glass was not quite enough to silence the din and so he had to resort to speaking over us. As I took a sip of water from my friend’s water bottle, my current flatmate, who was also present at the evening, began to deliver his verdict of the red wine he was tasting. I wasn’t sure what type of description he had to offer us so I began to await his verdict in intense anticipation. In the end he said “I thought it was a smooth wine that went down easily. I didn’t have to think too much about it. I can see it being nice with a chat.” In that moment, I could see that he was sat slumped on the sofa, toiling with his wine glass off the edge of his seat, amongst the rest of his friends. His description was not necessarily the most thought-provoking but in a weird way, I understood what he meant.

At the end of the evening, there were bottles left over that were distributed for free to any student that wanted one. I scored a white wine quite highly so I dangerously decided to take that one home. There wasn’t much left in it and I shared it with my housemates a day later. Out of all the wines, white wine is probably my favourite. It’s light and it reminds me of the time I drank a nice glass with tapas in a small restaurant whilst on holiday with my parents in Seville. That is a sophisticated thought that I like to keep in mind. Perhaps what was not quite so sophisticated was the rest of the night that followed. Clumsily walking back to the flat with my friends and then going out to Fabs, made things spontaneous. Thankfully, Fabs is a small club in Durham, only a short walk from where we all currently live so it made for a fun night with no stress. It was perhaps not the best feeling in the world waking up the next day but you’ve got to let go and live every once in a while. It’s important to be responsible when you drink but you’re also allowed to have at least one care-free night at the end of term!

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s blog post. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever been to a wine tasting before and I’ll be sure to reply to them. I love hearing what you have to say!

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See you next week,

Bye,

XOX, Juliette