Greg and Jenny are the sort of people who always seem to end up hosting Christmas. They do not seem to mind either. This particular group had been getting together for years, usually at Greg and Jenny’s home in Dorking, Surrey, with the same familiar mix of food, drinks and a Christmas quiz that everyone took far more seriously than they probably should.
This year, Jenny decided to change it. She booked Wine Night In for the twelve of them and asked Jonny to keep it festive and fun rather than make it feel formal. She went for three reds and three whites, with a sparkling wine to open because, as far as she was concerned, if there was ever a night for starting with fizz, this was it.
LazeeGraze charcuterie boards were ordered to go alongside, and that was most of the organising done.
The group was Greg and Jenny, Spence and Rachel, Rachid and Holly, Kelly and Danni, Sara and Paul, and Shannon and Mike. They all knew each other properly, so Jonny was not exactly walking into a quiet room.
The first bottle had barely been opened before Rachid announced that he was probably the group’s wine expert.
That turned out to be useful information later. The Christmas quiz normally takes centre stage at these gatherings, but this year the wine tasting games took over completely. Nobody suggested getting the quiz out. Nobody even seemed to notice it had disappeared.
Once the competition started, that was pretty much it. Rachid backed himself heavily from the beginning and spent most of the evening looking very confident about his answers.
Shannon did the opposite. She said straight away that she knew nothing about wine and was just there to enjoy herself.
By the end of the tasting, Shannon had finished top.
Rachid came third from bottom.
Nobody was letting that go.
The funny thing was that Shannon had not suddenly become a wine expert either. She just trusted what she was tasting instead of trying to work out what she thought the clever answer should be, which is usually a much better way to approach it.
Jonny kept the whole thing moving while the group did most of the entertaining themselves. There was enough wine talk to make it interesting, but the night never drifted into anything too serious.
It was still their Christmas gathering. Just with better questions than the quiz.
Greg clearly found a favourite as well. The following week, he ordered a case of the Rising River Merlot.
Jenny has already been back in touch about doing another Wine Night In next Christmas, so it looks like the old quiz may have finally lost its place on the schedule.
The only question the group seems to be asking now is why they did not do it sooner.
For a Christmas get-together at home in Dorking, Surrey, that is about as good a result as you could want. Same house, same friends, but a completely different night to the one they had been doing every December for years.
And Shannon now has twelve months to remind Rachid who the real wine expert is.
