Liz had done a bit of homework before she booked this one. She and Mike had recently got engaged and wanted to celebrate at their home in Windsor, Berkshire, with six of their closest friends. They could easily have opened a few bottles of Prosecco and had a perfectly good night, but Liz wanted it to feel a bit more special than their usual get-togethers.
She chose the sparkling wine package and gave Jonny one main instruction. She wanted people to walk in and immediately feel that something had been organised for the occasion.
Eight people is a lovely number for this sort of tasting. Everyone knew each other properly already, so Jonny was not walking into a room full of strangers who needed warming up. They were there because Liz and Mike had got engaged, and everyone was already in the mood to celebrate them.
Jonny poured the first glasses and, before getting into the wine, asked everyone to say one thing they loved about Liz and Mike as a couple.
It was supposed to be a quick toast.
Ten minutes later, they were still going.
One story led into another and suddenly people were talking about holidays, old nights out and little things Liz and Mike probably had no idea their friends had even noticed. There was plenty of laughing, but by the end a few people were getting emotional as well.
Mike told Jonny afterwards that he had not expected that part of the evening to get to him quite as much as it did.
Eventually they did get around to tasting some wine.
Liz had wanted something beyond simply putting fizz in everyone’s glass, so Jonny talked through what they were drinking as the evening went along. He kept it relaxed because nobody was there for a wine lesson. If someone liked a wine, they could say why. If they did not, that was perfectly fine too.
That suited the night much better than making everyone feel they had to find clever things to say about what was in the glass.
Liz and Mike still wanted it to feel like them. They were at home with six friends they knew inside out, just with better wine than usual and Jonny there to look after that side of the evening.
The Henri Nordoc Chardonnay was one that stuck with Liz. She ordered a case the following week, which is usually a fairly good indication that a wine has done its job.
They have already spoken to Wine Night In about getting the same group together again on the eve of their wedding next summer.
I quite like that part of the story. They booked one tasting because they wanted to celebrate getting engaged, and it may now end up becoming part of the wedding as well.
For Liz and Mike, the engagement wine tasting at home in Windsor, Berkshire, was never about making wine the centre of attention. It was about getting their closest friends around the table and giving the evening enough of a lift that it felt different from any other night at home.
The ten-minute toast nobody had planned probably did most of that before the tasting had even started.
