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The first Wrington Vale Wine fair, organized by John Urquhart on behalf of the Wrington Twinning Association, was held at the beautiful venue of Aldwick Court Farm and Vineyard, by kind and generous permission of Sandy Luck. This was an extremely successful and enjoyable evening, with around 120 people attending and 18 wines for tasting. Seven of the French wines came from the immediate vicinity of our twin village, Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, and were shown on the first two tables, sponsored by Heritage Wines, the English distributors for Alma Celsius – the new brand name for the dynamic wine co-operative representing 167 local growers. Six of the wines were single varietals and there was a blended Rose wine, which drew appreciative comment. The wines came from Alma Celsius have a different brand name for England, where they are sold under the label ‘Guillaume Aurèle’. However, they tasted just as good as when we sampled them in situ during our visit to Villeneuve earlier this year.   The Wine Shop from nearby Winscombe showed seven very good wines from the wider Languedoc-Roussillon region. At the end of the evening, the Rosé wines from both sides of the Channel were highly praised. The English wines of Wrington Vale (grown within 2 miles of Wrington) were headed by Sandy Luck’s own crisp Hathway White, a blend of 3 different grapes, as is Silver Medal winner Mary’s Rosé.  The vines were first planted in 2008 by her late brother Chris Watts and, aided by lots of local support at harvest, the project has gone from strength to strength. There are now 4.7 hectares of vines. Luke Ford planted Sutton Ridge Vineyard, a promising slope above Butcombe overlooking Blagdon Lake, in 2011. He showed a Rosé wine from Phoenix and Regent varieties from the 2013 crop to wide acclaim. From Nates Lane, and therefore nearest to Wrington, came Ingrid Bates of Dunleavy Vineyards. She had a limited quantity of her excellent Pinot Noir Rosé for sale, which recently won “Best local Wine” at Bristol Good Food Awards 2014. Cheese was kindly provided, Cheddar by Alvis Brothers and Caerphilly by Todd Trethowan. The Gurkha Welfare Trust, the charity supported by the function, and the Twinning Association shared over £1,250. The Twinning Association wants to use the money to support educational, cultural and sporting exchanges, especially by young people and youth groups. A rather more tongue-in-cheek account of the evening was written for the December issue of Wrington Village Journal: “Fury at Minibus outrage” Wrington folk attending the Twinners' Wine Tasting erupted in fury last night. Only one minibus was on duty to ferry them to and from posh Aldwick Court Farm Vineyard. Refusing to lay on a second vehicle, John Urquhart, from Butcombe, said: "You don't have to drink it all. Spittoons are provided". He was supported by Prof John Adams, squire of remote Butcombe Court and, until suddenly deposed last month, the boss of the secretive Twinners. "It was a dry old do." said one Wrington stalwart. "They only gave us little sips, until we cottoned on that you had to grab the bottle and help yourself. Then the booze ran out and they tried to throw us out. That's when a bendy bus was needed." His mate, who didn't want to be named, said, "You can't be doing with these people from across the A38. They should know that Wrington people don't spit."                                                                                                                                    (Text and photos courtesy of JU and JA.)

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