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To the Congregational Hall! …on Friday evening.

“Come along to the Wiv Soc Wine Tasting evening,” they said. “Sample the finest wines known to humanity, aka the Co-op along the High Street,” they added. “Squeeze in a cheeky king size saveloy from Papa’s on the way home” sealed the deal.

What about… forget that you have been drugged up to the eyeballs on Ibuprofen for the past fortnight, and any alcohol passing your pert lips is going to leave you in danger of performing a naked midnight moonlight dance outside The Nottage?

Apologies, Madam.

I was pleased to see to see the presence of a bucket, strategically placed beside each table at the Congregational Hall. This is my kinda drinkers I thought - live hard, play hard.

“You may like to spit or swallow,” remarked the Wine Toaster Supreme.

Blimey.

“We are not here for drinking,” he added. It was around this time in the evening that Ibuprofen started to kick in and all sense of rational thought was soon lost, come the first sip of the Co-op’s finest rose.

The Wiv Soc Wine Tasting Evening was actually a rather splendid, and thankfully reserved affair. Guided by the excellent and reassuring Dave Harrison, on offer at the Congregational Hall was a sample of three whites, three reds and a rose, all available at a very reasonable price from the Co-op, the very kind sponsors for the evening.

Having taken up a tactical position at the front of the Hall, @AnnaJCowen and I were first up for the sampling, each time that the charming Maidens of Wine went on their walkabouts.

I note that @AnnaJCowen didn’t spit.

Questions such as “what does the aroma remind you of” …or “what are you getting from your taste buds?” made the evening a genuinely co-operative event for the fifty or so Wiv Soc wine tasters.

“Is anyone picking up a whiff of gun flint?” came the call from the Wine Toaster Supreme.

Nope, but I did feel like I have been floored following the heady mix of Les Charmilles Pouilly-fume and Ibuprofen. The Congregational Hall playgroup pics of happy smiling families along the rear wall grew a wider grin as the evening progressed.

The session was paced perfectly, with the pitch between knowledge and guidance sitting just right as the Rioja started to flow. The Co-op offers all wines on a sale or return basis - you can buy up a crate of plonk, and then after the first bottle, decide that you would prefer four cans of Special Brew and get your money back.

Not many Wivenhoe folk know that; not many Wivenhoe folk ever have the need to carry this through.

We were told about the difference between “new world and old world wine.” I’m not exactly sure where Wivenhoe is placed in this geographic equation of glug, but the Congregational Hall was the centre of my wine world for Friday evening.

Many thanks to Wiv Soc, Dave Harrison and the Maidens of Wine for such an enjoyable experience.

Chin chin.