As a lot of you know, I got to attend the London International Wine Fair where I spoke about the Internet and winery collaborations with Oscar Quevedo.  After the conference, I took the opportunity to visit my dear friends at Borough Wines to do some tastings at the legendary Borough Market.

It’s a really interesting atmosphere, and most of the shoppers have a totally different attitude than the people at your average American market or French foire.  For one thing, I think Londoners have a tendency to buy one or two bottles for tonight.  Whereas French folks go to foires to get discounted six packs and Americans tend to walk out of stores with entire 12 packs, the Londoner shops for dinner.  Or for the next meal with friends.  This is a generalization, but I’ve heard it from other people and I really believe it’s true.

But the market doesn’t just consist of Londoners shopping for tonight’s wine.  You’ve got some tourists and looky-loos too.  It’s important not to spend too much time with idlers, but it can be fun to teach folks a little about wine and contribute to the atmosphere of discovery that surrounds Borough Market, a foodie heaven.  Plus, having one or two curious tasters can often draw a more serious crowd to your stand as crowds tend to draw crowds.

It was a hot day as London was experiencing its first bout of really nice 2010 summer weather.  That makes it hard to taste red wines so we also poured Chateau Grezan’s 100% Cinsault rosé.  Borough Wines knows I’m a sucker for Languedoc so I was only too happy to show off the Cinsault which presents as a dry, sturdy rosé.  Far from the watered down wimps some people expect from other parts of the world, Grezan’s wine can cool you down and give you some flavor.

And then for the serious folks, we could taste through the entire O’Podium gift set to learn the difference between three aging processes.  Cinsault is nice.  But I wanted a bigger, drier red to go with my boar sausage lunch.

Anyway, it was a really positive experience. And I got to be a part of this really cool market, playing behind the curtain, and drinking all the wine on tap I could handle.

Everybody who works at Borough Wines is a delight to be around and we had a good time after closing up the shop.