November 2020 AGM Meeting

Due to the current Covid restrictions, our AGM on the 3rd November was conducted on Zoom and eleven members ‘tuned in’.

Our Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer duly presented their reports and then we moved on to the Election of Officers and Committee. As we had been unable to get-together for quite a few meetings in 2020, all members of the Committee offered to stand for a further year and therefore the line-up remains the same:

Chairman : Val Large
Secretary : Francis Dickinson
Treasurer : Graham Bailey

Publicity : Janet Bailey - 01737 822333
Committee : Heather Charman, Mary Freeman, Derek Freeman, Kent Sandiford, Janet Bailey

With regard to the programme for 2021, this will follow the same pattern as for 2020, i.e. Members’ favourite wines in February (fingers crossed), Skittles at the British Legion, Limpsfield in March (fingers crossed) and Tipplers Stroll, to name a few.

The Christmas Party, schedule to take place on the 1st December, will now be a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, 15th December, 8.00 to 8.45 pm, where we will be discussing arrangements for our New Year Dinner in January (19th) and generally wishing everyone a happy Christmas and perhaps raising a glass or two, or three!!

October 2020 Meeting

Our October Meeting took the form of a Zoom get-together with 13 members, to hear a talk given by Max Conrad (bottom centre of picture), who works for Sainsburys online division.

Max gave us the benefit of his experience in trying different wines that were available in the shop. He said it was surprising that quite inexpensive wines could taste as good as expensive ones. He suggested trying interesting wines that were not necessarily well known or popular, for example wines from Sicily have yet to be ‘discovered’ and when they are discovered the price will go up. It is a fact that wines can be affected by ‘fashion’, for instance German Riesling is apparently not as fashionable as it was at one time and also this applies to sherry.

For expensive wines, supply and demand plays a very big part in the price. Wines can be expensive if a popular Vineyard limits the availability (for one reason or another) but concentrates instead on ensuring the highest quality of the wine that is produced.

Max told us that for a £5.00 bottle, the value of the wine is approximately 92p, whereas a £15.00 bottle, the value would be £6.00!

We ended the meeting with a question and answer session and Val, our Chairman, then thanked Max for an extremely interesting and eye-opening talk.

Our next meeting will be our AGM on 3rd November.

September 2020 Meeting

This was our first Christ Church Hall meeting since the lockdown in March and duly complying with all rules and instructions the Nutfield Wine Club was extremely pleased to be able to gather for our Race Night. Val welcomed members and one guest who were all suitably spaced with the hand sanitiser readily available. Kent had kindly organised this, with help from Graham and Caroline who had provided the projector.

There were 8 races and each race had 8 runners. At the start of each race the list of runners and each horse’s racing odds was shown, from which we all had to make educated guesses who would come first, second or third. Points were awarded as follows for placing the horses in the correct order, 1st – 3 points, 2nd – 2 points and 3rd – 1 point.

So, under Starters Orders we were off with the first race, the Pantomime Chase. This included runners entitled Fee Fi Fo Fum, He’s Behind You and Oh No He’s Not!! However, the winners for this race were Aladdin’s Lamp, Idle Jack with Twanky’s Widow coming in third. Further races were Old MacDonald’s Farm Handicap (with runners including WoofWoof, BaaBaa and MooMoo), The Villains Dash (Lord Sauron, Professor Moriarty and Count Olaf) and the Pasta Memorial Chase (Linguini, Fusilli and Cannelloni).

However, halfway through, Graham H. suggested a new way of scoring. Instead of awarding 3, 2 and 1 point for each correctly placed horse, the points would be based on the betting odds of the horses, so a horse coming first with odds of say 7 – 1, instead of just 3, the total would be 21 points (7 x 3), a horse coming in second with odds of 25 – 1 the total would be 50 (25 x 2), etc., etc. After 4 races, the leader with 11 points was Ian, but with this change of scoring, Angela picked a rank outsider at 33 -1 (Linguini in the Pasta Memorial Chase) and scored a winning 99 points!! No-one else could catch her!!! Pam came second with 80 and Graham B followed with 37 points. Francis picked all the right horses in race 3 and Chris selected all the right horses in 2 races but in the wrong order. Bad luck Chris.

Many thanks to Kent, Graham and Caroline for a very entertaining evening and to Francis for ensuring that all correct procedures were adhered to.

Our October meeting will be on Tuesday, 6th October, when we will be having a wine tasting evening with guest speaker, Max Conrad who is a Buyer for Sainsburys.

August 2020 Meeting

This was our first get together since the lockdown in March (apart from the occasional Zoom meetings). The day was overcast with a touch of damp in the air but, nevertheless, nine members and a guest duly met up at Lullingstone Castle in Kent. (Saturday, 15th August). 

Due to Covid 19, the Castle was not open to the public but the beautiful World Garden was. Just as a bit of background, the Castle is set in 120 acres of the Kent countryside and is one of England’s oldest family estates, dating back to Domesday times.

The World Garden of Plants, to give it its full name, is the brainchild of Tom Hart Dyke. His aim is “to show where the plants we grow today actually originate from”. The garden is divided up into regions starting with the UK and Ireland, Mainland Europe, Asia, Australasia, Africa, North America, Mexico and South America and contains 8,000 plant species, cultivars and hybrids which are planted in their respective countries of origin. A beautiful Jersey Tiger Moth made an appearance and Ian was able to take a wonderful photo. In case you are wondering, the Moth has landed on a giant model globe of the world, just off the coast of Africa, right in the Atlantic Ocean!!

After our picnics it was time to move on to the Roman Villa for those who had booked tickets. This is run by English Heritage and is an outstanding example of a Roman villa-house that once lay at the heart of a large estate. It was built around AD 100 and was occupied for more than 300 years by a succession of rich owners. Over the years the Villa was expanded to include a bath suite, underfloor heating and, eventually, a luxurious dining room with fine mosaics.

It was a very interesting and enjoyable day, with the sun making a late appearance. Unfortunately no wine was imbibed in the making of this outing!!!

July 2020 Meeting

Our July meeting took place via Zoom for the first time - a few members had trouble get on, but it was a fun alternative way of meeting up.

March 2020 Meeting

March saw 16 members gather at the Royal British Legion, Limpsfield for our Skittles Evening with Supper.

Names were picked randomly and 4 teams were quickly organised namely Denbies, Sedlescombe, Nutbourne and Godstone (all vineyards in the South East). 

We had time for two rounds of skittles before the food was served. Duly refreshed, we resumed skittling and, after 4 further rounds, the final result was a win by Sedlescombe (Graham H, Ian, Isobel and Val L) with the top score of 135. 

The player with the highest individual cumulative score was Ian with 50, who also achieved the top individual score of 12. Well done Ian! 

Many thanks go to Val L for organising the teams and Graham and Caroline for doing an excellent job on the scoring front.

February 2020 Meeting

For our wine tasting evening in February, Geoff, Kent and Janet introduced their favourite tipples from Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and Canada. 

I use the term ‘tipple’ as Kent deviated from the norm and included a Liqueur, but as it was a favourite tipple of his who were we to argue!). 

Members were then asked to mark each one (out of 10) for colour, bouquet, body and clarity. After much deliberation, the Wine Club’s members voted the Canadian Whisky Liqueur (or Fireball Cinnamon Whisky Liqueur to give it its full name) their favourite tipple. 

It certainly was a very heart-warming drink, especially no doubt on a cold winter’s Canadian night!! 

However, as it was a wine tasting evening it was agreed there should be a favourite wine – this proved to be a 2019 Reisling from South Australia, £10.00 from Tesco, selected by Geoff. Finally, to top the evening off, Graham H. couldn’t resist bringing his favourite red wine (it even had a cork not a screw top!) from the Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard in Robertsbridge – you can’t get more local than that which was followed by another wonderful raffle organised by Mary and Derek.