September 2021 Meeting

Our September meeting saw us back in Christ Church Hall for our ‘Night at the Races’ – dog racing. Everyone was given a betting slip and £5,000 in ‘monopoly’ money. 

There were 8 races in total and we were able to own and/or train as many dogs as we wanted. However, only 1 person could own or train each dog, so you had to make your selection early to avoid disappointment. 

It cost £100 to own a dog and £50 to train and if they should come in either 1st or 2nd, as an Owner you win £200 and as a Trainer £100 – in addition to any monies that you had placed on the dog as a bet.

Betting slips were completed and handed in before each race and returned with winnings or not! At the end of the evening, Isobel and Pat were awarded the bottles of wine with winnings totalling £8,400 and £7,600 respectively, with the wooden spoon awarded to Chris, who finished the evening with £100.

A big thank you to Graham H, Caroline and Kent for organising a thoroughly enjoyable evening and to Mary and Derek for organising the raffle.

August 2021 Meeting

For our August outing, a sunny day dawned and 14 members and 2 guests made their way to the Farnham Sculpture Park at Churt, Surrey.

We all met up at the Bel and the Dragon Pub for coffee, which was conveniently situated right opposite the entrance to the Park. On entering the Park we made our way to the Reception where we were each given a map of the 10-acre site which showed various routes over a 2 mile woodland trail with exhibits displayed every few steps.

There was no set route and everyone was free to wander! The exhibits are all outdoors and most are available to buy, with prices ranging from less than £100 to £95,000.

After meandering among the exhibits for a couple of hours we then adjourned to the Bel and the Dragon for a very welcome lunch and some wine may have been consumed too!

A big thank you to Graham B for organising our visit.

July 2021 Meeting

On 6th July, fifteen members (including a new member) of the Nutfield Wine Club enjoyed the club’s summer party at the local venue of the South Nutfield Cricket Club (SNCC). 

There had been showers all day, but fortunately the rain held off for our party, although temperatures were a little cool. We have had very few meetings in the last year, so members were delighted to see each other in person, and not be pixillated (that’s not a euphemism). 

Members enjoyed catching up, having a range of liquid refreshments and supper, and taking part in a quiz.

Thanks to Jim Paulett and the SNCC for the venue, Heather for organising the event, to Mary and Derek for the raffle, and Graham H for doing a great job of running the quiz. For the record, the Fortified Team had a comfortable win over the Fizzy team.

June 2021 Meeting

Due to the easing of Covid restrictions, on the 1st June Members and Guests were able to take part in our Tipplers Stroll and the extra reward was a beautiful, sunny and warm evening. 

Granted, there was more tippling than strolling but it was good to be able to meet ‘face to face’ and catch up with one another. 

We started off in the delightful garden of David and Jemima, who provided a wonderful spread of savoury nibbles, wine and soft drinks. All too soon it was time to move on to our next garden. 

Luckily, this was a short stroll up the road to Caroline and Graham’s. Here we were greeted by a further selection of wines (some home-made) and nibbles, which included an amazing chocolate fountain!! 

An excellent evening was greatly enjoyed by all who attended and a huge thank you to David, Jemima, Caroline and Graham for their generous hospitality.

Our next outing is the Summer Party on Tuesday, 6th July starting 7.00pm at the South Nutfield Cricket Club in Mid Street.

January 2021 Meeting

Once again, due to the current Covid restrictions, our meeting on the 19 January (which should have been our New Year’s Dinner) was via Zoom and it was Quiz Night instead!! We had 7 teams tune in and Francis was our Questionmaster.

Francis had prepared 7 rounds of questions, ranging from a Christmas Round, Gardeners Whirl, Food and Drink to Music, Covid, U.S. Presidents and Global! A very mixed bagindeed. We were all prepared with our pens and paper, wine and nibbles and our ‘thinking caps’. Perhaps the most important being the wine and nibbles!!

At the end of the quiz, we had a tie for first place with two winning scores of 48 points. Well done to Graham/Caroline and Denise. Other team scores ranged from 41½ down to 15½.

A big thank you to Francis for organising the evening and setting all the questions.

Our next meeting will be in February, the date to be advised.*

* Subsequently all meetings were cancelled due to lockdown restrictions until 1st June.

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.