Last evening I was lucky enough to enjoy a very tasty journey indeed….on a tube. No, not the London Tube, the WineTube!

Nikki Fletcher of Convivium Wine has developed an extremely innovative, original and refreshing concept around the exploration and enjoyment of wine.

Before I reveal a little of the evening, it will help you to know something about the WineTube and the WineTubeMap.

The WineTubeMap is very clever indeed. It has the look and feel of a map of the London Tube but it is ever so much fun!

There are seven lines in total:
Aromatic; White Central; Red Central: Easy Loop; Fizz; Rediscovery and Revaluation.

Each line comprises a number of stations. For example, on the Aromatic line, you’ll find Pinot Grigio as one of the seven stops. On the Red Central line, you’ll find stops such as Bordeaux and Rioja.

Just like the London Tube, there are interchanges (“Chance here for …”) . You might ‘arrive’ at the Sauvignon Blanc interchange on the Aromatic line but switch to White Central by moving on from SB to experimenting with a wine close in taste to SB but perhaps not something you’ve tried or even heard of before……anyone for Rueda?

Convivium are running series of series of eight events to explore the WineTubeMap in depth. The first of those exploratory journeys was last evening and I was lucky enough to be on the maiden voyage: “A whistle-stop tour of the WineTubeMap, wine tasting and food matching covering red, white and rose. With bites to match.” The venue was The Bon Vivant, Edinburgh.

Deeee Lish….

We ‘did’ the interchanges. What a ride….two styles of wine awaited at each interchange which required (!) to be tasted and compared. There was additional fun to be had at each intersection - eating the amazing ‘bites’ that The Bon Vivant’s talented young chef had prepared to complement the wines.

Read on. I defy you not to salivate!

• Sauvignon Blancs and goat’s cheese on oatcakes (Note to self: from now on, don’t spread goat’s cheese on oakcakes, use a little mini scoop (like the WMF one I use for cookie dough) instead. Ever so elegant).
• Chardonnays (loved, loved, loved the Bogle from California) and beignets of fois gras(interesting!)
• New World Pinots with savory sables aka cookies - easily the crumbliest I’ve ever tasted. How does he do that?
• Shiraz/Syrah accompanied by duck breast that had been smoked, on the premises, earlier that day.
• Pink Fizz (twice) with mini panacotta(made with pink peppercorns!). Hooray for pink!
• Mucats with the most moorish honeycomb I’ve ever tasted. Please sir, can I have some more?

What a journey! Well, someone has got to do it!

The concept of the WineTubeMap is very cool. And I really get it. The ethos is all about making wine more approachable, less intimidating and even more fun. This approach very much resonates with one of my missions at Gulpfood.com, namely, to make cooking less scary (I’m still working on it!) . In time, I hope to post a series of realistic recipes to get you out of a recipe rut (if you’re in one).

Similarly, Convivium reckons that lots of us are in a wine-buying rut, playing safe and sticking with the tried and tested. I totally get that too. Sound familiar?

Seems to me that the creator of WineTubeMap and I have a similar take on the important things in life – eating and drinking!

I think do believe that clever deduction makes it imperative that I attend the next seven WineTubeMap adventures……

WineTubeMap and details of the next seven events: http://conviviumwine.com/

The Bon Vivant: Shop, Pub (champagne available by the glass!) and Deli: http://bonvivantedinburgh.co.uk/

Tags: Wine, Wine Tasting