My bag is packed, my boarding pass is printed and I’m ready to head back to London! After receiving the good news of passing my WSET Diploma, I’m now headed to only my second experience of judging in a wine competition. For anyone who doesn’t know who the IWC are, or what it’s all about I recommend you read my post from November last year, detailing how it works. I had an absolute blast and thanks to being promoted from Associate to Judge, I can now travel for a full 4 days rather than the Associate maximum of 2.

The last time I went I had absolutely no expectations and to a certain extent, I still had my mind on the upcoming Unit 3 exam more than anything. Standing up and tasting 70-80 wines a day is no joke and it tired me out more than I had expected, but to have the opportunity to taste in such esteemed company, chat about wine all day long and meet lovely new people is worth the commitment (although the financial aspect is really very painful, coming from Barcelona). I have a few friends to catch up with whilst I’m in London but I intend to try and get a short post up everyday with the learnings from the day. This may prove to be a fools errand but I’d like to document it regardless, as you really do learn a lot from these intense tasting days.

Travelling is of course a good opportunity to catch up with some reading as well, and I intend to read the most recent ‘World of Fine Wine’ from cover to cover and perhaps even find a bit of time to read the rest of “Reading Between the Wines” by Terry Theise. All in all, a very vinous focused week and just what the doctor ordered! I’ve spent the entire of the last week fighting a nasty cold but to my relief, I appear to have recovered just in time. Here’s to a fun week ahead, filled with a real mixture of wines, new acquaintances, old friends and some very purple teeth.