The first tentative steps into blogging...

Here it is, my first blog.
You'll find that most of my input on here will be in the form of tasting notes and thoughts from various events/ tastings/ things I've opened at home. My content, certainly for the time being, will be in absolutely no chronological order, as I'm playing catch up with page after page of notes.


I'm pretty new to wine really. I began working in a restaurant two years ago with a decent wine list, having never touched wine before, and not really able to even use a cork screw!
Following a short period of wine indulgence and a few positive experiences trying some really special wines, I was hooked.
Everyone I have spoken to who is also really into wine seems to have their trigger, or way into this past time. For me it's California, after watching Oz Clarke and James May's big American Wine Adventure, I knew this was the area that would get me hooked. I liked the approachability of Cali wines (certainly that of the ones I could afford) and the attitude of its winemakers. Throwing off the shackles of tradition and creating 'forbidden blends', flouting the laws of prohibition (in fact increasing wine production during this time) and taking a very modern approach to wine making.

Around the same time as this epiphany, my grandfather had bought a load of wine, that shared his family name, 'Bogle'. Coincidence or not, Bogle Winery is based out of Clarksburg in California! Near Sacramento and the well known wine region of Lodi, a notable home for the mighty Zinfandel.
Ever since I first tried his Sacramento Delta Chenin Blanc, I knew California was somewhere I wanted to get  better acquainted with at some point, visit!

My first consignment of Bogle wines. Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Chardonnay.
And Olive (one of two cats I have) in the background