Green & Blue and Azerbaijan

In the lead up to tonight's "something new" theme, I thought I'd share a couple of wine related firsts I've had recently.

I'm currently staying at East Dulwich in London's south-east. Down here is the lovely Lordship Lane, which I can encourage a visit to. There's not only some great pubs and cafes, but there's a fantastic wine shop, deli and bar called Green & Blue. These guys specialise in smaller producers with most of the wines being organic or biodynamic and the shop was voted Best Indepedent Wine Retailer in the UK, so you can be assured it's reasonably good. They also run regular wine events, with the tastings typically happening on Wednesday evenings (prices ranging from £16 to £35). So, if you're looking to try something new, head to Lordship Lane to find Green & Blue sometime.

The second story involves a night out at a friend's place. This particular friend regularly visits Azerbaijan on work trips and he thought we should sample a bottle of the local Azer wine. I loved the idea of branching out, but unfortunately we didn't like the wine so much. Not to worry. I've now gone from knowing nothing about Azer winemaking, to getting a small insight. And, while I certainly wouldn't profess to at this stage be a fan of or more to the point know much at all about the winemaking in Azerbaijan, I have since learnt that the country has quite a rich wine history - apparently before the arrival of the Arabs in the 7th century, the Tovuz region was known as the oldest land of quality wine-growing. Further, Azerbaijan and its western Gyandja-Tovuz region is traditionally a wine-growing territory home to famous Russian, German and Azeri historical figures, scientists, proprietors and millionaires. Interesting. For more, including how the French are now there trying to aid a renaissance of sorts, I can lead you to the website below.

http://www.vine.az/

Something new. See you tonight.