Perhaps one of the greatest things about living and working in London is that there always seems to be something new to discover about it.  I’ve walked past the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)’s building many times (right next door, as it is, to the Royal Albert Hall) but confess to having given it little thought and certainly never venturing through their doors.

It really is an amazing building, with some illustrious names within its membership (Michael Palin is currently President and Sir Bob Geldof speaks there from time to time) and no less impressive from the inside. 

So why was I there?  Well Corney & Barrow have, for a little while now, offered wine tasting events and courses to our customers and we were very kindly invited to host an event for RGS-IBG members at the end of January. 

I spent a fun (and increasingly noisy!) evening with over 100 guests, tackling a wine tasting and a quiz with a very intentional wine and geography angle.

 Hardly surprisingly, we tasted wine from all over the world, from Ana Sauvignon Blanc 2011 to Château Bel Air, Graves de Vayres 2006 to Nelson Estate Cabernet-Merlot 2003 and many things in between.  This was a chance for everyone to experience the tremendous range of wine that the world (and C&B!) offers.  And if there wasn’t enough to do, there were 18 tricky questions to challenge guests whilst they tasted. 

Not surprisingly, the name of the longest river in Australia (combined with a tasting of Cranswick-Smith’s Bin 12 Chardonnay 2009) didn’t trouble geographers for long, but the picture quiz of ‘mystery vineyards’ around the world had everyone guessing.  Throw some contentious issues into the mix (there was a hot debate at one stage as to whether either the Atacama Desert in Chile or Antarctica is, indeed, the driest place on earth) and it all got quite lively!

Lots and lots of fun, though, and it was an absolute pleasure to host the event on behalf of Corney & Barrow.  Of course, Visit our website for more information and just get in touch if you would ever like us to do something similar for you and your group…