The Wine Festival by Albert Anker
OK, it wasn’t all that long ago and Olympia didn’t exactly look like the above picture when we went there for the food & wine fair.
I’m pretty sure Janie and I went more than once to this event, but 1997 might have been the first time.
The Standard gave it a short preview here:
Fine Wine & Food Olympia 10 October 1997 08 Oct 1997, Wed Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
So there it is – a classy booze fest.
My then-mate-to-be, Alastair Little, doing the celebrity chef bit. I don’t think we went to that bit – Janie and I didn’t tend to go to the big showpiece parts of such events – we just liked going around, picking up ideas and sampling things..
Who’d have thought back then that I’d end up getting to know Al so well:
Janie barely remembers the event at all, other than the vague recollection of going to such things a couple of times.
…and also the late summer for posh grub.
I’m not sure whether it was this occasion or another visit to one of these fairs, but I recall a very beautiful “English rose” of a young woman marketing Kentish wines, persuading me to try her wares. At that time (or at least this particular wine) was very ordinary wine at an above ordinary price. I have a strong memory of trying to find kind, encouraging and positive words about the wine without seeming interested in actually purchasing the stuff. She smiled sweetly throughout the exchange, so I am quite sure I got away with it.
