
This is not a wine column by Chris King
This is, simply, the rambling thoughts of a person who doesn’t spit. Gets Tired and Emotional™ when confronted by a selection of empty green bottles – on walls, tables, recycling bins.
That laughs in the face of matching food and wine. Not because eating is cheating. Far from it. But for the same reason that you’d eat last night’s cold takeaway from the fridge. It’s there. You have it. Let’s drink!
I hope this will be a helpful look at the independent wine scene across Leeds – or what could be coming to Leeds if you know where to look. Matched with a couple of recommendations (from the next column) as to what I will be drinking this – well, I am not sure we’ve fixed a timeframe.
I also want to make sure that I share the joy around the city. I have a favourite wine shop like I have a favourite child. Such things should be unspoken in print. If it were to become too obvious, it would just be a fan account, which helps no one if you live at a different compass point in the city.
The other realistic element to this feature is that it will be hard to consistently recommend something interesting that is south of £10, let alone £8, that has come from the shelves of an independent. Supermarkets can sell £6 bottles of wine because they buy in bulk, knowing that an advertising campaign on the telly will split us into camps of people who want to have fun or those who desire something saved from the fires of a demonic cellar.
A little bit of insider knowledge for you: you can actually live in both camps.
There are people I know who will only drink one type of wine. You may be one of them. However, it’s the exploration of the wine shelves beyond your favourite go-to-bottle that enhances the pleasure of getting, well, drunk on a sofa watching the picture become that little bit blurry around the edges.
So next time you are in an independent wine shop or supermarket, if you must, take half a pace to your left or right and see if there is something else to try. You might be surprised.
Or you might hate me for suggesting it.
Either way, cheers!
