It was my friend, David, who put the idea in my head.  Wine tastings might be a good place to meet eligible men – eligible meaning wine lovers who are affluent enough to be able to buy wine: surely the perfect combination.  Maybe this is what prompted me to fork out £45 to go to the Justerini & Brooks customer tasting last week, but it was also held at beautiful Somerset House and it’s not often you get to taste such a great range of fine wines from around the world.

Normally, I try to go to trade tastings as there is less crush, more focus and the chance to talk to the producers.  Also, in my new status as “press” I don’t need to pay.  Retail tastings are much more of a social event and there’s something of the free bar about them – I once left two friends alone at the Decanter Italian Fine Wine Encounter only to relocate them an hour later giggling and somewhat over-tasted in the Franciacorta room – you know who you are!

Anyway, I really enjoyed the J&B tasting.  With so many styles to try from around the world in only a few hours, it was a little overwhelming and difficult to keep focus.  Not only that, there were three masterclasses from JJ Prüm, René Rostaing and Davide Voerzio from Roberto Voerzio to choose from.  I managed to squeeze into the latter and learned how their focus on work in the vineyards and particularly on ensuring low yields pays dividends in the cellar.  I absolutely loved their:

• Barbera d’Alba, Riserva Vigneto, Pozzo dell’Annunziata, 2007 – wonderful plummy fruit burst, lovely smoky finish, aged in the same way as Barolo;
• Barolo, Rocche dell’Annunziata Torriglione, 2007 – powerful with an almost explosive fruit intensity, but still exceptionally elegant and very, very long;
• Barolo, Riserva Fossati, Case Nere, 2003 – from a poor vintage but fabulously expressive, silky and delicate

I was hoping to sniff out some good value options overall, but I’m not sure this was necessarily the place for that, so, of the wines I tried, I particularly enjoyed:

• Sancerre, Petit Chemarín, Vincent Pinard, 2009, £28.40 – poised and harmonious: ripe fruit with a lovely mineral flintiness, creamy mouthfeel;
• Weisser Burgunder, Trocken, Bernhard Huber, Baden 2011, £14.40 – hint of spritz, white peach and yellow apples, lovely dancing, fresh finish;
• Soave Classico, La Froscà, Gini, Veneto, 2009, £15.40 – orchard fruit and pear tart, with herbal tones, great body but not at all heavy, yum!
• Clos Martinet, Priorat, Mas Martinet, 2008, £35.40 – wonderful complexity and intensity: layers of bright red fruit, garrigue, herbs and tapenade – so persistent;
• Rosso di Montalcino, Le Ragnaie, 2010, £15.40 – softly structured, expressive, succulent, ripe red cherries – what a pleasure!

Back to David’s theory.  Well, I think it has some merit, but I’ll leave it at that as this is meant to be a wine blog, not a dating column.  Suffice to say, ladies, the ratio is in our favour…