Grapes Alive! - The Lifestyle Blog from Organic Wine Club

As a vegan, one of the biggest obstacles I face when it comes to wine - aside from the difficulty of actually working out whether a wine is vegan-friendly or not - is pairing it with food. Traditionally, wine has always been paired with rich, animal-based foods, and all the classic pairings - Malbec and steak, Sauvignon Blanc with seafood, port and cheese- are out of the question. Looking in supermarkets, or scouting out a wine merchant, you’d be hard-pressed to find many plant-based suggestions to pair with the wines. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, though!

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I LOVE THIS WINE! Titouan has been one of my absolute favourites wines that we have been fortunate enough to carry since we launched Organic Wine Club! I will never forget the first time I tried Barbera, at a staff wine training session in a hotel where I was a restaurant supervisor. Back then the purpose of those sessions like those was for, well a session! But amongst all of them I discovered a wine that I actually sort of liked, and I fell in love with Barbera back then in 2009.

Fast forward to today, and after what seems like a lifetime ago I get to spend today exploring, sharing and gushing over this exceptional Italian grape and a truly exquisite organic wine. I’m sure that you may have read or listened to me drag on previously about this wine, but I promise I will try not to sound like a broken record!

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So we've all been there at some point, that dreaded part of being an adult and forced to deal with the age verification process, or as it's more commonly known, being ID'd! It's not a nice thing, trust me I know! Staff are trained to to make to seem like a compliment that you look so young.

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So it would seem that natural wine has varying standards of natural-ness and some wines can be more natural than others. But how can this be, nature does what it does? We are all aware if the difficulties that come from global warming, the rising global temperatures, the extreme freak weather anomalies etc, But, if we have learnt anything from Mother Nature, you get what you give, with the increasing number of organic and biodynamic producers, we are starting to experience life without chemicals.

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Considering the potential damage that can be done with sulphites, which is becoming more apparent, people are asking more questions, and gluten free wine has been asked about much more frequently. Yeast is a natural and essential part of fermentation to make wine, but until now nobody seems to be asking ‘is this wine gluten free?’

I’m almost certain that everyone knows someone who suffers from Coeliac Disease, and also someone else who lives a gluten free or low carb lifestyle. Whilst I am working furiously to learn more about wine, organic wine, but after getting to grips with sulphites in wine, sugar in wine and now gluten, it makes me realise just how little consumers know about the contents of a bottle of wine through no fault of their own.

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Over the last 2 years, learning all about wine has been pretty much all I’ve been able to get up too. Not only that, but also studying up on organic wine practices and certification. At the same time, I was also trying to understand a whole load of extra stuff about customer service in the retail environment. 

To be honest, that was mostly rubbish. Trying to open a shop would be much easier if you didn’t spend your time listening to these ‘guru’s’ about enhancing your sales techniques and understanding their body language and quirks. Honestly, just be honest and have a chat with them if they want too!

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I have been asked by many people what the purpose of SYZYGY Wines actually is? Where did the idea come from and what did I intend on doing with it?

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