If you enjoy tasting wine ‘to find out what you might like or to know what to buy’ says Rob, one of the best ways of tasting small amounts of many different wines is to go to a wine fair. Here the social media whizz, Rob McIntosh, comes up with some handy ideas and practical suggestions.

‘These events can easily be a little overwhelming and confusing’, he suggests, so let me summarise his useful pointers to make the most of the events. I add my own tips to Rob’s practical advice.

Revelry guaranteed

1. Rob.

In good time for the festive season, the Wine Gang’s second Christmas Fair takes place at Vinopolis in the heart of the bustling Borough Market on Saturday 6 November. There’s a choice of two sessions: 12:00pm - 3:00pm and 4:00pm - 7:00pm

To buy tickets from TicketSoup: http://www.ticketsoup.com/tickets/the-wine-gang-christmas-wine-fair-2010...

What is a cru bourgeois and why should we care? Basically, the Bordeaux hierarchy has its own classification for those châteaux on the Left Bank of Bordeaux excluded from the famous 1855 classification of Bordeaux. The 1855 classification was never meant to be set in stone, but since this super league of five divisions was drawn up for the Exposition Universelle in Paris under the auspices of Emperor Napoleon III, it has by and large proved to be so accurate as to be worth retaining.

Take two extremes of Rioja and it would be fair to say that they're represented by López de Heredia Viña Tondonia in the traditional corner and Roda in the modern. This fact was underlined by a visit to both wineries in Haro in la Rioja Alta during last week's Los Grandes de la Rioja tastings put on by the Rioja region.

Not yet 20 years old, Roda is slick and smart, the entire winery purpose built to capture the essence of freshness and minerality of old vine tempranillo and garnacha.

Friday the 13th may not be unlucky for the French but the English knew that something had to give. What gave was an inoffensive carignan vine that received the sharp end of my Ibiza as I was attempting (Avis, look away now please) a reverse out of the narrow off-piste track in the hills leading to the vineyard alongside Justin and Amanda Howard-Sneyd's vineyard La Roque. In the black schists and clayey / limestone soils of the Roussillon hills, the old vines of carignan are thin on the ground here and low-yielding.

16 years ago, Katie Jones left Thierrys, a UK wine importer, to take up a job in sales and marketing with the Mont Tauch co-operative in the South of France. At first, she hated the isolation and home thoughts from abroad soon flooded in. Then she started to travel, to Sweden, America and Asia, She was enjoying life again. So much so that she even got hitched to one of the Co-op's members. It didn’t last, and she decided it was time to return home - to the French-sounding but not very French Ashby de la Zouch.

In New Zealand, it’s being called the Great Veuve Clicquot Robbery. It looked like a win-win situation for the centuries-old Champagne house, Veuve Clicquot, and New Zealand’s National Business Review, when, in anticipation of NBR’s 40th birthday celebrations, the two companies joined forces to run a ‘Win Your Weight in Veuve Clicquot’ competition.

Win Your Weight

What better excuse for island hopping I thought last year than an in-depth look at plavac mali. In the absence of that opportunity, I did the tasting instead. This year, I managed to combine the two with a short visit to Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. I started off on the mainland and the island of Korćula (day 1), headed for the Pelješac peninsula (day 2) and finished off on the beautiful island of Hvar. So beautiful in fact that I stayed on for a few more days relaxation, an experience I thoroughly recommend.

Until yesterday, Charmaine and I were on holiday in one of our favourite spots, the little village of Paziols which is in the Aude close to the border with the Pyrénées Orientales (or, just in Languedoc, close to the Roussillon border if that helps). With the slightly larger town of Tuchan at the head of the valley, and Paziols three kilometres away at its foot, it’s one of the prettiest little villages in the region, and bang in the heart of Fitou. It’s mostly red wine country here, a rugged land of rugby heroes and wild boar.

THE TRUMAN SHOW, PART 2

Anyone who read my blogs on Croatian wine last year will know that Croatia is one of my favourite destinations of the moment. So much so that I returned this year to visit vineyards on the scenic Dalmatian coast. A report will follow, but there’s one aspect of Croatia that I find less than attractive and it’s called Croatia Airlines. Leaving aside for one moment the fact that ticket prices are so much higher than the budget airlines that there seems little point in flying with Croatia Airlines, customer services could do with a makeover.