Not the World Cup this time, although well done Spain! No, Last Thursday evening I spent mostly taking my clothes off in public. First came the tie, off and into the audience, next the shirt, swirled above my head and into the audience. And lastly the trousers, off, over my head and whoosh, gone. It’s not something I do every day, I’d like you to understand, strutting and swaying on a stage to the sound of Christina Aguilera singing Lady Marmalade. I was in good company, the company that is, of my fellow Semillons. We were at Vinopolis, London’s self-styled tasting destination, for an event that turned out to be the best night of my year.

Attired but not Tired

Not just because we raised £10,000 + for Everyman, Europe's only dedicated male cancer research centre. But because everyone had a ball, as it were. Give them half a chance and the women of the wine trade (and it was mostly women) really know how to party. I wasn’t part of the first event, and certainly never expected to be part of the second, but Christelle Guibert, of Decanter Magazine, had press-ganged me into service for a reprise of the Full Monty that took place five years ago. And I’m glad she did. If you want to contribute to the charity, or just check out our dance moves, have a look at the site at www.semillons.co.uk.

Women of the (Wine) World Unite

I had another good reason to be cheerful last week. I was delighted to be nominated in two categories for the Louis Roederer wine awards. Since the Glenfiddich ceased, the Louis Roederer awards are the only ones in the UK that recognize achievements in wine writing and so they have taken on added significance. I was nominated in the Internationalist Wine Columnist of the Year for articles in the Independent along with Michael Fridjhon of Business Day, Will Lyons of the Wall Street Journal and Andrew Jefford, from Waitrose Food Illustrated and Decanter. I was delighted because I was the only nominee for a UK national newspaper, and that means a lot to me.

I was just as thrilled though, maybe even more so, to be nominated for International Wine Columnist / Blogger of the year along with Andrew Jefford, Kate Thal and Simon Woods. My website has only been up and running for just over a year now, so my (almost) weekly blog, aka journal, is still in its infancy. It’s fun to do, and I like to feel that in words and pictures, I can get across (free to all readers) a little more personality than you'll normally see in a newspaper or magazine. One of the nominees tweeted that ‘it’s winning that counts’, but I disagree. While I wouldn’t sniff at a nice cash prize and a magnum of Cristal, being nominated counts for an awful lot. The results are announced in September.

The Money Shot - me on the right again