Three Wine Men Manchester Christmas Wine Tasting 2016: Embarrassingly Clanky Bags on the Tram Time!

There are all sorts of things clamouring for our attention at any given time. Restaurants come and go; pop-ups spring up everywhere you look; street food continues to flourish; and every week seems to see the launch of at least one new bar in the city centre. So any event that keeps people coming back year after year is something to be applauded, particularly if it permits one to sample hundreds of wines in the rarefied atmosphere of Manchester Town Hall; indeed, I can think of few things besides the Three Wine Men Manchester Christmas Tasting that would see me boarding a tram at 11am on a Sunday morning and heading off in search of a nice glass of red.

Three Wine Men is, for me, one of the best days of the year. Hosted every year by Tim Atkin, Olly Smith and Oz Clarke, it would be easy to be cynical about the branding - you're invited, for example, to take a test to see with which of the three you most share your wine tastes, complete with a sticker to wear (terrifyingly, if you end up liking the same wines as Olly this means liking "wines as exuberant as riding a unicorn by the horn all the way to the gates of Guzzle City", a trip I'd be keen to avoid, even to the extent of paying an Uber surge). Too much cynicism would rather miss the point though - this is simply a happy, joyous affair where, in exchange for £27.50, you get to merrily weave your way round the Town Hall, sampling lovely wines at will and getting to talk to some of the small producers and stockists who often don't get much of a look-in.

One such company is Alpine Wines (pictured below), who are just lovely and from whom I end up buying every year - this year, the lovely Grüner Veltliner "Mitanaund" from Elisabeth Hausgnost. In fact, for me the Reislings and the Grüners were the stars of this year's show, with some excellent examples at GK Wine House (as personally recommended by Olly Smith who - as usual - asked after my mother, whom he met for about three minutes about three years ago).

I shall also remember 2016 as the year I was finally converted to Sherry, a drink of which I have always been a little suspicious. Whilst I can't claim to have liked all of the Sherries on show at the Sherry Wines stall (Tio Pepe Fino still has too much of a whiff of old ladies in bed jackets about it for me), I did enjoy most of them, particularly the Manzanillas and the Oloroso. In fact, I did so well and was SO brave that I was allowed my badge for achieving the Sherry Challenge despite some rather undignified retching of the Tio Pepe into the spittoon.

I avoided most of the big name stalls simply in the interests of time - the whole point of Three Wine Men is to try wine you perhaps wouldn't come across on the high street. That said, who could resist a chat with the lovely Dave Marsland (aka Drinks Enthusiast), on hand to represent Warner Edwards Gin (try the rhubarb one - it's wondrous) and seen below in one of his typically unassuming, camera-shy poses. I also very much liked the wines chosen to represent the International Wine Challenge, an annual award that recognises outstanding wines regardless of their cost - some of the 2016 medal winners on show included the lovely Greyfriars Vineyard Blanc de Blancs 2013 (I'm a sucker for an English sparkler) and a very good Tempranillo from Asda that comes in at under six quid.

All too soon, our time was up - three hours fly by here, and we had to make way for the good folk thirstily arriving for the next session. The only rogue note of the day? The three wine men were being filmed for a TV show, and as I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time there is a worrying chance I'll soon be on a TV screen near you, swaying slightly and pretending to listen to Oz Clarke as he talks to me about something. Still, potential public humiliation aside, I'm already looking forward to the next one.

- Find out more about Three Wine Men here on their website. I was given complimentary tickets to the event, but spent approximately three million pounds on wine and would happily go (and have been) as a paying customer.

Vino & Spuntini: Or, Wine & Food Pairing at Veeno Manchester

There is a school of thought that there is no such thing as coincidence. I am quite happy for this to be so, as if there's no such thing as coincidence then the invitation to a wine and food pairing evening at Veeno which arrived a couple of days after a friend and I had been talking about going anyway was nothing less than a sign from above, telling us it was OK to go out and drink wine on a school night.

Thus sanctioned by higher powers, we take our places with around 20 other bloggers for the "Vino & Spuntini" Classic Winetasting experience: six wines from the family vineyard in Sicily, each paired with a different appetizer, including a sweet wine and dessert to finish. This is, of course, a marvellous idea - wine makes me hungry (well, even hungrier than I normally am anyway), and I'm a big fan of the Italian way of eating, where little plates of tempting snacks are considered de rigueur when consuming any form of alcohol. The Veeno way turns out to test one's will power to a quite extraordinary degree though - the snack platters you see here (each one shared between four of us) arrive at the start of the evening and it is UP TO US to control ourselves and resist each item until its wine-matched partner turns up. We do well at this, but it takes some effort, and we note that elsewhere on the table others have not paced themselves with such care (and have indeed wolfed the platter as soon as it arrives).

The first pairing is the house white with bread and olive oil. The olive oil is exceptional, amongst the best I've tasted in this country, and I note with some interest that it can be purchased in the Veeno shop. The wine, a light number made from the Catarratto grape, is nothing special though - the waitress cheerily suggests that it's so light it's a bit like water, and whilst this may be a fine quality in the balminess of an Italian summer, it's perhaps not the first thing one would look for in a wine on a brisk March evening in Manchester.

The next wine is billed as "our fruitiest" and is much nicer than the first - a fresh, peachy number from the Inzolia grape that copes well with the olives and tapenade that accompany it. Then we're on to the reds, and "our smoothest", a blend of Frappato and Nerello which is a good match for a feisty Salame Milano. I enjoy the classic Sicilian Nero d'Avola and its partnering with Parma ham, and likewise the final red, a classy Cabernet Sauvignon served with Parmigiano Reggiano. This is billed as an elegant pairing and indeed it is, although the way in which we fall upon the pieces of (excellent) Parmigiano after we have been looking at it for the best part of an hour is perhaps less so.

To close, we have a small shot of Marsala Superiore Riserva, a sweet dessert wine served with homemade Tiramisu. I ask to forgo this course as a confirmed coffee hater; instead they kindly bring me some very good lemon sorbet, a nice touch on a set pairing menu. The Marsala goes down a treat, and I am pleased to recall that I have a bottle of this in my booze cabinet at home which has been waiting for some time for me to find a use for it (a use which, I now realise, is simply to be poured into a glass and consumed).

Overall we have a very enjoyable night. Veeno is a friendly little place with a great atmosphere, and whilst I wouldn't order all of these wines on their own, most of them stand up well to their food pairings, which are well-chosen and of good quality. The Classic Winetasting that we try is priced at £19.90, which seems good value for the amount you get - I would certainly go again. Veeno Manchester is part of a small chain of wine cafes founded by Nino and Andrea, who opened the Manchester branch in 2013 in order to spread their love of Italian food and wine - a noble cause that I, for one, am happy to throw my weight behind (as long as it involves perching on a bar stool eating breadsticks).

- Veeno Manchester is at 2, Albert Square M2 6LW. This was a press evening where we were not asked to pay for our food or drink, but at under £20 I would have happily forked out anyway.

Cheese & Wine Tasting with Manchester Wine School: Being Educated Never Tasted So Good

Now, whilst it is not absolutely necessary to partner cheese with wine, it can't be denied that they make very happy bedfellows. Of course, it's not always practical to do so, tempting as it might be to whip out a nice Pinot Noir to go with the cheese butties you're consuming at your desk, but like some ever-so-predictable Pavlovian dog, I seem genetically pre-programmed to crave one when I have the other.

I was excited, then, to go along to the Cheese and Wine tasting session hosted by Manchester Wine School at Jury's Inn just before Christmas, in the hope of learning some new matches and maintaining a knowledgeable expression whilst simultaneously drinking as much as possible. I've met Lisa from Manchester Wine School before, through the excellent masterclasses she runs at the annual Three Wine Men Festival, but this was the first of her own events I've actually been to. She makes for a genial host, managing to be both knowledgeable and entirely normal, happy to chat about the wines that she likes and the best places to buy them; she'd also chosen some perfect wine and cheese matches. In fact, the hardest part of the evening was arriving slightly early and having to resist the plate of cheese that was already laid out so enticingly at each place. She started with a general discussion on how to taste wine, much of which I've heard before at other similar events, but she did genuinely tell me lots of things I didn't already know - she is brilliant on the different wine regions and how to choose good-value alternatives to the best-known ones (and has already emailed me some suggestions). She is also completely independent as she does not sell any wines herself - essentially, she shops for things she likes and then we drink it.

We tried six pairings during the two hour session:

1. Les Floriandes Touraine Sauvignon Blanc (from M & S) with Gorwydd Caerphilly (all cheese provided by Hickson and Blacks in Chorlton). This wine was my least favourite of the night - I find Sauvignon Blanc can be a little tasteless, and this one didn't bowl me over. The cheese, though, was lovely - I wouldn't normally buy Caerphilly but this one was creamy rather than crumbly and lacked the slight dryness that sometimes comes with this kind of cheese.

2. Mystery Hill Chardonnay (Ocado) with Aarenwasser. I'm very partial to Chardonnay, and feel it gets rather a bad deal sometimes at the hands of the wine snobs - I would certainly buy this soft peachy number if I could afford to shop at Ocado (although to be fair, the wine is a pretty reasonable £9.99). Another good cheese choice - a semi-soft Swiss cheese with a sweet nuttiness - and I'd surreptitiously eaten half of my piece before Lisa had finished talking.

3. Luis Felipe Edwards Viognier Reserva (Majestic) with Schlossberger. One of my favourite matches of the night. I actively seek out Viognier, and this aromatic, fruity version from Chile was no disappointment (and great value at £8.99). The cheese, another from Switzerland although this time a hard one, was a revelation - I shall definitely be purchasing this one, partly for the pleasure of eating it and partly for the pleasure of repeating the word "Schlossberger" many times over.

4. Callia Malbec (Majestic) with Oakwood Smoked. On to the reds with a nice fruity Argentine Malbec, partnered by Oakwood smoked Cheddar from Dorset. I'm not normally a fan of smoked cheese but the slight smokiness of the wine made eating this an absolute pleasure.

5. MontPierre Reserve Fitou (Sainsburys) with Cantal AOC. I do actually already buy this slightly flinty, good-value (£7.50) wine but had never had Cantal before - a hard French cheese a little like an earthy Cheddar. Another good match.

6. Sister's Run Barossa Shiraz (Tesco) with Cropwell Bishop Stilton. A good, hefty Australian Shiraz to finish - and as it was paired with the wondrous Cropwell Bishop this was unsurprisingly many people's favourite combination of the night.

The two hours passed very quickly - this was an extremely convivial evening with two long communal tables populated with nice people genially sharing out any of the leftovers in each bottle of wine and trying to eat their cheese in a polite manner. The night was good value at £30 a head (wine quantities were generous, and although I could have managed a little more cheese, I always can and am therefore not necessarily a reliable yardstick) and I would certainly go to more of Manchester Wine School's events - Lisa offers a mind-boggling array of options including eight week courses, corporate events and WSET qualifications (full details here on her website). After all, what could be better than spending a day drinking wine and quite legitimately label it educational? Lifelong learning has never been so much fun.