Sometimes your wine life can get dull. You lose the will to make interesting choices and stick with mediocre safe wine, or even do not bother at all, scared off by the press forever reporting alcohol health concerns. Your palate is bored, and cannot be bothered to venture out any more. You wallet is none too healthy as the economic downturn starts to pinch. You become a wine recluse, and shut yourself off, only allowing a cheap supermarket bottle or two to creep in on a weekly shop. How do you kick start your interest again. How can you come back to the brim?

Well it often takes a chance encounter to spark things up again.

I ate out the other evening in a listless, lacklustre 'wine' state of mind, and was presented with a restaurant wine list that was not too expensive and offered up lots of interesting choices. A breath of fresh air. I ended up with a white wine varietal called Picpoul de Pinet'. I had never tried this before and thought it was outstanding. It was both full and light at only 12.5%ABV. An interesting diversion from sauvignon or chardonnay. The bottle was also charming to look at, tall and slim with patterns stamped into the glass. It is French, from Languedoc, and exciting prospect. I felt refreshed and re-initiated into the wine way once more. A new grape to add to my palate.

So I am now sitting glass in hand in front of the online Olympic ticket booking system (probably like most of the country who did not originally get tickets), hoping to catch the ephemeral glimpses of empty seats for sale. No joy yet (although frustratingly, there appear to be plenty in camera shot in the stadium every night during major events). I think the attempted purchase of Olympic tickets should be recognised as an Olympic sport, it is much like a marathon. At least I would feel like I had won something, rather than the empty promise 'reserving tickets' which always amounts to nothing. Gone in 9.63 seconds. The wine however is good, very good and keeps me going.

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