My other life

As well as being a poet, I also have another life as the export manager and blender for a Spanish winery called Viñaoliva. Here's a photo of me on our stand at the Prowein fair in Düsseldorf last weekend...

Poetry in Düsseldorf

I'll be off to Düsseldorf this weekend for the annual Prowein fair. Viñaoliva will have a stand there and we'll be showing the new vintages of our Zaleo wines. Of course, poetry will be accompanying us in the shape of Tasting Notes, my second HappenStance pamphlet. The aim is to reach a readership that would normally dodge verse at all costs.

Here's a reminder of Tasting Notes, via its film version. Please bear in mind that I'm reliably informed only a few copies are left in stock at HappenStance...

Tasting Notes - a poetry film by Matthew Stewart from Matthew Stewart on Vimeo.

Prowein

Sunday sees the start of Prowein in Düsseldorf. It's perhaps the biggest and most important annual wine trade fairs in the world, and we always exhibit Zaleo there. This year, however, I won't just be showing my new vintages - Tasting Notes will also be accompanying me.

The wine trade might entail buying and selling stuff just like milk, houses or furniture, but in this case most of the people involved also actually enjoy and even love the liquid that enables them to make a living. What's more, many of my importers and distributors are very well read in their respective languages. Having already had fun with Tasting Notes in the U.K. wine world, I'm now really looking forward to seeing how it goes down with readers who speak (excellent) English as a second language. The feedback from the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Germany, etc, etc, will be intriguing.

Once the fair closes, we'll definitely aim to have a few glasses of Düsseldorf's famous Old Ale. Following all that serious wine, a beer goes down wonderfully and cleanses the palate, just like a trashy novel after intense poetry!