Last month I attended my first Ellis Wines portfolio tasting. As a recent university graduate in my first design role, it was a brilliant opportunity to learn how the wine industry works. I’ve grown up around hospitality and spent time working in it, so I am used to the fast-paced environment of a busy room but seeing it from the trade side gave me a completely different perspective.

I spent the day working on reception, which was the perfect way to truly immerse myself in the event. It was lovely to welcome so many friendly faces and seeing the turnout first-hand was amazing. It was great to see the room fill up so quickly and realise just how many people were excited to be there and get stuck into the tasting. In my role, I spend a lot of time designing wine lists for our customers, so it was fantastic to meet some people I’ve been creating for.

As both a designer and a newbie to the wine industry, I found this year’s ‘Behind the Bottle’ theme particularly insightful. It was a great opportunity to really highlight the amazing stories behind our wines and producers and seeing how that heritage translates into actual conversations happening in the room. Each bottle carries its own history, and it was great to see how those stories are communicated through the visuals and then reinforced by the winemakers themselves.

I’m still very much a beginner when it comes to the technical side of wine, but I tasted three wines that I particularly enjoyed. The Vin Santo di Montepulciano Crociani was a standout for me, it was incredibly easy to drink and had a hint of sweet spice to it. I also really liked the Riesling Kabinett from Weingut Hoffmann, it had a great freshness with lots of bright citrus flavours. For the fizz, the Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs was a highlight, it had a lovely toastiness to it with an amazing delicate finish.

I look forward to going to more of these events in the future and continuing to learn more by immersing myself into the wine industry!

Jazmyn Young, Junior Graphic Designer