March 17, 2014Conrad (The Wine Wankers)

Introducing Ben

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Conrad, Neal and Ben enjoying a beer for a change at Bondi Beach

The Wine Wankers are lucky enough to have a new wine lover blogging with us… Ben.  Some of you may have already noticed Ben’s recent contributions to our blog “One bottle, half a dozen wines, and an experience of a lifetime” and “How do you choose wine for a table of 12?“.

We are very happy to introduce Ben.  Both Neal and I have known Ben for many years and have had many a wine wanking session with him (hmmm, that sounds a bit wrong but you get the idea).  Ben has been a good mate of ours for a long time so we decided to find out if he was keen to join us in this sordid affair.  It didn’t take much convincing at all… he clearly has no idea what he has got himself into.

wine wankers penfolds st henri shiraz 1972 yalumba galway claret 1972I still clearly remember how excited Ben was to see that we were going to be cracking open a 1972 Penfolds St Henri Claret at a little “1972 wines” party I had at my joint a little while ago.  He had been collecting St Henri for a while but hadn’t drunk one from that long ago.  He was in luck because it turned out to be a sensational wine that had not died in the ass at all. It still punched a load of fruit along with savoury aged flavours.

I also clearly remember Ben introducing me to my highlight of that evening.  There were a few different home-made pizzas on offer and Ben had discovered that the 1972 Yalumba Galway Claret was majorly enhanced by taking a bite of satay chicken pizza.  Now this wine had also turned out to be a cracker but I just couldn’t believe that it would go with satay chicken pizza.  Oh how wrong I was, it was an utter taste sensation and to this day I don’t have many other wine and food pairing experiences that can match that one.

Like Neal and I, Ben is a just another passionate wine lover who enjoys talking about his wine experiences.  Actually, Ben is quite the orator, so much so I asked him to be the MC at my wedding at Tamburlaine winery in the Hunter Valley, which he nailed of course.  So even if a small fraction of Ben’s verbal story telling skills translates onto our blog we will be far richer for it.

So Ben, welcome!

37 comments

  5. Thanks for the intro Conrad, and thanks for the welcome everyone! Truth be told I am here because Conrad and Neals’ livers were starting to fail and they needed someone to lighten the work load, not that I am complaining. 😉

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  14. This is always nice to see such lovely men with such big smiles, too! I wondered, do you drink green beer for St. Patrick’s day or do you drink an Irish Whiskey? Or is their a special wine that would go with this fine day? Smiles and wishes for your happiness, all of you guys! Robin

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  16. Yes, Ben, Yay! Every time a blog that takes contributors gets a new blogger, and angel gets its wings.

    I know nothing about wine, just really love Winewankers.

    Best wishes!

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  17. Reblogged this on Sourcerer and commented:
    Since most of you can’t possibly know enough about my life to know this, I’ll tell you a story. Andy, who you should know by now, appointed Conrad of The WineWankers my social media Jedi Master some time ago. That makes me his padawan, and gives us a fabulous geeky running gag. Conrad supports Sourcerer diligently, but our content is just so different, I rarely have a chance to reblog him. Winewankers is a beautiful site – so good, in fact, I wish I’d built it, and I say that often. They picked up a new blogger today, which, as far as I’m concerned, is always worthy of a reblog no matter what sort of blog you’re reading. So, welcome Ben to the blogosphere, and if you like either wine or really tight blogs, give The Winewankers a little love. Conrad’s the guy with the top hat and groovy mustache who likes almost everything we post.

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    • LOL! Thanks Gene’O for the reblog, it’s very much appreciated. It’s been good giving you tips wherever I can so I hope I haven’t let you down. You seem to be running with Twitter very well, which reminds me, I’ve got a #Mississippi #MondayBlogs tweet to retweet. I’ve been waiting for a new Monday to come around. Oh, and I’d like everything if I could keep up! 😉 I have a similar problem keeping up with Andy!

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      • Yes, I know. I’m always happy to see you, and never take it amiss when I don’t. You’ve given me plenty of support, so no worries. I tweet you the hellos on the weekends just so you know I remember you. I’m glad I found this, it was perfect, and I tweeted it to Monday Blogs before I reblogged it. Any time you get a new contributor, you should let me know. I can always reblog that, and I always will if I know about it. I like where you, me and Andy are. I hope we can keep it going.

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