More Fun than a Book Club

When it’s Teresa Jolly’s turn to provide the wine for her weekly tasting group, she knows she’ll always have something good to offer, thanks to her regular deliveries from Berrys’ Wine Club...

"If women could open wine you wouldn’t need men at all!” laughs Teresa Jolly as, with a determined tug, she pulls the cork from a bottle of Casale Falchini’s Vernaccia di San Gimignano. We’ve come to meet Teresa and some of the members of her wine tasting group over a light lunch at her home in Chorley, Lancashire, and she’s decided the occasion definitely calls for a drink.

Teresa has been developing a keen interest in wine for over eight years, inspired by Italian winemaker Pierluigi Zamo, who is a friend, and kindled at night school, where the tasting group all met. She joined Berrys’ Wine Club two years ago. “I can blame wine for my best and worst moments,” she confesses. A large glass vessel full of corks in the corner of the kitchen is evidence of numerous lively dinner parties.

Having decided they could make their meetings more interesting, not to mention improving the quality of the wine, if they went it alone, the tasting group has been meeting at the home of members Rod and Barbara once a week since 2003.

They take it in turns to present their own choice of wines, three reds and three whites, and Teresa often includes wines from her Berrys’ Wine Club cases in her presentations.

“The Berrys box comes to work and it’s a fantastic moment, especially if it’s been a bad day, and especially if there’s something I really like in it,” she says. “We never know what we’re going to get at the meetings but when I take Berrys’ wines you always know they’re going to be good.

My friend Jackie and I have got this thing: wines to try before you die. At one of mine I did Champagne – we wanted to know what Cristal was like. And we had a vintage Bolly too. 

Jackie’s bringing Opus One and Dominus tonight. But then one week one of the chaps came with the theme ‘Best you can get for a fiver’. We did drink some rubbish!”

Teresa’s other passion is field sports, which she pursues with husband Robert. Their home is festooned with the trophies of Robert’s shooting, the most recent being a 15ft crocodile, which currently stands guard outside Teresa’s temperature-controlled wine room in the garage. Each year they go salmon fishing on the Spey and Teresa is asked to organise the wine for the group. “I tend to take the wines I’ve tried and know I like. 

The Wine Club is very useful in helping me to put together some interesting wines and, of course, the member’s discount helps. On this occasion I swap my chosen Reserve Mixed Case for the Dinner Party Case as three bottles of the same wine is better than two. I might also swap the case if it contains a lot of New World wines as I prefer Old World. Perhaps I shouldn’t.”

But isn’t that the point of learning about anything: to be able to make more informed decisions about what you like? As the last drop of Vernaccia goes down and the group discuss their own personal tastes, Teresa sums up what they’ve learned together: “We’ve decided in general that we do like red wine and we do like white wine as well.”

Now that’s a proper education.

Berrys’ Wine Club offers cases of wine hand-picked by our Masters of Wine every two months, generously discounted by at least 15% and delivered free to your door. With wines from £6 to £35 per bottle, you’ll receive a tasty selection to cater for all manner of wine drinking occasions. First case half price! Receive your first Wine Club case half price, saving you up to £90.Find more about the benefits of joining Berrys' Wine Club

For more information contact:

Katie Cooper, Wine Club Manager
9.00am to 6.00pm
Monday to Friday
Tel: 44 (0)800 280 2440
Fax: 44 (0)800 280 2443
E Mail: Katie Cooper