Wine and Words

Bud break in a Belgian vineyard. Photo by Dirk de Kegel, August 2015.

Bud break in a Belgian vineyard. Photo by Dirk de Kegel, August 2015.

And so it begins… the Wine & Words blog is live.

Eagles' Nest vineyards, Constantia, South Africa. February 2016.

Eagles’ Nest vineyards, Constantia, South Africa. February 2016.

Since I started Wine & Words about a year ago, life has been an absolute rollercoaster. Intense, exhilarating, full of surprises, adventures and experiences. From an impromptu 4×4 trip through rock-strewn vineyards in South Africa, to sharing lunch with an extraordinary Belgo-Hispanic winemaking couple in South-East Spain. From a summer road trip that took us to the Jura, Piemonte, Tuscany, Switzerland and Alsace, to venturing out on a lonely night during a business trip in Tokyo and discovering a great authentic restaurant, where we didn’t have a single language in common, but which served exquisite shabu-shabu – with chilled red wine. And last but not least, sharing wonderful food and wines with so many new-friends-that-feel-like-old-friends from all over the world, in places like Vancouver, Lille, Leiden, Western Cape, Pinerolo, New Delhi and in my home town Ghent – all of whom I met thanks to my wine reviews on Vivino.

It has been worth every minute, and now the time has come to start sharing those stories, which is what I love to do most. In food & wine, wine travel, writing and teaching, everything I’ve been doing in my 40-plus years on this earth converges:

Our urban garden in June.

Our urban garden in June. Carefully guarded by Cleo, a.k.a. ‘The Regal One’.

    • the bountiful vegetable garden at the house I grew up in;
    • my grandmother’s old-style Flemish home cooking;
    • being an avid reader (and writer) from an early age;
    • my studies in English and German linguistics and literature;
    • living abroad as an exchange student;
    • my first job in a book store;
    • 2 years of evening classes in herbalism;
    • planting a garden of my own;
    • meeting Mr. K, who shares my love for great food, wine and figuring out how the world works;
    • 20 years of working in higher education as a lecturer and international relations officer;
Université du Vin in Suze-la-Rousse, Southern Rhône, France.

Tasting classes at the Université du Vin in Suze-la-Rousse, Southern Rhône, France. Photo by P. Vercauteren, July 2015.

  • blogging for a few years at The Woman Condition;
  • an attempt at writing an urban fantasy novel, which taught me I like writing non-fiction more;
  • taking formal wine education in Belgium, France and the globally standardised WSET system;
  • writing almost 2000 wine reviews over the last few years;
  • and last but not least: all the travelling I do for my job and in my spare time.

All that is where this blog finds its roots – as does the book on wine aromas and the role of herbs & spices in food & wine pairing that’s in the making.
I hope you enjoy reading my scribbles as much as I do writing them, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

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16 Responses

  1. Kristel says:

    Come on, don’t be shy! 🙂
    (Yes, just testing the comments…)

  2. Kent A Klopfenstein says:

    Shy? Never! ? Great first entry! To many more.

    Your garden looks great, btw!

  3. Looks very professional Kristel! My compliments!!

  4. Tom Huybrechts says:

    After enticing us for longer than I can remember, it is great to see Wine & Words online. And I must say: great looking! Smashingly done Kristel! Too bad it took Mr.K so long to clean up the garden: the idyllic picture of the herbal garden was most likely the constraining time factor. As a good husband, I also vaguely remember subtle hints from the spouse. But as she would say, something you have to slap them in the face for them to jump to action. 😉 I’ll will regularly check back new stories. As you know, I’m a fond reader, so keep them coming! 🙂 (hereby off course also testing the comments section and possible restrictions on the amount of characters)

  5. Erik Snel says:

    and what happened to the novel?

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