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Keira - Wine Communicator

@beingwineful

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📍 Edinburgh
Being in the moment appreciating wine.
Marketing & Comms, podcast, events & education.
WSET Diploma student👩‍🎓
@chattin_aboot_wine

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10 months ago

What a visit to @simpsonswine - it was the best afternoon with Julie @jules_wg - friends from uni days - both did a degree in science together and then both ended up in wine! 🍷😅

I have a lot of more educational content from our afternoon together - but for now - this is a wee taster of how good humoured the team are at Simpsons! I love that the owners Ruth and Charles put a Helter Skelter in their winery for the coolest exit from the tasting room!

Which of course I had to try! 😅

Have you been to Simpsons before?

My goodness not only are the wines exquisite but the tour and vineyards are amazing too.

Thank you to my wonderful friend for an afternoon of catching up and learning all about Simpsons. This is just for Lols. 🤣😅🥂🍷

There will be a podcast coming soon 🔜 by @beingwineful

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2 months ago

I’ve been shortlisted for an International Wine Communication award (IWSC Emerging Talent in Wine Communication). Overwhelmed and so happy. 😊🙌🍷@theiwsc

Best of luck to all the other nominees in this category too! Some accounts I've followed for some time: @eatsleep_winerepeat
@maisie.wine @marianna.w.hunt
alongside Polly Halstead and Sheelah Oguda.

I’m blown away. I spent the morning in shock and feeling so honoured to be recognised for what I’m building with Being Wineful. ❤️

Two years ago, this started as a place to share what I was learning while studying for my wine diploma. Somewhere along the way, it turned into something completely different. I found I was struggling with all the written content whilst juggling life, and I realised I learned much better visually and through podcasts.

I found chatting with other professionals and wine lovers about wine, a far more effective way for me to learn and be able to translate these messages back to consumers. Not to mention trying as many different types of wine as possible! The sensory aspects of wine tasting really cemented in my memory far greater than reading. Essentially Being Wineful was born out of a meditative approach to wine tasting, which meant slowing down and savouring.

Launching the Wine Pros podcast this year has been my way of finding a platform or channel that genuinely delivers something I can understand - about what wine trade professionals are looking to convey back to consumers in a fun joyful and less intimidating way. 🙌

I’ve also had some incredibly kind feedback along the way, including from Master of Wine @sarahabbottmw who was judging for this award. "There's real integrity in what she's doing. She's intentional, thoughtful and bringing the trade in. I really liked the intelligence of her approach."

Thank you so much @theiwsc ❤️ taken in Newport-on-Tay, Fife by @beingwineful

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6 months ago

We're SLTN Awards 2026 finalists! 🍷🥂
What a way to mark our first birthday, which is officially tomorrow! 🎂

Less than a year after opening our doors, Le Petit Raisin has been shortlisted for The Wine Award, at the SLTN Awards, Scotland's biggest trade night of the year.

The award celebrates a venue with an exceptional wine list and a knowledgeable, engaged team, so to be recognised for both means the world to us.

Here's what SLTN @scottishlicensedtradenews had to say about us:
"Having opened just under a year ago, Le Petit Raisin has managed to successfully build a broad customer base through a great selection of wines accompanied by cheese and charcuterie. The owners have made an effort to ensure their wine list stands out from the local market, with a balance of classic regions and emerging styles – all enthusiastically promoted via the venue's social media. A separate basement space allows the venue to host a range of wine events and training sessions."

None of this would be possible without our brilliant team at Le Petit Raisin: Jason (Manager and sommelier ), Max, Joel, Fia, Asiah, Euan and Keira (Marketing).

We're so proud of what we've built together in just one year.

Good luck to our fellow finalists, and we can't wait to meet everyone at the ceremony in November.

Keep your eyes peeled for our official birthday celebrations, coming soon! 🥂

Thank you for your continued custom.
Santé,
Catherine and Sam taken in Thistle Street Edinburgh by @beingwineful

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16 days ago

Bubbles from the hills of northern Greece 🇬🇷✨

Blind tasting, holiday edition! Ed picked up this lovely bottle from a local wine shop in Athens, and it was so gorgeous, layered and kept evolving in the glass. Bulles des Coteaux Brut Nature 2021 from Ktima Apostolidi is a traditional method sparkling wine made from 100% Assyrtiko, grown near Kavala in Greek Macedonia. @ktima_apostolidi

Most of us know Assyrtiko as the crisp, salty white originally of Santorini. This is the grape in a whole new outfit: second fermentation in bottle, time on lees, and zero dosage, so no added sugar at all.

Aroma and flavour characteristics of almond and orange 🍊 peel, nectarine and peach 🍑, with apple running through it all. The producer's own notes point to lemon 🍋 and lime 🍋‍🟩, brioche and lightly baked pastry, and other tasters have picked up a herbal note too. Riper and rounder than I expected from a brut nature, with that classic Assyrtiko acidity keeping everything bright. And at just 11.5%, it's beautifully light.

The estate has been family run since 1958 and is now in the hands of the third generation, who farm organically and biodynamically with Demeter certification.

The verdict? Outstanding. 🥂 €35 per bottle.
The catch is that I couldn't find it stocked anywhere in the UK, so if you spot it on a trip to Greece, grab a bottle. And if you're a UK importer reading this... 👀 Also let me know if I can get it back home!

Have you tried Greek sparkling wine? taken in Athens Greece by @beingwineful

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22 days ago

Athens is a city of ancient ruins and modern unrest, where graffiti art and political demonstration sit alongside luxury and hipster bars and restaurants. It's an eclectic mix of energy unlike anywhere else I've been. 🤗

Coming for both work with Ed, and pleasure, we've been to all areas deemed "do not visit as a tourist!". But this is city life. I'm glad we have been to all these walks of life. Coming on a filming project around urban areas, one thing that struck was the level of traffic and pollution.

But when you come out to the neighbourhoods and ancient sites, as well as to the coast, there's an incredible sense of calm and peace. Maybe it's the contrast. This is truly an exciting and fascinating city.

More importantly for me - there are plenty of fab wine places. And the modern greek wines are anything but boring either! Complex, fresh and vibrant. We've had some absolutely lovely pours.

This is part 1 as we are early into our trip and there's surely more to come! I must give a huge shout out to @gamay_winebar for being truly magnificent! Vibe, sommeliers, and wine! And to @effiwine for all her efforts and recommendations to make out trip spectacular! (Thanks for the winery mentions!). You'll find the wines in the guide from...

Central Macedonia
@navitaswinery Litochoro, Pieria (foothills of Mount Olympus) Assyrtiko, Xinomavro, Malagousia, Grenache Rouge, Chardonnay
@chatzivaritis_estate Goumenissa, Kilkis Xinomavro, Negoska, Roditis, Malagousia, Assyrtiko

Eastern Macedonia
@oenopswines – based in Drama, but as a négociant-style producer sources fruit from across Greece (Macedonia, Naousa, Crete) Xinomavro, Vidiano, Malagousia, Assyrtiko

Crete
@manousakis_winery Vatolakkos, in the hills above Chania (We've been!) - Rhône varieties (Syrah, Grenache, Roussanne) alongside indigenous Romeiko

Also listed above @eptamartyres.athens which was a great visit last night, and @tavernaermou where I had the Greek version of fish and chips!! With olives of course haha.

Save this guide for your wine bar visit to Athens. taken in Athens Greece by @beingwineful

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25 days ago

Guide to Navarra & Somontano Part 1...

On Wednesday evening this week I ran a two hour masterclass on the wines of Navarra & Somontano at @lepetitraisin_winebar in their private space Le Bleu.

I was blessed and grateful to be invited to the region on a press trip by @intervinoes @celebratethediversity_eu in June/ July this year.

I was so taken with the pride of the Spanish people from these regions, the loyalty to their traditions, but also the modern wine making techniques and experimentation taking place. A mixture of native and international varieties - I had wines I would never expect to drink from Spain such as Sauvingnon Blanc, Riesling, or Pinot Noir. Over these next two posts I am dedicating some of that learning to promoting this region more fully.

It's relatively hard to find some of these wines back in Scotland, and I think it's an area of Spain worthy of more attention.

Enjoy! ❤️ taken in Navarra, España. by @beingwineful

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a month ago

Guad al Mare Vermentino, Toscana IGT, Castellani, 2024 Italy 🇮🇹

I was blind tasting this fascinating, amazing value Italian wine from Tuscany. £12 a bottle. I was getting a full on herbal green experience. For me medicinal, fennel, aniseed, and when it warmed and with food a bit more rounded stone fruit notes. Mineral comes to mind again.

I made my way to northern Italy. I was a region away, this was Tuscany, central Italy, and the notes of the wine online suggest more stone fruit, sage and rosemary. I probably need more work to pick out the nuances of this wine. But I was happy with my tasting deduction on this one!

Vermentino isn't actually a Tuscany native, it's grown across Sardinia (home to the only DOCG for the grape), Liguria (called Pigato there), and into southern France as Rolle. This bottle is Tuscany's version of it, from the Maremma coast, made by @famigliacastellani1903, growers since 1903.

Tuscan Vermentino is typically made in stainless steel with no malolactic fermentation, which keeps that fresh acidity and minerality intact rather than softening it.

Gorgeous wine too, from @figfromagedelinewportontay in Newport on Tay. taken in Newport-on-Tay, Fife by @beingwineful

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a month ago

Huge thanks to Millie @milliedelaneydoust and Ed for setting up the most ridiculous blind tasting! @luviansbottleshop

I was on some right tracks and down some rabbit holes 😅😅😅

Can I just add my caveats that even the best blind tasting competitors from University of st Andrews didn't get this haha.

First thing I clocked - it was a screw top. I knew Ed would get something decent, and so I thought new world, so a bit of an immediate cheat. NZ and Australia really value screwtops and harness premium wines under them, unlike us snobby Europeans!

Second the colour. Golden. And there was more in the colour than I realised!

On the nose 👃 - no real fruit aromas to speak of from the first sniff, which should have been my first clue that something unusual was going on.

On the palate 👅: toasty, smooth, spicy, and almost no fruit at all. I found myself hunting for it and just not finding it.

My brain went straight to secondary fermentation. Malolactic. Oak ageing. Surely that combination was giving me the toast and the roundness.

Wrong on both counts. No malo. No oak apparently!

So what was actually going on?

The real answer: lees, not oak.

The wine had spent time ageing on its lees in a stainless steel tank! Lees are the dead yeast cells left over after fermentation, and prolonged contact with them - is exactly what gives you those toasty, bready, savoury notes I was picking up.

Lesson learned for me! Toasty does not automatically mean the wine has spent time oak - I forgot lees!

The bit I almost didn't mention...

There was something else going on that I nearly cut from the video because I did not want to make a big deal of it, but I thought I was picking up volatile acidity, VA for short.

Which, looking back, explains an enormous amount. The lees gave me toast. A touch of VA muted the fruit and nudged everything towards savoury and spicy. Put those two together and you get exactly the wine I described: smooth, toasty, spicy, and almost fruitless, even though fruit was absolutely meant to be there.

The actual reveal
It was Pedro Ximenez.
Made completely dry. From Mendoza in Argentina!
Minimal intervention winemaking might explain some VA?! taken in Newport-on-Tay, Fife by @beingwineful

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a month ago

Last night we found this old bottle of champagne in the cupboard...watch until the end to see my face when I smell and drink it! 👀

It took us a while to figure out when it was bottled or disgorged. We tracked down a lot number and we believe it's 2007. I didn't know that until after we opened it, but the age sure does explain why this did not become our drinking wine last night!

First of all, you'll see in the video how much effort it took just to get the cork out. That's a sign in itself. These mushroom style corks normally get pushed out by the pressure inside the bottle. With no bubbles left and no pressure to push against, it was never going to come out easily, and it was never going to be good news once it did.

Here's why:
Lost pressure. Champagne relies on CO2 pressure inside the bottle to help push the cork out. Over around 18 years, that pressure slowly diminishes as it seeps through the cork.
Cork shrinkage. Natural cork dries out and shrinks over time. A shrunken cork loses its tight seal against the glass, letting in more air.

Air ingress. Once the seal weakens, oxygen gets in. This is the real culprit behind spoiling the wine.

Oxidation. With oxygen inside, the wine slowly oxidises, much like a cut apple turning brown. Fresh fruit character flattens and shifts toward stewed, nutty, sherry-like notes.

Loss of mousse. As CO2 escapes and the wine oxidises, the fine persistent bubbles Champagne is known for fade or disappear entirely, leaving it flat.

Compounding effect. Each problem feeds the next. Less pressure lets more air in, more air speeds up oxidation, oxidation degrades the wine further. The older the bottle, the more these issues stack up.

So what SHOULD this Champagne have tasted like fresh?
Crisp, lively acidity with citrus 🍋 and green apple 🍏 up front, a fine and persistent mousse, light brioche and biscuit notes from lees ageing, red fruit undertones from the Pinot Noir base, and an easy, refreshing style built for good company rather than deep contemplation.

Instead, we got a masterclass in what 18 years of ageing does to a Brut that was never built for it! taken in Newport-on-Tay, Fife by @beingwineful

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a month ago

Earlier this week, on my joyous journey trying Chardonnay from New Zealand, I was reminded I'd also been gifted this gorgeous bottle from @vintwinepr and @laithwaites.wine wine a few months ago. It was absolutely delightful.
Rapaura Springs Marlborough Chardonnay Reserve 2023.

This is the kind of Chardonnay which could be left a few more years but I thought it was drinking perfectly right now in 26'.

I'm also growing to love this blended style: part fermented in oak, part in stainless steel, with a small portion of around 10% going through malolactic fermentation. It preserves that crisp, more malic fruit character, while still bringing subtle creamy roundedness from the malo and a lovely layered oak effect of toastiness and spice.

Rapaura Springs is run by the Neylon family, who started out farming mussels and apples before finding their calling in wine.@rapaurasprings

Buyer for Laithwaites, Ben Cohen, summed it up well: "proof that Marlborough can do elegance as well as energy." Layered, gently oaked and beautifully balanced.

Pour it alongside pan-fried scallops, pork loin or your favourite seafood dish for a match made in heaven. 🐚 Yummy 😋 (or roast chicken like we had!).

#prsample #gifted taken in Edinburgh, United Kingdom by @beingwineful

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2 months ago

Thank you wonderful wine community of Edinburgh - what a hoot the fringe has been. And a big thanks to @lepetitraisin_winebar -
where the events were hosted in their downstairs space Le Bleu.

Over 5 fringe events we covered a story of 5 and often 6 wines across the country in a story to compare and contrast French tradition with modern day Rebellion from Wine Makers across France 🇫🇷 looking to experiment, looking to break boundaries and moulds and create something extraordinary!

It was a story of:

Rebellion - Chenin blanc in Sancerre?! 🤔
Reinvention - All female wine makers in a grower champagne family! ❤️🙌
Relocation - Scottish family relocating to Provence to make rosé wine 🌹
Revolution - 100% cabernet sauvignon blanc de noir from Bordeaux?! 🤓
Resurgence - Chill-able reds and the come back of the original Clariet from Bordeaux 🍷
Resurrection - Chatus the once forgotten grape making its come back 🐦‍🔥

All wines from @cockburnsofleith1796 (review of each individually coming...) A bottle of wine won at each event too!

Thank you to all who came. 🙌😊 Looking back over the photos brought a tear to my eye all the smiling faces - that's what it's truly all about! Pure joy!

Next wine event is a masterclass across North East Spain 16th September 6.30pm (link in bio or https://www.beingwineful.com/events/community taken in Edinburgh, United Kingdom by @beingwineful

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2 months ago