I exchanged a couple of e-mails with a customer yesterday, apologising for the delay in my reply, giving the explanation that Angela and I had been travelling on business during the previous week. “Somewhere nice, I hope”, came the reply. Well, in truth, the answer was yes, we had been somewhere nice – a couple of days for a presentation in Barcelona, followed quickly by a few days of tasting in Zurich. Of course, it’s quite natural to believe that travelling is a glamorous pastime, and it most certainly is when the journey is for leisure purposes, but when the aim is simply to stand behind a table (or in this case a barrel) pouring wine for two or three days, then not only do your legs start to ache, but also you don’t really get too much time to explore your surroundings anyway. The other slight downside was that these two trips also encroached upon two consecutive weekends, making our working week just that bit longer.

I know that I shouldn’t complain really – having the opportunity to travel is much better than have a regular ‘9 to 5’ sitting behind a desk all week, but I am simply saying that in the end it’s still work, albeit in a slightly different location.

Finally, I should add that we did have a really good time, thanks to the warm hospitality our good friends (and importers) in Switzerland. They certainly know how to look after their visitors, even if it was mainly for business purposes. Oh, and by the way, I think we did help to sell a bit of albariño too!

I exchanged a couple of e-mails with a customer yesterday, apologising for the delay in my reply, giving the explanation that Angela and I had been travelling on business during the previous week. “Somewhere nice, I hope”, came the reply. Well, in truth, the answer was yes, we had been somewhere nice – a couple of days for a presentation in Barcelona, followed quickly by a few days of tasting in Zurich. Of course, it’s quite natural to believe that travelling is a glamorous pastime, and it most certainly is when the journey is for leisure purposes, but when the aim is simply to stand behind a table (or in this case a barrel) pouring wine for two or three days, then not only do your legs start to ache, but also you don’t really get too much time to explore your surroundings anyway. The other slight downside was that these two trips also encroached upon two consecutive weekends, making our working week just that bit longer.

I know that I shouldn’t complain really – having the opportunity to travel is much better than have a regular ‘9 to 5’ sitting behind a desk all week, but I am simply saying that in the end it’s still work, albeit in a slightly different location.

Finally, I should add that we did have a really good time, thanks to the warm hospitality our good friends (and importers) in Switzerland. They certainly know how to look after their visitors, even if it was mainly for business purposes. Oh, and by the way, I think we did help to sell a bit of albariño too!