Hello Wine Comrade,

Thanks for your interest in the Belfast Wine Tasting Group! My name is David Speer, I’m the owner of Pulling Corks Wine Bar in Belfast, we’re hoping to be open to the public in late spring 2024. In the meantime, I still want to be sharing wine, knowledge, and having a good time, so I thought it would be fun start a tasting group in January 2024.

This tasting group is only open to individuals that work in food and beverage, and is focused on those with less experience who would like to learn more about wine. I’m hoping to find 6 to 12 people to gather twice a month to taste wine, learn about regions, styles and winemaking techniques, while picking up helpful tips for serving and selling wine. We’ll generally taste 3-4 wines every time we get together, and the cost per tasting is $20 per person to cover the cost of the wine.  We’ll include time for questions, so that you’ll get the most out of the experience.

“Why should I listen to this guy?”

I’ve been working in wine for over 20 years. I’ve worked in high end restaurants, wine bars, wineries, retail stores, grocery stores, and even a big box store selling wine. The least expensive wine I’ve sold was $3.99 a bottle, the most expensive was $5,000. Prior to moving to Belfast, I lived in Portland, OR and the Columbia Gorge in Washington. I’ve owned a couple of wine businesses including Red Slate Wine Co, where I hosted wine classes, events, and sold wine as a private sommelier. At Red Slate, I taught thousands of people about wine over 10 years. In 2011 I opened Ambonnay Champagne Bar, which was an internationally recognized bar with one of the best selections of champagne in the world. For my work with Ambonnay, Food and Wine Magazine even named me one of the best sommeliers of 2013.

More important than all of the experience is the fact that I love sharing wine and knowledge with others, particularly in a relaxed and fun way. I don’t like wine snobbery or pretention, just having fun while pulling some corks! That being said, I also take wine seriously, so it won’t be all fun and games during our get togethers. Hopefully it will be a good balance of serious and practical learning mixed with humor and fun.

If this sounds like something you’d be in to, please fill out the form and I’ll be in touch soon.

To recap, the Belfast Tasting Group will meet every other week beginning the second week of January. I’m guessing we’ll meet on Mondays or Tuesdays, but we’ll see what everyone’s schedule looks like. We’ll meet at 31 Pendleton St in Belfast, where Pulling Corks is set to open. Every session will be $20 to cover the cost of the wine we taste. If we have enough people in the group, this price will go down.

Cheers,
David

503-381-8383

david@redslatewine.com