Observations from a novice: Week 4: Remembering why you do it...

Sometimes, when business is slow, the news is negative or fatigue seems to take over momentarily, it is best, as an old conservative used to say, 'to get back to basics'.

Last weekend we held a wine tasting, nothing fancy, just an in-store, grab-the-customers-as-they-walk-by tasting and it was really great.

First of all, there is nothing better when you are selling a product to have the very people you want to sell it to, whether directly or indirectly, rave about it to you. Yes, always good for the morale. There are moments when during someone's enthusing monologue that one does begin to wonder, bottle in hand, whether the individual does actually realise that you were the one who first recognised the amazing qualities of the said wine, and therefore decided to import it, but in those moments, I don't care how much someone reminds me in their own special (sometimes longwinded) way, I love it.

I love to hear how this wine will go wonderfully with that obscure recipe that an enthusiastic chef has found but has not quite managed to match a wine with yet. I love to hear how even Aunty Margaret, who hates wine, will enjoy some of ours because they are not too, you know... at which point the person normally makes an unusual noise by breathing sharply in through gritted teeth and clutches their throat as if feeling the effects of a burning poison trickling through their body.

I love to hear how, because our wines are so unusual and rare even within Lebanese wines (one of our vineyards makes wine from grapes grown in the mountains as opposed to the more common Bekaa Valley), that they will be able to impress even their most annoying self-acclaimed wine expert friends. And I love the look on someone's face when they actually taste our Pinot Noir, Petit Cabernet and Mourvedre blend having moments before castigated it pulling disapproving faces and even letting out the odd mocking giggle. I love how their face softens and an impressed, even excited expression washes over their face with every slurp (which I might add, is often not spat out!).

I love to see the look of elation and dare I say it, relief, when the risk our host wine merchant took when buying our wine based on their own intuitions and taste, is affirmed in the continually ringing cash register and general hubbub of satisfaction, enjoyment and wonder at this new discovery.

This is why I love our wines and why I love sharing them with people. I love that Delia Smith fans, busy business people, young adults finding their wine tasting mouths, fathers sent to the shops with their children to give their wives an hour of peace, footballers wives, those taking a risk on the weather and going for their first bike ride in their adult life, New Zealand travellers, Chinese tourists... all have tasted and loved... all have their favourites and all teach us something new about our own wine as we taste it through their worlds. This is why I love our wines and why I love sharing them with people.

Lucy Khoneizer is the owner of new (and hopefully very successful) company, Lebanese Fine Wines.

• Harpers Says...