Observations from a novice: Week 8: Find a voice

Published: 12 November, 2008

A year on it was great to see our producers again. We communicate a lot on a regular basis and discuss how things are going on the telephone but it was really good to get back to the heart of what we are doing.

About a year ago, we went over and sat with our producers to taste and choose the wine that we would bring to the UK. All brilliant...I remember hot, sunny days, lots of conversation and tasting wine, each more delicious than the one before. I had remembered the cardinal rule about not making quick decisions in hot climates, but fortunately we had gone armed with our market research and tasting feedback from the UK and were ready to discuss the wines in more detail.

The meeting was great as our producers are wonderful but my husband and I could not escape the fact that we were such novices and felt the incredible weight of responsibility of doing these amazing wines justice in the UK market.

A year on and fresh from my WSET course, my husband and I headed back to catch up in person. Always excited to be in Lebanon, the start of our new business had prevented us going back sooner but the regular communications had more than made up for the distance. But this time things were different.

Talking freely about our efforts in the UK and concerns about the economy we both felt the surge of passion and enthusiasm reignite in a new way, the encouragement was really amazing.

Then came the tasting...one of our producers gave us samples of the newer vintages of one of our best sellers. Now, a year of experience on together with an injection of WSET, we finally found a voice for the experience of tasting these new wines. It was if my eyes had been opened to just how amazing the wines really are.

Our other producer gave us a sample of their 100% Syrah, which was just out of this world and waxing lyrical on the colour, aromas and taste sensations, I think we even surprised them a little as to how much we had learned in the past year.

Six months into the business and staring into Christmas, it is strange to think how far we have come but how steep is the mountain we still have to climb. We never thought the main challenge for our new business would come from a wider source than the wine industry...still, the economy has not defeated us yet, so we will push on through.

I guess when there is only my husband and I employed and neither of us taking a sensible income yet, there is not much fear of making redundancies...so you see, there are always positives!

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