A large part of my working life is devoted to PR and advertising, and in a world that is increasingly media hungry this is an area that devours more and more of my time.

As the percentage of time dedicated to it increases I need to find ways to make the task more enjoyable. I hate the prospect of being trapped by aspects of my job that aren’t fun ( as well as rewarding for the Aldi business), so last week I organised two seminars by Markus Del Monego at two of the UK’s major magazine houses. Markus is an exceptional figure in the wine world as he is the only person to be a World Champion Sommelier, in 1998, and a Master of Wine. Markus’s company CaveCo perform a quality control function on behalf of Aldi and I wanted to expand his role with us so that he can help me take the wine range in new and exciting directions. Part of his brief is to present wine in new ways to professional wine journalists and lifestyle commentators alike and his seminars did just that. By taking a few carefully considered store cupboard items and 3 selected wines he was able to skilfully show how our sensation of taste works and how this influences food and wine matching.

Over two days I joined in all 8 presentations and was as enthralled at the last as I was at the first. I know those attending felt the same and I am hoping to find a way of delivering this on the website in the future. Watch this space.