Fizz and Ships, where wine-tasting meets a maritime theme

Peter Elson and Jane Clare

A new entertainment venture will combine two of Merseyside’s biggest passions – its rich maritime history… and wine.

Fizz and Ships is the brainchild of Liverpool journalists Jane Clare and Peter Elson and will offer the city’s first maritime-themed wine-tasting events – the first one taking place later this month.

Ms Clare has written extensively about wine for a number of media outlets and Peter is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on Liverpool’s maritime heritage and history.

Inspired by the city’s phenomenal seaborne services, the event will be based around the wines found at ports of call or aboard liners during the golden age of sea travel.

The wine tastings will be interspersed with entertaining words and evocative pictures about the ships and the seafarers who made Liverpool’s name world famous.

Fizz and Ships will make its maiden outing on Sunday, May 27, at the Chancery Bar & Restaurant, in Paradise Street, with a wine world cruise to give armchair sailors a taste of deep sea travel.

Mr Elson said: “We’ve accumulated so much knowledge about our interests that it’d be unfair to keep it to ourselves or continue to inflict it on our families.

“Our guests will voyage across a virtual world cruising the seven seas, enjoying sparkling wines and, hopefully, sparkling anecdotes, by simply raising their glasses.”

Ms Clare added: “I like to think of our new events as winetertainment – wine tasting can be perceived as geeky and we’re far from that.

“All our events will begin and end with a glass of fizz and in the middle will be a voyage of discovery both in maritime history and the world of wine.”

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