The newly renovated Mission House at Christ Church in Newtown is the venue for a fun new combination of wine tasting and pub quiz. Taking place on the second Thursday of every month and costing £15, the event offers the chance to test your wine knowledge (or lack of it) in a relaxed and informal setting.
Run by husband and wife team Steve and Fran Henshaw, the venture is an off shoot of an online wine tasting game, as Steve explains:
“It started off as an internet game where you had to guess the type of grape and the variety. We had to start off at a very basic level, it involves tasting nights where we get a lot of people together and you score points based on the tasting. You guess the country, continent and the grape, its not massively serious, its like a pub quiz, you don’t really mind if you win or lose.”
The events are great fun, even if you know nothing about wine, with the venue relaxed and a great way of meeting new people. The venue hosts a maximum of 40 people and after a few glasses of wine even recluses like me will be chatting away to other potential wine detectives.
Steve, who works as a PE teacher says that running these events is a “time consuming hobby” and that many people in the wine industry have never hear of the concept. ” We have travelled the world to various vineyards. We have been slowed down by the advent of children but we still like wine, we’ve been playing this with family and friends for a while. We thought we’d try it out on a bigger scale.”
Of the Mission House, Steve says:
“Our friend is the vicar, Graham Shaw. (see https://thechesterblog.com/2016/01/27/the-vicar-of-newtown-2/ ) We accidentally met a few summers ago. I tried to persuade him to give up his non drinking for lent, without realising he was the vicar. When I found out he was the vicar I was surprised because he’s a young looking very dashing fellow! When we needed a venue , we looked at this and its a lovely venue. Its a bit secret which is nice.”
The next Suspicious event is on the 11th May
The Chester blog 
Amongst his other various ‘hobbies’ I’ve not a clue how Steve has time for this.