A year of hard yards and vineyards – what to do when you turn 60? Become a wine runner!
Wine Runner – the blurb
With his sixtieth birthday looming, Colin Renton decides that it’s time to escape office life and focus on achieving some of his unfulfilled goals.
He embarks on a year-long adventure that takes him from the busy streets of Edinburgh to the traffic-free roads, sodden fields and dusty paths of Europe’s winemaking regions. He laces up his running shoes and joins thousands of fellow athletes in races that test him over various distances, degrees of difficulty and levels of seriousness. His schedule, which culminates with a marathon debut, takes him to places he would otherwise not have visited.
On his travels, he seeks out local wines that deserve a place in a carefully chosen twelve-bottle case, a process that throws up some fascinating insights and introduces him to a vintage crop of engaging characters.
The crossover between running and wine uncorks a tale of endurance, curiosity and discovery, told in an accessible style and served up with a splash of local color and a drop of wry humor.
I want to do that!
I might be more of a plodder than a sprinter but nevertheless I do regularly run and the idea of doing it around various different vineyards around Europe greatly appeals. That’s exactly what Renton decides to do upon turning 60 and boy does he do it in style. See it’s not just running around vineyards that takes place. These wine runs actually encourage you to stop on route to sample the delights. Four course meal on your way round? Sure, serve it with matching reds! I’m not sure how much running I would actually get done and Renton did mention there were some who definitely seemed more interested in the merlot than the mileage but the whole concept is now on my bucket list.
Renton chose various distances that would suit all budgets from park runs to a marathon. He shone spotlights on a number of places not renowned for wine and dove into their past, present and future with lovely little accompanying anecdotes. I now want to go to Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary and if wine is involved all the better. I suppose it’s quite a niche book when you think about it – running, wine and travel, but I am all over the three and I loved reading it.
