HEDONIST AT HEART

Meet Joanne, Outpour’s Founder

Ordering wine should be like ordering dessert: a fun, kid-in-a-candy-shop moment. But too often the whole experience, whether you’re browsing online, in the supermarket or a restaurant, feels completely pressured. The label is confusing or the lingo the sommelier is using is baffling. You fear making the wrong choice. Or you worry about being judged for the things you like, or don’t. What should be an enjoyable experience leaves you feeling deflated.

I love wine but the world of wine frustrates me. How can fermented grape juice that’s drunk recreationally belong to such an elitist, impenetrable world? I developed Outpour to try and change that. To liberate wine and make it more accessible to more people.

The wine world has been particularly unwelcoming to women. When I go out to dinner, I’m there to have a good time. But time and time again, I have found myself silently frustrated at customs which centred the male experience. The wine list went to the man. I ordered the wine, but the man was offered to taste it. When buying wine, I was told that women only like one grape and stick to it (spoiler: not true). These moments to me were reflections of something bigger. Despite the fact that women buy 80% of all wine, our tastes and voices are drowned out.

Wine is the perfect alchemy of great times with friends, travel, experiences, experimenting with something new and just all-round conviviality.

Outpour is a new kind of wine community that aims to increase the enjoyment of wine. It is all about providing that little bit of knowledge to make the whole buying experience nicer. It’s about giving people total confidence that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ wine. Only love Prosecco? GREAT. There are loads of well-made options to choose from. And if you’re not interested in learning more about wine, honestly, that’s absolutely fine. We make that selection process super easy and do the work for you. Finally, Outpour is a community where we can all talk freely about wine with no fear of censure or judgement. We all have basic wine questions. Let’s ask them. I want to hear what you think and that will help me shape Outpour going forward.

So much of our daily lives are wrapped up in duties, obligations and responsibilities that we often forget the stuff that we love to do, just for the hell of it. Deep down, I’m a hedonist. I want a bit of pleasure for pleasures’ sake. Wine, for me, is that. It’s the perfect alchemy of great times with friends, travel, experiences, experimenting with something new and just all-round conviviality. Nothing makes me happier than asking a friend: ‘What type of wine do you like?’ I go into my stash, poke around all those beautiful labels and bottles and pick what, I hope, is the perfect bottle for that person.

Outpour is my way of sharing the joy of wine openly.

Upcoming tastings

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Friday 2nd of December, 2022
8:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Zoom