It was a wonderful evening, and I offered to write a guest post for Karwig’s blog about it.

Turns out, my style of writing and Karwig’s house style don’t blend well. It’s a bit like mixing a Shiraz with a Chardonnay. Nothing inherently wrong with either, just not in the same bottle.

To be fair to Maurice, I can see his point. This was my opening to the post:

My mouth is quicker than my brain.

The words “I’m getting vomit” had passed my lips before my cognitive faculties had had a chance to apply a filter.

It went very quiet around the table.

We were, after all, talking about a half bottle of wine that goes for €14 retail.

Maurice didn’t bat an eyelid. “That’ll be the cheese,” he said.

The cheese, as the original post went on to explain, was an unctuous, gooey Brie de Melun provided by Paul O’Mahony, around whose dining room table the private tasting was taking place. While it was polluting my palette, delivering flavours akin to vomit, O’Mahonys Paul and Maurice (not related) were enjoying green apples, pineapple, a bit of lemon, that sort of thing, the erudite stuff.

Thing is, the Karwig Wines blog is a quality place. Not the kind of venue that’s going to let that sort of writing in. And who can blame them?

The whole thing got me thinking about voice – voice as in the distinctive voice of a writer or, more pertinently, a photographer.

My career as a photographer is starting to take off now that I have found a distinctive voice.

A distinctive voice means my photography speaks clearly.

A distinctive voice means my photography is heard.

A distinctive voice means it is heard by the right people.

A distinctive voice makes it easy for people to decide whether or not it is a good match for them.

Just as my photography isn’t a good fit for everyone, my writing isn’t either.

That’s a good thing.

It’s also a good thing that Maurice knows what is best for Karwig. He is also the consummate diplomat when it comes to telling guest contributors when the blend just doesn’t work.

A bit like chocolate and wine, as I learned the last week.

O'Mahonys Maurice (left) and Paul inspect one of the fabulous German dessert wines that Karwig stock. (c) Roger Overall 2010

[***UPDATE*** Maurice has blogged about our evening here: KarwigWines' Blog - Eiswein Tasting. It's a great piece. I'd forgotten about the Spike Milligan story. That's ironic. I told it.]