New Year, New Drinks
Ate and drank well in 2025, and did not write about it.
Happy new year! Thirsty at Midnight Substack had a rather quiet 2025 with a total of ONE post, but I definitely did not became sober, or became less curious. I will try to revive Thirsty at Midnight again in 2026. Not just for my readers, but for my own documentation of memorable moments, interesting drinks, and adventures. And to new subscribers, thank you for following along!
Here is a quick recap of my memorable Thirsty moments of the year 2025:
Started the year in The Netherlands to see family and friends for the winter holidays. Went to France as well, and visited some wine bars there too.
Many new work projects, of which one has lots of travelling involved. Discovered drinking places in mostly Kuala Lumpur and some in Hanoi (the latter was not great)
Continued pulling shifts at a wine bar in Singapore in the first half of the year
Made an impromptu trip to Qingdao in China to drink a beer - or 10 - with friends. We ended up drinking Chinese wine and eating the most Chinese flavored pizza near the sea. Here we discovered Chinese Chardonnay wine combined with rice wine is a great combo. Mind blowing even? Plan of 2026: discover more of China’s wines
Chardomi
Joined a few wine tastings aka the legionnaires organised by Aleksandar Draganic. It is always interesting to drink with likeminded people who are curious to try new stuff.
Continued helping out at all three smallest wine fairs in 2025 in Singapore as the door bitch
Attended one wine fair in Kuala Lumpur for fun
Travelled to Japan for the first time, explored some wine bars alone, since my travel buddy doesn’t drink. Ended up having a great time drinking wines you usually don’t see being poured by the glass.
Bought wine from Substack money!
So what did I buy? I ordered 4 bottles of Aussie wine, of which the first one we tried is an Australian Syrah from Central Western Victoria.
It reminded me of my time spent in Australia when I was about 24 years old, on working holiday visa. Those winter days in Sydney, drinking Syrah on a daily weekly basis with my 3 industry chef friends… Curious to find the differences between Australian wines, we drank Syrah, or should we say Shiraz, in rather large volumes.
Anyway, back to the wine. A & C Ainsworth Saddleback Syrah 2024 was intense yet smooth, dark berries with some herb notes. It was very yummy as it is on Christmas Eve, but I would think it could be nice when aged a while longer as well.
Stay tuned for the next three bottles?? I‘d actually like to invite our paid subscribers who made this happen to join us for this! Unfortunately, the majority of them who we know, are no longer in the same country -you know who you are-. But surely there will be a day to share another bottle again.
Look forward to more adventures and drinks in 2026!
Thank you for reading, please subscribe if you enjoyed this content!
- Gail
Stay thirsty, stay inspired - Never settle for what you know, always seek to learn and grow.
YES! Keep it coming 🫶🏼