Meet Nick Andrews, your Half Full host
Meet Nick Andrews, your Half Full host
Half Full founder, Nick Andrews, has launched a fun, energetic and informative way to explore wine for small private groups, team socials and corporate events.
Nick’s love of wine goes all the way back to the late 1990s when he headed across the channel to train as a sommelier and chef in, at that time, one of West France’s most renowned training restaurants - Chez Cochin. The owners of the restaurant were Monsieur Cochin as Chef and Madame Cochin as Sommelier, but who was also acting as the president of Les Amis de Baccus (The Friends of Baccus (the Roman God of Wine).
In this capacity, aside from selecting then President Jacques Chirac’s wines for his presidential banquets, she used to run a Saturday afternoon wine tasting for the staff (after lunch service), where vignerons from across France used to send her their bottles to taste with the hope they’d get notoriety at the president’s table.
With such an serendipitous wine experience at a young age, Nick then headed to university, where needless to say the Saturday afternoon tastings tended to be more focused around flavoured, multi-coloured shots and generic lager - but he never lost the lessons he learned, or the passion great wine ignited during that time in France.
Post university, he started a small collection of wine in 2009, which has now grown to his very own wine lake, stored in a secret location just outside the M25, and every now and then delves into the archives to get something tasty out to share and enjoy with friends, while cooking up a dish or two to accompany the wine. Over time this turned into something of a vocation, with more invitations to host, join events and make recommendations for what should be served - that's where the idea came from.
And so Half Full landed.
As a natural optimist, full of energy, with a lot to say about wine and a desire to make it fun - over the past couple of years, his tastings have been enjoyed by hundreds of people, from intimate private dining events that bring friends together in a relaxed and inclusive environment, to big corporate events which deliver fast-paced, unpretentious tastings guaranteed to leave your guests energised and excited.
The concept is simple. Drink great wine. Eat lovely food that pairs perfectly. Have fun.
If that sounds like something you need in your life, let's chat.
