Just in time for Christmas, the Bermuda Wine Circle is back and hosting a champagne tasting at the dinghy club.

For many, it’s likely to be a walk down memory lane. The Bermuda Wine Circle was started roughly 40 years ago by a bunch of oenophiles eager to learn more about wine and socialise with people who were just as interested.

Until 2016, meetings were held regularly at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club on Pomander Road in Paget.

Neil and Kelly Joynson, James Morgan, Tony Rietig and Simon Carruthers are trying to get it going again with a series of tastings open to the public.

Guests on Thursday will have the opportunity to try champagne from familiar and not so familiar houses.

“The Bermuda Wine Circle is a not-for-profit society run entirely by volunteers, that aims to make wine approachable. It's got a long history on the island. It was especially popular in the 1980s through to about the mid 2010s,” Kelly said.

“James, Tony and Simon were involved with the Circle before it disbanded and Neil used to attend as a member in the [early] 2000s.

“We were chatting to Tony at a wine dinner last year and that's where the idea came from.”

Neil, who has lived on and off the island since 1999, loved the idea of encouraging wine education that was fun; Kelly’s interest went a little further.

Having sat and passed exams set by Wine & Spirit Education Trust, she is now studying for the Level 4 Diploma.

She began working her way through the various levels of certification when she moved to the island with her accountant husband in 2016.

Because she “didn't have a job lined up”, she wanted to find an interesting way to occupy her time.

An advertisement at Gosling’s set her on the wine certification path. Kelly saw it as a partner to cooking, something she also enjoyed.

“The really interesting thing about learning to taste wine is learning to use your taste buds in a different way.

“All of a sudden you get a new appreciation of taste and smell. It's helped me with food and other things as well because it kind of sharpens your senses.

“I’m learning about how much you can learn from a bottle of wine even if you don't know anything about it, just from smelling and tasting it. It's so interesting. It just really kind of opened up a whole new world to me.”

That Bermuda had “so many wine wholesalers” was a bonus as well.

“I've not had any trouble finding ones that I need for my course here,” she said.

Neil added: “There's a number of different distributors here and they bring in wines from all over the world; every conceivable wine region you can think of you can get the wine here. And for 60,000 people, the sheer breadth of wine that we have available here is quite astonishing to be honest.

“The distributors do a great job at every price point as well. They bring in some entry level wines and they’ll bring in some really fabulous high-end wines as well.”

He felt there was a need for Bermuda Wine Circle as wine events tend to be tied to a particular distributor or wholesaler.

“We are independent so we can showcase wines from all of them and concentrate on the wines themselves. That's very much the aim of what we're trying to do,” Neil said.

The champagne on offer on Thursday will cover “a wide range of styles”.

Louis Roederer from Bristol Cellar, Deutz from Discovery Wines and Lanson from Pitt & Company Ltd are on the list along with “some artisan champagne from Two Rock Wine”.

The couple are looking forward to tasting Cuvée Alpha from Jacquart, a producer that Bristol Cellar has only recently started bringing in.

“It’s a fun and educational event, it's not too serious,” Neil said. “You come and learn about the different wines and we'll be showcasing different styles of champagnes and talking about [them], their grapes.”

Kelly added: “[What often happens is] you go to an event and you get given a glass of champagne and you're like, ‘Well, this is delicious.’ But you don't really know why it was delicious. There's so much involved with champagne, there's so many aspects to it.”

The old Bermuda Wine Circle would hold monthly events and was particularly known for its annual summer barbecue and Christmas parties.

“We would like to do that as well,” said Neil. “We’re working to put together a really interesting programme as we build our society.”

• The Bermuda Wine Circle’s Champagne Night takes place on Thursday from 6pm to 8.30pm. Tickets, $100, can be booked onbermudawinecircle.onlineor via e-mail, bermudawinecircle@gmail.com. Follow Bermuda Wine Circle onInstagramand Facebook