Wine-drinking marathon runner enjoys vintage race
A wine merchant who blind-tasted a different glass of wine at each mile stage of the London Marathon has said he feels “honoured” that his challenge went viral on social media.
Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy”, sampled 25 glasses of wine as he ran, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile.
A video he posted on TikTok had amassed more than 3.2m views as of yesterday. Gilbey, 52, said he aimed to raise £2,000 for Sobell House hospice in Oxford, which looked after his mother in her final days. His fundraiser has now passed £13,000, far beyond his target.
Gilbey, of London, said that of the 25 samples, he got four completely wrong, seven spot on and the rest mostly right.
He completed the race in four hours, 41 minutes, including stops for drinking. The wines ranged from bottles bought at petrol stations and canned wine to a £40 barolo.
“When you’re overtaken by a fridge and double-humped camel, you could get really depressed unless you knew there was a nice wine around the corner with some friendly faces to support you,” he said.
Gilbey said that he had avoided feeling tipsy by drinking only small sips or by spitting out the wines after tasting.
“If they were good, I might swallow it and if they were bad, they went on the road,” he said.
He celebrated finishing the race by downing a glass of champagne.