A wine merchant who blind tasted a different glass of wine at each mile of the London Marathon on Sunday has said he feels “honored” his challenge went viral on social media, as he surpassed his fundraising target.
Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy,” sampled 25 glasses of wine during the race, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile.
A video he posted on TikTok has amassed more than 3.2 million views. He had his first sip at about 9:30am, shortly after the race began.
Photo: Reuters
Gilbey said he aimed to raise ￡2,000 (US$2,487) for Sobell House hospice charity in Oxford, England, which looked after his mother in her final days of life.
His fundraiser has now passed ￡13,000.
On his JustGiving page he said he was running the London Marathon “to raise money for the wonderful team at Sobell House hospice, who nursed and cared for my dear Mum in her last few days,” and that he hoped to “not die doing it.”
Photo: Reuters
Gilbey, based in London, said the marathon went “really well” and that he had been spurred on by the treat of a taste of wine after each mile.
Of the 25 glasses sampled, Gilbey said he got four completely wrong, seven spot on and the rest mostly right.
He completed the race in 4 hours, 41 minutes, including stops for drinking.
“It’s my first experience of this going absolutely mad and I feel very honored,” he said. “It’s just incredible and it’s great because that’s what it’s all about. It’s for a great charity and they’re one of many hospices that just work their socks off to make massive differences.”
The wines ranged from bottles bought at gas stations, mini bottles and canned wine, to a ￡40 Barolo.
“It was hilarious because 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, who runs wine businesses and events, said he had avoided feeling tipsy by only drinking small sips of wine, or by spitting it out after tasting.
“If they were good, I might swallow it and if they were bad, they went on the road,” he said. “I think the pain of the running allowed me to not feel anything other than the urge to finish. I think it’s a great way to stay sober.”
He celebrated his achievement by drinking a glass of champagne after completing the race.
“I was totally exhausted, totally cooked, but it was just such a great day and the atmosphere is just too fabulous for words so really, it doesn’t matter how painful it is,” Gilbey said.
Asked if he would ever take on a similar challenge again, he said: “One hundred percent not, but if you asked me if I would advise anybody else to do something like this, I would go, 100 percent yes.”
“I think in life, sometimes you get a silly idea that resonates, but two silly ideas rarely resonate, so I’d encourage everybody to have a silly idea for a good cause and see what happens,” he said.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
RSS