Wines for the Connoisseur

Nowadays everybody drinks wine – nothing better to make the world feel a better place. Mind you it should be in moderation, and if possible fine wine. Fortunately there is very little wine that cannot be drunk (sipped), but you need to be discriminate. I drink cheap wine! really? Well my pocket rules the day, and one thing I do know about wine, it is not always the price that makes it taste better. Living in Spain mostly I drink Spanish wine, and I choose wisely.

Now I used to drink the very best wine but times are changing, and corked wine is a thing of the past. Wine comes from all corners of the world and made under clinical conditions. The person who sends back a bottle of wine with an air of, ‘You see I know about wine and they shouldn’t serve this, it’s corked etc’ is normally out of line. Actually what they really mean is, ‘I don’t know a thing about wine, and foolishly I have chosen one I don’t like!’

In the 70’s I became a wine connoisseur, I kid you not. But it was a mistake, a really lovely mistake. Margaret and I decided to go to France in the autumn of 1977 and being methodical, and always happy to write; I sent a letter to the ‘Comite National des Vins de France.’ They are now on the internet and list everything you need to know. I explained that we would be visiting the Beaujolais region at the end of October, and could they recommend an itinerary. Now in those days the only people it seemed who wrote to the ‘Comite’ were the professional wine houses, and we had always called our home ‘Enterprise House’. The response was perfect, an invitation was extended by the Marie de Romaneche-Thorins; we were invited to be their guests at the Fete Raclet, (Very selective Beaujolais wine tasting event) on the 29th of October and to attend the ‘Banquet Officiel’. We had been directed there by the all powerful ‘Comite’ so we were invited to join their wine tasting. And we attended for several years; not now as it seems to have become very commercial and the days when we two were the only English people attending are long since gone.

From at the time I was in I was hooked, and studied all the wine books and drank the best wine. Now it wasn’t as expensive as you might think! You buy when the wine is young – direct from the Propriétaire-viticulteur or the Negociants de Vins and wait a few years. Or if you fancy going to Sotheby’s Wine Auctions then you can bid for wine with the professionals. After a while they would recognise us and give us a nod as we walked into the auction, wonderful for the ego. If you know what you’re doing it can be very worthwhile. I bought a bottle of La Tache in the late 70’s which I sold recently for £600-00, it was going to be used for our Golden Wedding but we decided to sell it in auction. Well we worked it out like this; we drink GOOD cheap wines now, and this sale resulted in exchanging one bottle for about three hundred. As I said drinking wine can be very reasonable three hundred bottles for our original £50.

The moral of the story is, drink modestly both in volume and quality, and it will do your heart good – so they say!

Keeping off politics for a while and will leave it to the others. And I shall tell another wine blog another day. - Regards to all Patrick