|
| |
|
Free
Run
- The not so secret
diary of a master of wine |
| People
often ask what's it like tasting wine for living. The short answer is that
often it's fun. There are plenty of fascinating places and people to visit
and of course fabulous and dreadful wines to try. This is an attempt to
bring some of it to life given the enormous amount of positive feedback
that I got from my diary of an Australian trip with a group of MWs that
was published in Food & Wine magazine. - a copy of which is in the
articles section of this web site. |
| |
| November
2003
- Claret is King |
| |
4th
November 2003
11am. Covent Garden in London and the Royal Opera House. The association
of Bordeaux Grand Cru Classés host a tasting
each November in London of the two year old vintage
each year. The venue is fabulous as it's a giant conservatory flooded with
grey London winter light. It's the people who get me down and sometimes
the wines. I've never seen so many pin striped suits and candy striped
shirts outside of a stock exchange
trading floor. It's full of brokers pretending that they're millionaire
city dealers or maybe they are millionaire city dealers, as who else can
afford to buy this stuff? It's not just the tasters but the
French producers too who wear a mix of stock broker and English
country gent. For me
it's the wine trade at its worst. Lots of toffs and arrogant French people
looking down their noses at each other. Still there are a few good wines
amongst a few light and green ones.
Serene Sutcliffe complains to me that
there are lots of men wearing aftershave, which kind of confirms my view
of the assembled suits as more ignorant than they realise. "What is
it the great smell of Brut" I ask? "Well it's not Champagne" she quips
and we both agree that DP (Dom Perignon) is the only kind of Brut to splash on before
coming to a serious wine tasting.
|
| |
|
