How long have you been writing about wine?
My career as a wine writer began as a happy accident in 2000. I was freelancing as a sub-editor (basically the person who fixes up the spelling and grammar mistakes in other people’s articles) and I got a three-week gig at Decanter. They’d just launched their website and its kind, open-minded editor (totally coincidentally now working for the Académie du Vin Library – Adam Lechmere) was generous enough to commission my first wine articles, and then give me a job as his deputy editor.
What’s the oldest wine you’ve ever tasted, and what was it like?
When I was writing my MW dissertation on En Rama sherry I was lucky enough to visit the Gonzalez Byass winery in Jerez, where I was poured a very small taste of a wine from their Trafalgar barrel, which dates back to the same year as the battle of that name, 1805. It was incredibly intense – salty, savoury, earthy, woody… I can’t say that it was the most accessible, easy-drinking wine I’ve ever tasted in my life, but that little taste of history was certainly one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had in my career as a wine writer.
If you had to drink wine from one region for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
I’ve got to say Beaujolais, under the circumstances – don’t I? I love the diversity of styles you can find in the region, and there are certainly bottlings from the region that could, at a pinch, just about stand proxy to two of my other great loves, subtle, supple Pinot Noir and peppery, sinewy cool-climate Syrah. But, oh my god, I would miss the white wines of the Côte d’Or, Champagne, and Italian reds, and Riesling, and sherry, and the wines of Australia (which, apart from France, I count as my home from home). Please don’t force me to choose!
Who is/was your mentor?
I’ve been hugely lucky to have enjoyed the support of so many wonderful people in my career, both as a writer and as an MW student (and then as an MW). I’ve named some of them in the acknowledgements section of my book, but there are so many others that the list could go on for quite some time (and that might be as boring to read as an over-long Oscars acceptance speech is to listen to). Hopefully you know who you are and I hope I’ve thanked you sufficiently in person.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I’d say buying books, but books aren’t really an extravagance, are they? (Even if my to-read pile is dangerously, wobblingly high.) Maybe I should mention my craving for good sushi (never cheap, and therefore always an extravagance) and my love of travelling.
What do you consider the most over-used word or phrase in wine writing?
Can I mention numbers here instead of words and phrases? I think the notion of attaching a numeric score to a wine is a terrible idea on so many levels (even if I end up scoring wines myself at the behest of the editors for whom I write and the competitions for which I judge). I reckon all most people really want to know is whether a wine is worth buying, and if so whether they should buy a glass, a bottle or a case.
Which wine-tasting talent would you most like to have?
There is a small (I mean really small – fewer than a dozen) handful of people who I consider to be wine-tasting ninjas. They’re gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell that allows them to parse out individual aromas with great precision, and an astonishing olfactory memory that allows them to make links between what they happen to be tasting now and something they tasted months, if not years, before. (It’s like being able to remember people’s faces and names, even when you haven’t seen them for years.) Most of the tasters I know – even the very good ones – don’t have this natural ability. Like me, they’ve just worked hard at training their palates and building up a sensory library.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Ooh, that’s a tough one. Anything I say here is going to sound like bragging, isn’t it? I’m truly proud of this book, and I’m proud of the fact that I’ve kept my head above water as a freelance writer for the past 25 years. I’m also proud of achieving my MW (and so thrilled my mum was still alive to see me graduate and win a bunch of prizes that evening).
What is your most treasured possession?
My sense of the ridiculous and my spirit of adventure.
Which fictional character would you love to share a bottle with?
I think I’d be more interested in sharing a bottle of wine (or several) over dinner with some of my favourite authors (some of whom would have to be brought back from the grave), so I could try and dig deeper into the ideas behind their books or just enjoy them for their wit and imagination. If I can do that, I’d like to have dinner with Gore Vidal, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Tuchman, Nick Harkaway, Barbara Kingsolver, Ian McEwan and Richard Dawkins, please – although I think I might have to keep Gore and Margaret at separate ends of the table as I suspect they’d either really hit it off or hate each other on sight.
