It was a shared bottle of wine as a student in Oxford that made Jancis Robinson realise what life was all about. Tom Doorleymeets the woman who decides what Queen Elizabeth will drink.
Who is the most authoritative wine writer in the world? There are not many whose writ runs throughout the globe and the most famous - some would say infamous, but very quietly because he is quite litigious - is probably Robert Parker. Parker's US-based Wine Advocate is certainly influential and there is plenty of evidence that some winemakers are inclined to make wines that appeal to his palate. But I can't help feeling that Parker's personal preference for big wines with lots of flavour means that some of the world's less brawny bottles get fairly scant attention.
When I want an opinion on older vintages of fine wines, I tend to turn to Michael Broadbent, formerly of Christie's and author of monumental tasting notes which are concise and elegant. When I need to take an historical perspective, I will consult the scholarly works of Hugh Johnson, but when I want an overview as to what the hell is going on in the great world of wine I invariably consult Jancis Robinson, especially in the form of her website, updated daily, www.jancisrobinson.com. Robinson for me, and many others, is quite simply the oracle.
And now she has joined forces with Hugh Johnson to produce the sixth edition of The World Atlas of Wine, a book that first appeared way back in 1971 just before this Cumbrian grammar school girl graduated from Oxford in maths and philosophy. Between the Atlas project and her editorship of the magisterial Oxford Companion to Wine it is a wonder that Jancis Robinson has any time to do anything else. She is assisted in both projects by Julia Harding MW, who also produces tasting notes for the website. But Robinson's energy and enthusiasm know no bounds.
Our arrangement to have dinner in Dublin recently involved an exchange of e-mails. We finalised the details less than 24 hours before we shared a table at the Winding Stair, hers being sent from her Blackberry as she waited for a flight home from Seoul. And despite serious jet lag she still managed to detect low level TCA (or corkiness) in the bottle of Chianti Classico that we ordered.
Robinson was the first person outside the wine trade to become a Master of Wine in 1984. The MWs are an exclusive bunch, still numbering less than 200 worldwide. The gruelling examination involves a week of written and practical exams, and she puts her success in the blind tastings down to having been pregnant at the time, presumably because of the heightened sense of taste.
Her 1983 book Masterglass was the first wine book that I encountered which gave a practical, hands-on account of how to get to grips with wine. I was clear to me that this was a writer who wanted to demystify wine while still believing that it was much more than just a drink.
Was there a landmark wine, I ask her, which really concentrated the mind?
"Yes," she says. "A shared bottle of Chambolle Musigny Les Amoureuses 1959 in a restaurant outside Oxford when I was a student there. So much better than student plonk, and it made me realise just how gorgeous wine could be and also clearly involved history, geography, psychology, science and more - just the subject for me, although when you think of the early 1970s, wine and food didn't have anything like the social cachet they have now. They were seen as irredeemably frivolous. I had to work in the travel business for three years and then drop out to Provence for a year to find vindication of the fact that eating and drinking are indeed what life is all about!"
The World Atlas of Wine is, naturally, a book with a strong sense of place, which may appear odd in a world that is sceptical about the notion of terroir and where so much commercial wine just tastes the same. So, does wine still really express a sense of place? "Definitely," she says. "And what distinguishes wine from just about every other thing that we buy is that we can glance at the label of wines, other than the most basic ones, and tell immediately exactly which spot on the globe produced them, who made them and when. And another amazing thing about wine is that it really is shaped by the characteristics of that spot. I always tell anyone who is vaguely sceptical about terroir - which man can admittedly choose to try to override if he wants to - is just to look in their backyard on a frosty morning and notice the variation in where it lies."
Among some of the world's wine writers there is considerable worry about how fashion can shape what is being produced, especially in the drive to produce higher levels of alcohol which can mask actual character. Robinson is phlegmatic about this. "I've been writing about wine for exactly 32 years this week," she says. "And that's long enough to see that all fashions come and go so I don't get too worried. I think we'll see a bit of a white wine resurgence soonish, but the problem with high alcohol wines is that they are not just fashion. Apparently they are here to stay because of climate change."
Robinson is unusual in receiving an honour for services to wine writing and broadcasting. Nobody has yet been made a knight or a dame in this area, but her OBE is richly deserved. Her account of her investiture is highly entertaining (and can be read on the website). She recalls how she was propelled out of the royal presence "with a firm handshake" and remarks, "Can you imagine how appallingly difficult it must be to make small talk with 100 strangers in a single hour? Of course afterwards we all felt guilty we hadn't fed her something a little meatier, but she was probably just very grateful to get it all over with. She did seem quite animated when talking to the gentleman who received an MBE 'for services to crofting'." Nevertheless, she now not only helps to choose wines for British Airways but also for the royal table when Queen Elizabeth is entertaining heads of state. And the tastings for both are always done blind.
Robinson is married to Nick Lander, whom she describes as "a saintly Mancunian" and who is a former restaurateur (at L'Escargot in Soho) and currently restaurant critic of the Financial Times, where she writes a weekly wine column.
After all these years writing about it, was she tempted to share the commonly held view that wine is just a drink, albeit a bit more varied than others? "Good God no!," she replies. "If it were, I wouldn't have a job. I think the fact that it takes eight woman-years to update The World Atlas of Wine and The Oxford Companion to Wine really proves that."
WHITES TO LOOK OUT FOR:
Germany: "Because grapes now get reliably ripe so they can make exciting dry wines, as well as the light and fruity."
Austria: "Because the current generation of whites are so clean and pure but they do have to guard against wines being too full nowadays."
South Africa: "Has for ages been the source of great value whites - Chenin, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and very good Semillon - but the South Africans themselves don't realise it. They are more excited about their young vine Shiraz/Syrah."
France: "White Rhone and Bordeaux is now better than it's ever been - and the same goes for dry Chenin from the Loire. White Burgundy has not improved at anything like the the same pace."
REDS TO LOOK OUT FOR:
California v Bordeaux: "The top Californians are arguably putting more effort and money into their wine production than anyone else, harnessing all sorts of technology to ensure every grape is grown and picked perfectly. The Bordelais are only just adopting this technology."
The Classics: "Red burgundy is better than it has ever been but then so are most red wines. Bordeaux is walking a very fine line between keeping its identity and uniqueness and making big ripe wines. Some St Emilionais seem to me to have crossed the line into making big red wine rather than Bordeaux."
Keen prices: "For value, Chile is hard to beat in red wine, as is the Languedoc-Roussillon. One of the world's most exciting areas is the Agly Valley in Roussillon for reds and whites - and it doesn't even have its own appellation or VDP!"
THE CHANGING ATLAS OF WINE
When The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson first appeared in 1971, it had 236 pages. The latest, sixth, edition, has more than 400. "Clearly the world has changed," says Robinson, "and a great deal of the changes reflected in the Atlas have to do with climate change. This is significant in places such as Germany, Luxembourg and Canada. And in Australia, people are looking to the cooler, greyer, greener regions such as Victoria and Tasmania to save them from the drought."
The theory that champagne producers will be forced across the Channel and on to the chalky South Downs is possibly exaggerated. "Sussex sparkling is still a fair way from supplanting champagne but they are achieving much higher levels of natural ripeness."
Wine is now being made in the most unlikely places. In the first edition, the Atlas focused on the two temperate bands north and south of the equator. These days, wine is being made very close to the equator. "The New Latitude wines come from Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Kenya, Namibia and Sri Lanka," says Robinson.
Closer to home, wine has been undergoing a renaissance in Europe. Where a few years ago in France, Italy and Spain, wine was drunk by "the elderly and the impoverished, it now has a new glamour," according to Robinson.
THE MOST OVER-RATED WINES:
"I suppose I'd have to say that it's difficult to see why New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc should be as expensive as it is as it comes from very productive vines and is given no expensive oak. And it gets little ageing of any sort."