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2011 Wine in Context Awards

At the recent Union des Grands Crus tasting in London of the 2009 Bordeaux vintage, featuring a smorgasbord of Bordeaux from all the major communes, a colleague leaned over to me and commented, quietly, on how much he had been enjoying reading Winedoctor recently. Of course, he had always enjoyed reading it, he quickly reassured me, but it just seemed to be giving a lot more in recent months, he insisted.

"Your writing style has changed", he asserted.

Huh? Really? I have to admit, I was a little confused by this statement. There isn't much of a master plan when it comes to what I write, and I've never thought I really had a 'style' as such. I taste wines, then I write about them. That was honestly my impression of the way Winedoctor was working.

"No, really", he continued. "There's more of you in the
words, I think. It's become more.....more personal".

Now this latter word was one I understood. Nevertheless, Winedoctor has always felt 'personal' to me, as much a journal of my own voyage through wine as it is a guide, work of reference or source of useful material (or whatever else it might be) to wine-interested readers. Why else would I have plugged away at it for eleven years when it seems to have all the wealth-generating capability of an investment in Greek government bonds? Winedoctor has become part of me. But in what way, I wondered, did it suddenly now seem more personal to others?

The conversation turned to other matters, but his words stayed with me, lingering at the back of my mind, until December arrived and it was time to sit back and review the past twelve months. As I thumbed my way through my notes and reports on the dinners, tastings and wine-related trips of 2011 I suddenly realised what my colleague had noticed that I hadn't. Winedoctor has changed in the last year or two. The detailed Bordeaux and Loire profiles, fastidiously compiled and sometimes academic in their tone, are still there (and are regularly updated and added to), but in among these more studious efforts there are other articles which are perhaps more relaxed in style. The thoughts and concepts captured in these Winedoctor articles - which range from opinionated asides along with my latest Juchepie notes to complete works of fantasy with my report on the 1945 La Conseillante (pictured above) - are just those I would usually reserve for my end of year review, a chance to let my hair down and mouth off, or to have a laugh at my own expense as the holidays and festive celebrations draw near. And yet I suddenly realised, these articles were now scattered here and there throughout the year. I had been permanently 'letting my hair down'. The penny dropped, and at last I understood what my friend had seen. On reflection it all looks rather obvious, and I wonder how I could not have understood immediately what he was referring to, but I hope I will be forgiven my short-sightedness. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have been surprised when an astute observer drew their attention to some aspect of their character or their behaviour to which they themselves had previously been quite blind. Well, at least I hope I'm not the first!

The 2011 Roederer Awards

Others have perhaps noticed this change too; I honestly can't remember exactly which articles I submitted to the Roederer Awards selection committee during the opening months of 2011, but I know I focused on those that put wine into a context, in which the wine was given due attention, perhaps even a starring role, but never a monologue. The wine had to be part of a story or event, playing a part in a day worth remembering, like my day at Pithon-Paillé, or perhaps one that I would rather forget, such as my mad taxi ride along the banks of the Loire (both moments that featured in my 2010 Wine in Context review). I must have chosen well (there's a first time for everything!) as I was blessed this year with a nod from the Roederer Awards, having been shortlisted in their 2011 Online Columnist category.

I never used to believe the words that spilled from the mouths of those who make the shortlist but who miss out on the award. I'm thinking of actors at the Oscars, for example, not the Roederers. I've always thought of the Academy Awards ceremony as wall-to-wall luvvies who like to wax lyrical about the honour and privilege of being recognised with a place on the list, and no, of course it doesn't matter that they didn't win, not one bit. You can almost feel the grinding and the gritting of their teeth as they speak. But having now experienced the process (at the Roederers, not the Oscars - I never did receive any recognition for my part playing "stormtrooper third from back on extreme left" in Empire of the Jedi Wars, Part 7) I must confess I might be a little less cynical in future. Having been shortlisted for the first time alongside professional wine communicators such as Tim Atkin MW, Jamie Goode, Alice Feiring and Peter Richards MW, when writing about wine on Winedoctor remains a part-time occupation for me (I have managed to keep my very lucrative first career as a hen-party stormtrooper-stripper a secret up to now), I have to say I really did find it an honour.

So much so that in September 2011 I spent the best part of a day (well, about five hours on a train, anyway) schlepping my way to London, and then after barely a couple of hours of polite applause and glass of 2004 Cristal I spent the night schlepping my way back to Edinburgh on the overnight train. All just to attend the Roederer awards ceremony. Although quite confident that I would not come out on top - that accolade went to Alice who had flown in from the US for the event - I was nevertheless suitably honoured by their acknowledgement, and I felt it was the least I should do. More seasoned full-time wine hacks, who no doubt brush off such shortlistings and 'nods' nearly every other week, would surely take a more relaxed approach. But this time (especially knowing that it might be the only time I am ever shortlisted for anything!) I made the trip.

Who knows, I may even submit something again next year.

Well, anything for a taste of Cristal I suppose!

The 2011 Wine in Context Awards

But now to the awards that really matter, not the Roederers but the 2011 Winedoctor Wine in Context Awards. The field is narrower this year than it was in 2010, and for that I am thankful. Last year I seemed to have been dogged by mishaps, bad weather, cancellations and industrial action. Returning from a Burgundy tasting in London with Eric LeVine of Cellar Tracker early in 2010 I was left cold and lonely on an icy, windswept railway platform in Newcastle when the train that was carrying me north into the frozen wasteland known as Scotland terminated not just one or two stops earlier than expected, but in the wrong country (for the purposes of clarity, Scotland and England are different countries - I know that can be a little confusing for some folk - including me!). Later that year I found myself booked onto several different flights for the Bordeaux 2009 primeurs, thanks to industrial action by airline cabin staff, although happily I made it there on one of them. Come winter, London-bound for a Pomerol tasting with Neal Martin, the train I was on arrived nearly four hours late due to snow (again!). Amazingly I still made it to the tasting. And earlier in the year, on my way back from the UK after the 2010 Salon des Vins de Loire, a French rail strike made for an 'interesting' madcap race from Angers to Paris in a hire car, in order to catch my flight.

By contrast, 2011 seems to have all gone rather smoothly, from a wine-orientated point of view at least. British Airways cabin staff and SNCF workers seem to have been content with their lot. My trains have departed and, just as importantly, arrived on time, and no great swathes of snow have fallen (although it was trying very hard last week!), and East Coast Trains have thus not yet had reason to jettison me far short of my intended destination as they did so readily last year. No flights have been cancelled due to volcanic ash. Hire cars have been waiting for me as anticipated, performed well when driven (as well as can be expected for a Ford fitted with a lawnmower engine, anyway), and have been returned unscathed (because that concrete post I hit at Château Belgrave somehow didn't leave a mark). I have not encountered any psychotic or deranged taxi drivers. The Dordogne has not burst its banks, isolating the quayside offices of J P Moueix just at the moment I was due there to taste Château Trotanoy and the like. There have been no overlooked dinner appointments, nor any moments of cringe-worthy mistranslation, and no Anglo-French fist-fights as a result. In fact, 2011 seems to have gone swimmingly compared to 2010. All of which leaves me free to concentrate on the more harmonious side of wine, wines taken with great dinners, great tastings, visits filled with humour and friendship, wines imbibed during relaxing sunsets or on the first day of a well-deserved holiday.

These wine moments, after all, are the true joy in wine. (20/12/11)

• Continue on to my 2011 Wine in Context Awards: Visit of the Year