‘ON BECOMING A MASTER OF WINE…’

SARAH JANE EVANS MW - Tuesday 17^th October at St. Anne’s College

On 17 October 2006, Sarah Jane Evans, newly crowned as a Master of Wine, visited the Club to re-enact for us the final tasting paper of her journey to wine stardom.

After an excellent introductory glass of champagne courtesy of Peter Kinsler, Sarah Jane took us through the story of her personal odyssey, punctuated by frequent questions and a succession of wines which we tasted blind.

She is only the third journalist – after Jancis Robinson (her sponsor) and Tim Atkin to gain the award – and her story left us all marvelling at her dedication and her ability to get through some very demanding assignments whilst simultaneously holding down a full-time journalist job and looking after children doing A levels.

Star parts were played by a supportive husband (who set up daily blind tastings for her); by children who posted chemical formulae on doors for her to memorise; and by the BBC who paid the (not inconsiderable) fees to encourage one of their star food correspondents to make the transition to wine.

We learned about MW pass rates (now around 20%), the importance of jealously guarded ‘competitive anecdotes’ to illustrating your essays, the effect of red wine on your teeth (wine writers write off hygienists’ bills against tax) and the problems of tasting with a dislocated shoulder after a vineyard fall.

Those of us who might have harboured MW ambitions were left shaking heads – but all of us warmed to Sarah Jane’s enthusiasm, down to earth commonsense and ability to lead us through a blind tasting that left none of us feeling we’d been shown up.

We tasted three whites – an Albarino, a Verdejo from Rueda and a Rioja – and were led through the mental process used to identify which grape and which country. We compared a South African Pinotage and an Argentinean Malbec; we savoured a high-end Zinfandel from Frog’s Leap in California and learned the importance of writing California, USA (to make sure of getting the extra mark for identifying the country) and relished a 2001 Amarone from Michael Palij’s Winetraders, which was the star of the show for many.

Cheese and biscuits afterwards concluded a memorable, sociable and very relaxed evening. Blind tasting need not be an ordeal – unless you’re in the exam room!

A review by Hilary Reid Evans