It all started with wine-making in Wantage but now Andy and Ali McLeod make and sell wine in Catalonia’s Terra Alta an hour or so south of Barcelona. Nice journey!

Andy and Ali’s story unfolded at the Wine Club on a cool November evening in the Cherwell Boathouse Marquee, with the aid of some excellent wine – both from the McLeod’s ‘Celler Alimara’ (www.celleralimara.com) and from some of the distinguished independents whose wines they now distribute and sell in the UK.

It may be a secret but it’s also a something of a miracle. Madeira is a wine produced 300 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean on an island the size of the Isle of Wight; a wine that became the centre of a global trade hundreds of years ago; a wine that can age and improve for a century or more in cask and, once in bottle, is impervious to oxidation.

Everyone lucky enough to attend agreed! The opening event of the Club’s 2019-2020 season was a tour de force, a triumph, a fabulous tasting. Jane Anson (@newbordeaux) gave us a masterclass in the wines of Pomerol and Pauillac; seasoning great wines with profound learning, sparkling wit and deep respect for the human stories behind each of her selections.

Summertime and another Roger and Sue spectacular for the Club at the Harrow. It was all just as we might have ordered: a packed house, a beautiful warm evening, and the full benefit Harrow hospitality.

In the marquee that had been the setting for a Decanter tasting a few days before, we were seated at long tables and put through our blind tasting skills.

It is always a delight to be enchanted by someone who is passionate about their subject and who is, in addition, an expert with unparalleled knowledge. We were given hidden insights and a thorough appreciation of the changing styles of wine called Champagne, since its origins in the seventeenth century. So it was at the first tasting of the year on 29^thJanuary 2019 when our own Graham Harding demonstrated the irresistible allure of the golden elixir.