As yin to Nick Lander’s yang for nearly three decades, his wife Jancis Robinson is one of the great authorities on wine: a powerful and outspoken voice in its consumption and critique.
Famed for being the first person outside the industry to qualify for the rigorous Master of Wine certificate in 1984 – while pregnant, no less – the powerhouse has hit many achievements over her long career, and is arguably more high-profile than her restaurant-perusing other half.
Lauded for her work on The Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine, which helped make wines around the world accessible to the mere mortal, in 2003 she was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen. A couple of years later Her Majesty enlisted her help in choosing wines to serve royal guests.
But it hasn’t always been champagne and rosé for this sovereign of sipping. Growing up in a village of 46 in Cumbria, England, the young Robinson (named after heroine Jancis Beguildy in the novel Precious Bane) had never really tasted wine until she got to Oxford, where she studied math and philosophy.
While fascinated by the world of food and drink around her, she once wrote it wasn’t true love until “something happened one day over a glass of Chambolle-Musigny, Les Amoureuses 1959.” A trip to Provence convinced of her path, and in 1975 she took the position of assistant editor for British trade magazine Wine & Spirit.
Today, she runs her own website (www.jancisrobinson.com) full of tasting notes and industry insight. Her writing is noted for biting humor and serious yet light-hearted rating system (a 19 counts as a “humdinger” while a 14 means “deadly dull.”)
Known for strong opinions, she has also debunked some wine myths – like bottles needing to breathe and that only white wine goes with fish. Today, she continues to go against the grain. In a recent column in the Financial Times (where she also writes regularly), Robinson can be found gently scolding vinophiles who pursue unusual, inferior grapes while ignoring more common varietals.
“Not since coming across a Tesco Finest Teroldego some years back have I encountered such a blatant reminder of British wine lovers’ presumed obsession with novelty,” she writes, in reference to a new Japanese wine launched by Marks & Spencer. The years have not mellowed the spice of this opinionated expert.
// March 9, 5pm, RMB75. Glamour Bar.
0 User Comments