Blind Drunk
The beginning of April 2006 proved a bruising couple of days for the egos of Tabs worldwide. While the Dark Blue’s victory on and against the Thames’ raging waters demonstrated the triumph of Oxford muscle, only a few short miles away an equally treacherous locale supplied the scene for another significant success. Within deepest Pall Mall the walls of the Oxford and Cambridge London Club provided the scene for an epic battle of taste and sensibility.
In one of the closest fought contests in the fifty-three year history of the Pol Roger Oxford and Cambridge Blind Wine- Tasting Match, the tasters of Oxford guaranteed a miserable month for Cambridge by ensuring a clean sweep in liquid based varsity competitions.
The contest consisted of two teams of six, plus a reserve in case of either a draw or complete intoxication, going head to head over twelve unknown wines, six red and six white, in a bid to identify the principal variety of grape, region, sub-region, and vintage for each wine. Deriving clues from the colour, smell, and taste, the competitors sought to identify each beverage in a process that combines science and art.
While methodical deduction may represent the key to success there is always a place for instinct, and Rob Hayward, this year’s President and co•captain of the winning Oxford side, is keen to emphasise the importance of first impressions as a key to success. It is, however, not only a sensitive palate that is needed in order to succeed at this pinnacle of Bacchic clashes, but the knowledge of an enormous variety of wines coupled with the ability to recall their particular flavours.
Preparation for such an event “is as much a matter of learning as tasting” argues Rob Hayward. At the very least six months are needed and often considerably longer periods of time, to build up the mental database required to compete in this kind of competition, skills honed through a combination of winemaker’s tastings and practice blind tastings.
While the blind tastings help to sharpen the competitive edge it is the visits by representatives from the wine industries’ major families that constitute the social side of Oxford University Wine Circle’s termcard. These visits provide an opportunity for the winemakers to showcase both old and new brands to a receptive audience who in turn get to show their appreciation through its consumption.
Interest in wine within Oxford appears to be on the increase, with films such as 2004’s Sideways not only raising the profile of the pastime but also helping to demystify and modernise its image. Wine tasting is no longer the preserve of the wealthy and the ostentatious classes, and while it is still possible to encounter reviewers comparing the “nose” of a wine to the smell of a newly unpackaged raincoat, the contemporary approach seems generally more grounded.
Besides, occasionally comparing a wine to the taste of a grilled quail egg is half the fun. Discounting the various college drinking societies, the wine scene in Oxford revolves around the original and prestigious Oxford University Wine Circle and the large and sociable Oxford University wine society, Bacchus.
If one is tempted to gain insight into what you actually drink at formal, or move beyond the charms of Inti to a whole new world of understanding and appreciating wine without having to break the bank, then these societies provide the perfect means. As to motivation, well it is a social activity that involves drinking a lot of wine in the company of people such as the Comte Alexandre de Lur-Saluces, a man you are probably unlikely to meet in other circumstances.
As to what the wine society president on the street is buying for them, the Cotes du Rhone ‘Parallele 45’, Paul Jaboulet, available at Oddbins for £7.99 represents an excellent bottle at a reasonable price. If any further incentive is needed then perhaps the words of George Bernard Shaw present the most convincing case for those finalists out there to put away the fish oil and indulge: “A mind of the calibre of mine cannot derive its nutriment from cows.”
11th May 2006