The view from the back row - June 10th 2010
It does not seem so long ago – or perhaps it is just because I am getting old – but, incredibly, it was in December 2005 that the OWC last held a ‘Call my Bluff’ evening. On that occasion, Club President Michael Palij, along with Vice-Presidents Jasper Morris and Jonathan Pedley battled it out to plausibly mislead Club members over the identity of a number of wines. My aged and befogged memory tells me that was a great occasion. However, the special edition of this occasional series, which was given a ‘charity screening’ for Club members on June 10, 2010, was without any doubt whatsoever one of the highlights of the OWC 2010 season.
With the target of raising £2,000 for the Oxford Heart Centre, where Committee member Graham Harding recently underwent successful surgery, MWs Michael Palij, Jonathan Pedley and Richard Bampfield battled it out in order to confuse, mislead and entertain those hardy souls who ventured to Oxford Brookes Restaurant in Headington.
A total of 9 wines were tasted ‘blind’, with our three outspoken MWs each competing to outdo one another with their outrageous descriptions. Club members and their guests were organised into appropriately-named teams, for example the Aortas, with much heated debate erupting around the tables regarding the quality of the wines and the verisimilitude or otherwise of our MWs pronouncements!
Wine 1, which was variously described as a prosecco and a Tasmanian sparkling wine, was revealed by Richard Bampfield to be a champagne from Henri Abele Brut NV, retailing at £29.
Wine 2 was variously identified as an Inama Soave, a 2005 Australian Semillon from Grant Burge and a 2008 Semillon based white Graves. Despite Jonathan Pedley’s protestations that ‘If that’s a Soave I’m Robert Mugabe’ the wine was accurately described by Michael Palij as an Azienda Agricola Inama, Soave Classico ‘Vigneti di Foscarino’ DOC 2005, retailing at £18.
For Wine 3, the choices laid before the teams were a Wynns Coonawara Chardonnay, a 2008 Au Bon Climat from California and a young Meursault. Richard Bampfield’s jibe that ‘Australian wine makers don’t do subtle’ was born out when the subtly aromatic wine was revealed as a Meursault Domaine du Pavilion 2007 (Maison Albert Bichot), £28.
To hoots of laughter, wine 4 was almost poetically described by Jonathan Pedley as ‘a slag of a wine, a Katie Price, Charlotte Church and Victoria Beckham of a wine, a wine responsible for almost every teenage pregnancy in Swindon’, as an Alsatian Pinot Gris vendage tardive and a 2008 Condrieu. There were cries of ‘fix’ from those more sensitive members of the club who had never tasted such a thing when the wine was revealed to be Jonathan Pedley’s ‘slag’ - Blossom Hill Californian White NV, £4.50!
Wines 5, 6 and 7 were tasted as a group, with teams required to match the (all correct) descriptions to the wines before them. Wine 5 was described by Richard Bampfield as a red Burgundy of effortless lightness (Beaune Clos de l’Ermitage 2007, £22), wine 6 by Michael Palij as an Azienda Agricola Bovio Barolo ‘Rochettevino’ DOCG, £30 with ‘a prettiness on the nose of pure tar, liquorice and tobacco’ and wine 7 by Jonathan Pedley as a Marques de Caceres Gran Riserva Rioja 2001, £17, whose speedy and timely arrival by DHL had astounded him.
With all those attending suitably relaxed, Committee member and star Oxford Heart Centre patient Graham Harding entertained and surprised us all with his stunning talent and expertise as an auctioneer, although he did admit he had been brought up in a house surrounded by curious items for which his father, a professional auctioneer, had tried to bid up the price!
After the auction, back to the ‘serious’ business of bluffing! In between jibes about the incredulity of anything a Canadian might say about football, wine 8 was variously described as a German Riesling, an Austrian botrytised Riesling and (correctly) by Richard Bampfield as a Brown Brothers ‘Patricia’ Noble Riesling 2006 from Victoria, Australia, £19.
Our final wine, wine 9, was described as a tawny port, also known as a wife beating fluid for people in Surrey, a medium sweet Bual Madeira, and by Michael Palij as a Gonzalez-Byass Palo Cortado VORS ‘Apostole’ DO NV, £20.
What then was the view from the back row of this evening of entertainment? Well, bearing in mind this was our first Club visit to Oxford Brookes, the seats were certainly comfortable and the acoustics good, the lighting satisfactory and the parking easy. None of this really seemed important however when confronted by the amazing generosity and goodwill of both our team of MWs and the attendees, who between them contributed to an evening of outstanding entertainment and the raising of a staggering £2,400 for the good work at the Heart Centre. And the back row can’t sign off without saying that the behind the scenes work of two people in particular - Annie Payne – a nurse at the heart centre as well as our Club Secretary – and Brendan Cull were outstanding - where would we be without them!