{"id":1558103,"date":"2025-12-15T09:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T09:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/?p=1558103"},"modified":"2026-01-16T08:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T08:43:03","slug":"what-ive-learned-jancis-robinson-mw-obe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.67pallmall.com\/what-ive-learned-jancis-robinson-mw-obe\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT I’VE LEARNED |\u00a0Jancis Robinson MW OBE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jancis Robinson is arguably the world\u2019s most celebrated wine writer. Aside from her eponymous website, she is the author and editor of countless books, including eight editions of <\/em><\/em><\/em>The World Atlas of Wine and five editions of <\/em><\/em><\/em>The Oxford Companion to Wine, and a prolific broadcaster too, notably in the early days of TV coverage of wine. The long-time wine correspondent of the <\/em><\/em><\/em>Financial Times, this month she celebrated the 25th<\/sup> anniversary of <\/em><\/em><\/em>jancisrobinson.com, and her 50th<\/sup>anniversary as a wine writer <\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018I once told a friend that when I approach the keyboard, the milk of human kindness drains out of me.<\/strong>\u00a0Tell it like it is, be utterly objective, and have no commercial influence at all. That’s been my guiding light.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I’ve always been very keen to stress that I’m not in the wine trade.<\/strong> But I’m humble enough to say I’m a parasite on the wine trade. I owe my living to it, but I’m outside it, and I think being so independent has stood me in good stead over the years.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I very much write tasting notes for consumers, not producers or retailers.<\/strong> There are enough people out there writing things that can be quoted. Although commercially, it would probably be better if we were higher-profile in retailers\u2019 literature.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jancis Robinson in her early days as a wine writer. She started on the trade magazine Wine and Spirit<\/em>, before becoming wine correspondent for The Sunday Times<\/em> in 1980<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My tasting notes are more impressionistic, shall we say.<\/strong> I want to tell people the structure of the wine, how developed it is, the acidity, the sweetness, and how much I’m enjoying it or not, rather than a long list of flavours. A physiologist once told me it is physically impossible to taste more than four flavours at once.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It’s true, I\u2019m not generous with scores.<\/strong> And people say our scores are too clustered together, which is a very fair criticism. But all these critics who give out 100 points all the time, they’ve got nowhere to go now. Wine is getting better all the time, so we have room for manoeuvre. And I’m sure in the next few years, we’ll be giving more and more [big scores].\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I never really enjoyed Bordeaux En Primeur.<\/strong> I felt like we were some sort of performing monkeys. We were just there to help them sell, which is not my favourite function. I\u2019ve been quite vocal that I think it’s a slightly flawed process \u2013 as is now being shown.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An example of Jancis’ scribbled tasting notes, these days notated on her laptop. ‘I write notes for consumers, not producers’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018When I sold my website, the main motivation was that I was in my 70s and I owed it to the team to give the site a long-term future.<\/strong> I assumed that this big company that I initially sold to, which had lots of titles, would be really good at marketing and tech. I was wrong. But I’m thrilled now that the ex-CEO of that company has bought us, and we are his only title.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I can\u2019t imagine retiring.<\/strong> I would find it very difficult to give up completely.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I haven\u2019t heard anything of or from Robert Parker since he retired.<\/strong> I don’t know what he\u2019s doing now but I hope he’s well and happy and having a jolly nice, restful time with his family, drinking up his cellar.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With fellow critic, her US counterpart and some-time rival Robert Parker, in the 1980s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2018I’ve been around so long that I’ve seen the pendulum swing.<\/strong> When I started, white wine was very much the thing, and everyone was looking for Chardonnay. Then I saw the pendulum swing to reds and then big, oaky reds. Now the pendulum is swinging very much back the other way. I like the fact that white wine is inching back \u2013 I’m a big white wine fan. And it’s nice to see different styles of ros\u00e9 emerging too, not just Provence. Perhaps I’ll live long enough to see the pendulum swing back again, and everyone will say, \u201cOh, Port is where it\u2019s at.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018To celebrate the 25th anniversary of jancisrobinson.com we held an event featuring 25 English sparkling wines and 25 top Champagnes.<\/strong> It would have been impossible to do that 25 years ago, but nobody said, \u2018What the heck are you doing?\u2019 The increase in quality of English sparkling wine is a marker of those 25 years of evolution.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If I look back 50 years, the biggest surprise has been the development of Northern Europe.<\/strong> Scandinavian countries, the Baltics, Poland\u2026 I wrote up a tasting of Polish wines quite enthusiastically recently \u2013 there are 500 Polish producers now. There will be even greater progress in the next 50 years as northern Europe warms up and expertise grows.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the late Robert Mondavi in California, a region responsible for several of her wine heroes and heroines<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u2018By the same token, I worry about places like the Southern Rh\u00f4ne and parts of Australia, like poor old Riverland and the flats of Barossa.<\/strong> The lack of water is going to make things a little tricky. In California too, even Bordeaux and Burgundy. Burgundy is a good example [of the dangers of climate change] because Pinot is so transparent. Some of the hot recent vintages have really shown a completely different style.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018When I think about the people I most admire in the wine world, it’s surprising how many are a) women and b) Californian.<\/strong> Take the two beacons of subtle winemaking in Napa Valley \u2013 Cathy Corrison and Beth Novak [of Spottswoode]. Beth was an early champion of organics and biodynamics, and is very outspoken, environmentally and politically. Then there\u2019s Barbara Banke, the head of Jackson Family Wines, who\u2019s also done a lot of good things for sustainability, and has a knack for putting good people in place and letting them get on with it. Christian Seeley has done a similar thing at AXA Mill\u00e9simes and he’s very visible as well, which is important. He’s also very funny. Paul Draper [co-founder of Ridge Vineyards] is another, as he alone of the California producers stood back from the UC Davis techno thing, took an international view, set a very high quality bar and also understood what Zinfandel could do, which most people didn’t. And an honourable mention for Eva Fricke, because she started out with not much, and has really made a name for herself in quite a conservative environment.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We gave our oldest child the middle name Margaux.<\/strong> Not because of any particular affinity to the commune or the ch\u00e2teau, but because when I was young, both my parents got tuberculosis and had to spend a year away from us in hospital. So my saintly godmother Margaret came to live with us, and I wanted to honour her. But I couldn’t bear, in the Thatcher years, to have a daughter called Margaret.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I think Obama was a good vindicator of those of us who are slightly to the left.<\/strong> Keir Starmer? Perhaps not. As for Trump, I’m very sad about how he has overridden the diversity issue [with] this whole anti-woke agenda. People are scared now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At home in her central London apartment. ‘The other thing I drink a lot of is tea’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u2018I enjoyed Twitter when it was a decent place to be, but I don’t want any part of the [Elon] Musk era.<\/strong> And Instagram just takes too much time. Plus the whole influencer thing doesn’t chime with me. I believe there is supposed to be a very obvious distinction between paid posts and unpaid posts, but I’m not sure that it’s made very clear, which is a shame.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I worry about the health lobby very much.<\/strong> The WHO’s message is widely regarded, yet it’s been heavily influenced by temperance lobbyists rather than solid, causal influence. Very few in the medical profession would condone the WHO stance. It says there is no safe level of alcohol, but it talks about an increased risk of two decimal points or something tiny.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Wine is a social lubricant, absolutely.<\/strong> The really sad thing is that our phones are robbing us of actual physical interaction. We\u2019re worrying too much about our physical health and ignoring the effects of some modern phenomena on our mental health.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I am addicted to wine.<\/strong> I drink it every night. I have my liver tested whenever I have the chance and so far, so good. My grandmother, who liked her gin very much, lived to 98, so touch wood.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I also drink a lot of tea.<\/strong> Barry’s is my favourite \u2013 an Irish tea. I try not to drink too much caffeine though, so I’m not really a coffee drinker. The only other drink I really like is a margarita. I think it’s the acid-fruit balance, which is the same thing as I like in wine.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I love fashion<\/strong>. This is very pretentious, but I see it as a sort of minor art form that you can practise daily. I am a frugal northerner though, so I like recycling. And I love a bargain. I buy lots of clothes from charity shops. But you have to choose your charity shop carefully. It\u2019s got to be somewhere where well-off women throwaway nice clothes. I went to a Tesco tasting the other day in Wimbledon and picked up a nice pair of shoes on the way back.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As part of the tasting panel for British Airways with Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent and Colin Anderson MW. Robinson resigned from the position in 2010 when BA moved to source wines from a single supplier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018Receiving my OBE from The Queen was fun.<\/strong> You were allowed three guests, so I took both my daughters and my mother, and we had a very nice celebratory lunch afterwards at Harry’s Bar. I wouldn’t say I\u2019m a royalist, but the Queen was pretty special.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The only other time I met The Queen<\/strong> was when I was tasting wines at Windsor Castle as part of my role on the Wine Committee of the Royal Household. When we arrived, the equerry told us that the Queen was in residence, and she wondered whether we’d like to have lunch with her. Well of course we did. Unfortunately, I was sat at the other end of the table, next to what\u2019s-his-name, beardie chops \u2013 the Duke with the big beard and the Russian connection [Prince Michael of Kent].\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My tastes have changed over the years.<\/strong> Like a lot of people, Bordeaux is a less obvious choice these days. The tannins need a bit more work to match to food, so if we eat out, a Pinot is normally more versatile. Though on restaurant wine lists, I just look for something I don’t know. I especially love it if the somm has come up with a list with lots of novelties on it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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