Master of Whine

“If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.” A sound injunction, but not the best qualification for a wine critic.

Writing as the Tippler’s Tipster in a national newspaper he rarely had anything ‘nice to say’ about the hundreds of wines he tasted each year. For wines from farcical through fanciful to the finest, his epithets were legendary. Put-downs like ‘bouquet like a bat’s arse’, ‘tannins like tar’ and ‘a nose like a Neanderthal’ were some of the tamer ones.

His obituary read: ‘High acidity to the bitter bin end. Should have been laid down earlier.’