Oz and James Drink To Britain

Alter altercation

Oz started his school years at St Anne's Convent (with 150 girls and only one other lad) because there were no Catholic boys' school in his hometown of Canterbury, Kent. When the Convent’s staff discovered that he had accepted an offer to attend Canterbury Cathedral Choir School, they were outraged. Oz was plucked from a school assembly and subjected to a sharp-tongued sermon, which declared that he faced eternal damnation for joining the ranks of the Anglican Church. Oz’s mother denounced the Catholic Church after the incident, and the Convent received adequate payback – it unknowingly forfeited a future supply of good grade, Oz-recommended wine for mass.

Discovering the true taste of heaven

While studying theology at Oxford University, Oz discovered that for him true divinity came in bottles, not bibles. He joined the university’s wine society as a ploy to meet curvaceous women, but after some pompous pontificating about full-bodied flavours with fellow students (including the now formidable critic, Charles Metcalfe, who Oz claims “taught me all about wine”), he fell head-over-heels into a liquid love affair with wine. The rest, as it were, is history.

Dramatic start

Before Oz landed his first wine-writing gig for the ‘Sunday Express’ newspaper in 1984, he was a fully-fledged thespian. His aptitude for dramatics in his university days propelled him into repertory theatre with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre and The Old Vic. His fine set of pipes (he was a former choirboy and fronted a rock band called Aftermath in his teens) later landed him parts in London’s hit musicals ‘Evita’, ‘Sweeney Todd’ and ‘The Mitford Girls’. Ask him about the best moment of his career to date, and he’ll tell you: “Stepping out on the stage at Drury Lane as Sweeney Todd in front of 2,000 people. And then singing in that finale – that was hard to beat.”

Champagne ban

During the 90s, Oz’s no-nonsense approach to wine landed him in hot water. Informing the masses that champagne was deteriorating in value while rising in price prompted the Champagne region of France to ban him from the area.

Regional fave

Oz has an affinity with Bordeaux, as it was the first wine-growing region he visited. In a recent interview with ‘The Observer’ newspaper, he crowned it his favourite wine territory in the world. “Germany's Mosel Valley or Australia's Hunter Valley may give you the thrills, but for reliable, low-key pleasure it's dowdy old Bordeaux,” declared Oz. His tip for perfectly pairing the region’s grape with a feast is: “a dry, bitter-edged red (which most Bordeaux red wines are) served with slightly undercooked lamb or beef. The blood of the undercooked meat dissolves the bitterness in the wine. It’s simple and brilliant.”

Desert island tipple of choice

To the surprise of many, Mr Clarke’s choice of desert island drink is not a grand red wine, exalted champagne or a venerable vintage port – it’s milk! “All I would want is a supply of the freshest, finest, purest organic British farm milk,” revealed Oz. But if he had to choose some stowaway wine, he would (sort of) stay faithful to his life-long love of Bordeaux: “I’d go for something that has a long, endlessly satisfying and endlessly fascinating flavour. I’d certainly have a Bordeaux there, but it would be a Bordeaux slightly from fantasy land. It would be something like a Beychevelle 1961.”

Awards

With three Glenfiddich gongs, three Andre Simon awards and a handful of James Beard, Julia Child, World Food Media and Lanson recognitions under his belt, Oz is not short of accolades that acknowledge him as one of the finest noses in the business – and his trophy collection keeps on growing. In 2009, Oz’s latest ‘Bordeaux’ book scooped a coveted Louis Roederer International Wine Writers' Award, and he was crowned ‘Personality of the Year’ (in conjunction with his ‘Oz and James Drink to Britain’ sidekick, James May) at the International Wine Challenge Awards.

Eco glugger

Oz is passionate about a well-balanced bottle of wine, but not when it unnecessarily compromises the balance of the natural world. In fact, he recently blasted reserve winemakers for pointlessly using hefty bottles to increase the luxury-factor of their product. "I would like to say to all these people who make all this reserve wine in bottles that give you a sprained wrist – I would like to break every single one of those over the heads of the marketing men who actually promote them. Companies are effectively doubling the amount of energy needed to move such a bottle from one market to another. It's one of the most self indulgent things the wine world does," announced Oz at the 2008 Climate Change Conference in Barcelona.

Grapeless free time

During busy work periods, Oz swills, savours and spits up to a staggering 1,000 wines per week. It is of little surprise then, that come hometime, he tends to steer clear of cracking a bottle of vino. “I get fed up with wine, so I drink beer, or gin and tonic, or tea. I drink a lot of tea – I’ve got about a dozen on the go at the moment,” explained Mr Clarke about his choice of downtime tipples.

To screw or not to screw?

That is the question – and one that continues to divide the wine community. While many wine aficionados maintain that screw tops are the poor relation of corks, down-to earth Oz suggests it’s a load of old fizz and that a good screw can top a cork: “I like screw tops. For good winemakers who know what they're doing, they make much more sense. The wine that comes out of a screw-top bottle is much closer to that made in the winery. Screw tops will age wines for longer than corks, though there's a chance they may age them in anaerobic ways. I've tried 20-year-old bottles of both and found that with the screw top the wine is fresher and more interesting, but younger tasting. The cork wine tastes 20 years old.” And so ends another Oz lesson on ridding the wine world from snobbery and myths.