A TOTAL of 23 members of Crediton Probus Club gathered at Downes Crediton Golf Club on a cold but pleasant day for our January meeting. Richard Adams, our President, started by asking Jack Fey to say grace.

The quote was given by Eric Rodd (nostalgic musings on the qualities of a horse). Eric then proceeded to win the draw (amid cries of “Fix!”).

Gerald Hill then introduced our speaker, Bruce Evans, owner of Grape and Grain, the wine shop in Crediton High Street.

Bruce told us that he was Somerset born and that after university had realised that he didn’t want a nine-to-five office job and for 10 years worked for the wine merchants, Majestic. An experienced merchant called Bill Baker taught him much about the trade. He then felt equipped to set up by himself.

Bruce said that there were at least 100,000 wines world-wide, so that it was impossible to know all of them. Everyone has a different palate and likes and dislikes vary from person-to-person, district-to-district and country-to-country.

The British largely bought champagne on quality, the French on price. Bruce said that champagne should always be taken with food.

Wines grown from the same grapes in locations a few miles apart can taste completely different. The type and quality of the soil is an important determinant in the quality of the wine produced in an area.

Above all, wine should be enjoyed, but not taken particularly seriously.

Grape and Grain doesn’t try to compete with High Street supermarkets. His cheapest bottles are pitched at around £10.

Wine has been around for almost as long as corn has been grown, several thousand years, but modern wine has been here since around 1860, when the phylloxera virus almost completely wiped out the old wines.

Only in the past 30 years have the individual grapes, muscat, sauvignon blanc, cabernet, malbec etc, been named.

The British have played a large part in the evolution of the wine industry. We drink a lot of it without growing a great deal ourselves. If a wine succeeds in the UK it is likely to succeed elsewhere in the world.

Members were then presented with a sample of red wine, a year-old French Syrah or Shiraz, to taste. Bruce advised us to first look at the wine in the glass for its colour and then sniff it. If a wine has any fault it is likely to be detected by the nose. Lastly the wine should be tasted. This we duly did.

We should remember when buying supermarket wine that many of the wines on sale are loss-leaders. The same basic costs obtain whatever wine is sold, the bottle, corkage, transport and labour are usually much the same. With these costs added together, the actual cost of the wine in a bargain bottle priced at £5.99 is about 16p!

After many questions, Bruce was thanked by Bob Browning for his fascinating and informative talk.

The meeting concluded with the toast (wine, beer and cider were used for this): “To the next time!”.

Keith Barker