Reds, Whites and Varsity Blues: 60 years of the Oxford & Cambridge Blind Wine-Tasting Competition by With Pol Roger
I trawled through the University Handbook trying to locate an activity that was a) cheap and b) would render me irresistible to women. And then I saw it. The Oxford University Wine Circle: GBP2 a term, four tastings. I would be a wine taster - suave, elegant, worldly ... Nirvana beckoned. Oz Clarke, Pembroke College, Oxford University blind wine-tasting competitor 1970, 1971
2013 marks the 60th Anniversary of the Oxford & Cambridge Varsity Blind Wine-Tasting Competition. Started in 1953 by the legendary Harry Waugh of John Harvey & Sons, the competition has been sponsored by Champagne Pol Roger since 1992. The oldest contest of its kind, the tasting match has fostered the careers of many leading members of the wine trade and press, including a number of Masters of Wine, and has cultivated fine wine enthusiasts internationally and encouraged the discipline of blind wine tasting, a notoriously difficult feat.
To celebrate this iconic rivalry - rife with politics, subterfuge, camaraderie and enduring friendships - its history over six decades has now been documented, through a lavishly illustrated collection of special contributions and vivid oral histories.
With contributions from notable blind wine-tasting competitors and competition judges including:
Robert M Parker Jr; Harry Waugh; Hugh Johnson OBE; Jancis Robinson OBE MW; David Peppercorn MW; Serena Sutcliffe MW; Oz Clarke; Charles Metcalfe; Jasper Morris MW; Arabella Woodrow MW; Will Lyons; Nancy Gilchrist MW; Sir Ewen Fergusson GCMG GCVO; Mark Savage MW; Julian Jeffs QC; the Rt Hon Sir Timothy Sainsbury; the Rt Hon the Lord King of Bridgwater CH; Robin Don MW; John Harvey; John Avery MW; the Hon Michael MacKellar AM; Bill Gunn MW; James Simpson MW; Lisa Barnard; Jeremy Seysess; Alex Hunt MW; Andrew Comrie-Picard; Michael Broadbent MW; Nicholas de Rothschild; Hsien Min Toh and many, many more ...