Chris Maclean: a Catholic taste in wine

The Catholics on table 8 have ordered a second bottle of my Pinot Noir. This is not particularly unusual. It is a very popular wine and keenly priced.

Increasingly it is evident that many customers have developed discerning tastes and can make informed decisions about what they are drinking. Wine is a huge market and the consumers are intelligent and informed.

Thirty years ago it was a different market. French wine was expensive. Cheap wine was foul.

As a student in the eighties, the wine of choice was Yugoslav Laski Reisling. Even thinking the name brings an acidic taste to my mouth. Yuk.

We had Mateus Rose. Blue Nun. Hirondelle. Wine was bought from an off-licence. Pubs rarely sold it.

Today supermarkets display a bewildering choice. Even the humblest ones stock rose and champagne.

And the customers know.

The quality is also pretty consistent. Plastic corks and the new screw top caps ensure the wine doesn't get spoiled. Corked wine is less of an issue than it was.

So, in pretty much all circumstances, the wine the customer gets is drinkable and good value.

But it still helps if people get a good description of what they are about to receive.

I have spent considerable effort making sure the wine list describes, in one sentence, a reasonable picture of what they will be experiencing. Each wine has been meticulously selected to reflect budget, grape, style and country. I've tried not to use "citrus" or "berry" too often.

But the more dodgy descriptions of wines rely on sex to sell them. Look out for "lingering", "silky", "honey" and similar expressions. In compiling my list I found myself getting aroused by the Mills & Boon "bodice-ripper" style of writing. Ultimately my description of the Pinot Noir was "almost erotic".

I wonder if that's why the Catholics ordered a second bottle?