Lifestyle

1. Did you have a seminal wine tasting experience that made you want to pursue a career in wine? On Christmas Eve 1954, my first Christmas in long trousers, at the end of dinner in the family house, my grandfather said I was old enough for a glass of Port. The butler brought a glass, […]

Extremely costly wines are, unsurprisingly, often also very rare but it would be a mistake to conflate rarity and value. Bordeaux’s ‘First Growths’ command eye-wateringly high prices and yet are actually produced in relatively prolific volumes of 15-20,000 cases (of 12 bottles) per annum. Conversely, some wines are so rare that they are practically impossible […]

Ever since Robin Yapp audaciously drove a 1955 long wheel-base Traction ‘Avant’ back as an unexpected souvenir from a French wine buying trip in 1985, we’ve had a penchant for vintage vehicles here at Yapp Brothers. They look wonderful in our courtyard in Mere and evoke a certain Gallic élan.     We were therefore […]

1. You are an Italian whose career has revolved around French cuisine. To which country’s wines do your personal tastes lean? Italian wines are wonderful but for depth and diversity France is exceptional. 2. You have tasted some amazing wines in a long career. Is there anything in particular that grabbed your attention? Hermitage Rouge […]

1. Did you have a wine tasting epiphany or was it a vocation that developed over time? My parents were fond of saying that I learnt about wine 'at their expense', as my film producer father had the great good sense to buy the Rank Organisation's cellar for a song in the '60s. Film folk […]

Yapp Brothers celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It's hard to believe that half a century has passed since Robin Yapp (then a full-time dentist, now turning 80) ventured forth to befriend artisanal winemakers from the little-known Rhône & Loire valleys and began shipping their wines.     Much has changed since we produced our […]

1. As a journalist, you critique many types of wine but what are your personal preferences? One of the privileges of writing The Sunday Times wine column is that I am given free rein to review wines from everywhere – Moldova to Uruguay. But If I had to pick one country to drink wine from […]

Francophiles who are admirers of 20th Century modernist architecture should plan a city break to Marseilles and marvel at Le Corbusier's 'Unité d'Habitation' a seminal design in cast concrete urban high-rise housing that has been much imitated but never surpassed. Completed in 1952 and located to south of the city off the Boulevard Michelet this […]

1. You are the youngest Master of Wine in the world. At what age and why did you decide you wanted to become an MW? It was always in my mind once I'd joined the wine trade at 22, but I considered it more of a pipedream until some MWs I knew, and my boss, […]

1. Did becoming a chef naturally foster an interest in wine or did that develop independently? I'd say parallel or in tandem. Cooking gave me access but I think the love of wine started separately. 2. Did you have a formative wine tasting experience that suddenly piqued your interest? Latour 62, drunk in about 1984. […]