For more than a decade Will Lyons has written a weekly wine column, first for The Wall Street Journal now for The Sunday Times. His humorous, informed, down-to-earth writing has been recognized in both the Glenfiddich and Roederer wine writing Awards. He is a past president of the Edinburgh University Wine Society, where in between wine tasting, he read History. A Commanderie de Bordeaux Lyons works in St James’ as a fine wine advisor for Berry Bros. & Rudd.
Name Will Lyons
Occupation Writer, Columnist, Wine Expert.
In your role tasting so many wines do you mainly enjoy european wines or the New World wines?
My first love has always been the classic wines of Europe. I very much learned to taste wines analytically in Edinburgh at the University Wine Society, a city which has been drinking and enjoying the wines of Bordeaux for hundreds of years. Back then we were fortunate enough to taste a wide variety of wines from all over the world. But it was a Scotsman, Hew Blair, then buying director of Justerini & Brooks who introduced me to the great wines of Bordeaux, the Loire and Burgundy. In 2005 I started writing a wine column for Scotland on Sunday newspaper, then I was 28 and I made a point of writing about the great wines of France. When I filed a column on vintage Krug Champagne, it raised a few eyebrows with the editor as it cost more than £200 a bottle!
Have European wines generally improved since you started wine tasting?
I think all wines have improved. Improvements in viticulture, greater understanding of picking grapes at optimum ripeness, good husbandry in the vineyards, the introduction of sorting tables and a general upsurge in investment has pushed quality levels to new highs. If you drive around the vineyards of Bordeaux, the investment in new winemaking and tasting facilities is colossal. Take Château Margaux, not content with having perhaps the grandest looking property in the world they recently opened a brand-new cellar designed by Norman Foster.
Brexit! This must have caused European wine prices to rise with the fall in the value of the £. Is life going to get tougher for the wine-lover?
Without sitting on the fence my honest answer is, it’s too early to tell. What we do know is that we have been buying and trading the wines of Europe since Medieval times and Bordeaux has been regularly drunk in Scotland since the 12th century. Having said that, today the wine map is truly global and the U.K. drinks more wine from Australia than any other country. Sorry to be so vague – with Brexit there are no easy answers!
English wines are
very much in the news these days are there some emerging vineyards which are
noteworthy?- With global
warming hotting up do
you think we will soon be seeing our first Scottish wine?
There is no doubt we are living through the great English wine boom of the 21st century. Estates such as Nyetimber, Hambledon, Ridgeview, Camel Valley and Wiston have increased the quality of their wines enormously in recent years. I remember going to one of the English wine tastings back in my Scotland on Sunday days and it had a really friendly, amateur feel. These days it has retained the friendliness but it’s now a slick, professional industry with the wines to match. Will we see Scottish wine? There was a chap who planted some vines in Fife, where I was married, which was labelled ‘undrinkable’. I remember thinking that was a little unfair! Personally let’s stick to what we do best – producing world class Scotch whisky.
What do think someone in a Stewart Christie suit might be drinking? Burgundy? Claret?
It would have to be Claret. We know from the memoirs of Lord Cockburn, writing in the 18th century, that when a cargo of claret arrived at Leith a hogshead of it would be carried through the town in a cart with a horn. Anyone who wanted to sample the drink could stop the cart and fill up their jug for sixpence. I recently hosted a literary dinner at Berry Bros. & Rudd in St James’s with Ian Rankin, who I believe has had a suit made with you, and he certainly drinks claret – having helped made the 1982 vintage.
After the completion of your latest suit we have heard you are being put through some sort of dietary regime with the Sunday Times? Are we going to be seeing you in the New Year for some serious re-structuring?
Ha Ha! Well that’s the plan. It’s true, The Sunday Times have sent me on a ‘boot camp’ to help me get back into shape so I meet with a Personal Trainer once a week and now have to log everything I eat and drink with a nutritionist. It’s early days but I am putting on more muscle and losing fat. What I maybe in the market for is a bespoke, tweed running outfit. Now there’s a thought.
Thank you for participating in this profile and we look forward to seeing you in your new bespoke suit in the coming weeks.
To read more of Mr. Lyons' work, you can follow along here: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/7341