A WEALTH OF WINE WISDOM

A festive bottle of vintage red, opened some 20 years ago in a remote cottage on the Yorkshire moors when she was in her early'teens,sparked an Interest In wine that was to become a passion and eventually a career... and one which brought Gibraltar Magazine wine columnist Jane Edwards to Gibraltar four years ago. Today she Is recognised as one of the Rock's leading wine experts,advising local restaurants on suitable wine lists, Imparting her knowledge of wines to their staff and organising private and corporate tastings.

"1 was 13 or 14 at the time but I can still recall the taste of the wine and flavour of the moment as well as the reverence we all gave to that '47 vintage claret," Jane says. "It was that reverence that I wanted to come to grips with and to under stand. The gathering was a family one in a house that had been lent to my parents by a chef working in London,and the bottle — from his well-stocked cellar — was his Christmas gift to us."

An appreciation of good food and wine runs in her family. Jane's uncle was a well-known cookery writer and her parents and older siblings, while nottheconnoisseurs that she has become, were enthusi asts. "So I was early to learn what was a good wine and what was not."

But she is no wine "snob", and agrees that "it is the enjoyment of what you are drinking that counts —whether it is a moderately priced bottle or a noble vintage wine." And though she admits to a prefer ence for champagne or a good spar kling wine produced by the champenoise method, she has no favourite wine as such.

"It depends on what 1 am doing, how 1 am feeling and what I am eat ing," she says. And in this she sh^s the view ofthe eminent food and wine writer Raymond Postgate who argued that the convention of drinking white wine with fish and red wine with meat should be dis carded in favour of "drink what you enjoy... whatever you're eat ing. Or drink for the sheer joy of diLiking."

Initially wine was"just a hobby".

and from school Jane went on to study dental technology, working in this field for almost a year before her taste buds and expanding knowledge persuaded her to "make wine a career."

She quit her well-paid job as a dental technologist and opted for a "poorer paid,but irrunensely satis fying" post with an old established wine merchant's in the centre of Manchester.

"It was owned by the last inde pendent brew ery in the area and was very ***" traditional," she recalls."The men wore pin striped trousers... that sort of thing." She learnt a "great deal" and worked hard — studying not only wines but grapes and the various cultivars as well as the range of production techniques used by various wine producers.

But the wine merchant was es sentially male-oriented and Jane realised that if she was to get to the top of her chosen career she would have to move on. She joined the Threshers'chain — one of the big gest retail outlets in the UK — and after further study obtained a higher certificate and diploma in wine. From manageress of a major Threshers' branch in London, she went on to develop training skills and was promoted to teach 'product knowledge" to other managers throughout the company's chain of shops.

Work in retail ing — and later as a taster \ ^ buyer — led to an appreciation of costs as well as the merits of vari ous wines. fter a month like October there can be no doubt that siunmer is definitely over. It seemed to have rained almost every day, and it wasn't just the odd shower or two — oh no, it was chucking it down.

Her holidays had been spent touring the major wine producing regions of France — with visits to the Champagne,Bordeaux,and Co gnac areas as well as to the Loire valley and Burgundy — and asshe rose up the promotional ladder came wine-tasting trips to these and other countries... including South Africa.

Four years ago Jane was re cruited by Anglo Hispano to come to Gibraltar where "they wanted someone to launch their new retail outlet at the foot of Main Street and to develop the local marketfor New World wines.

"Though there are some Gibraltarians who are very knowl edgeable about wines — and not just the Spanish products which are so popular here — generally peo ple have a lot to learn." And through Anglo Hispano and its "Wine Club" tastings — and since setting up as an independent wine consultantshe has tried to share her wealth of expertise with as many wine lovers as possible... through advice to restaurateurs, to private individuals whom she has helped choose wines for their own cellars and at talks and tastings which she organizes for corporate clients and bodies such as the local Rotary.

Good wines can also be a valu able form of investment and — cer tainly in recent years — cash spent on wine has shown a better return that the same amount spent on shares would have realized... pro vided one hasn't drunk it!

Umbrella sellers must have made a fortune. Great weather for ducks,I'm told, but we're a bit short of quackers on Main Street and I'm already fed up with getting soaking wet.

One thing I've noticed during all the pouring rain is a fashion phenomenon that 1 find difficult to understand. It's true that at my stage of life extreme fashions pass me by, but for the life of me I can't make any sense of this par ticular fad — it's all to do with trou sers. The fashion conscious teenagers of today it would appear have to wear their jeans so long that they trail along on the ground. Now if it's dry 1 sup pose you can getaway with it,^eyjust get a bit dusty, but when it's soaldng wet the damp creeps up from the bot tom until even your knees get wet. 1 first spotted this on a young lady I know and asked her how she coped with soaking wet knees? She shivered a bit and admitted that she didn't re ally like getting damp legs but what could she do about it if that's the style of the day. 1 suggested she could tuck her trousers in her socks or buy a pair of wellies. Needless to say my ideas fell on stony ground and the young lady wandered off dragging her wet trouser bottoms with her. AsI watched her forlorn figure disappear up the road getting wetter and wetter 1 thought to myself that I'm glad that at my time of life 1 don't have to follow a fashion that makes your feet wet and cold.

Parking Plus

In years to come historians will look back over the first week of November in Gibraltar and all they wUl remem ber will be the infamous closure of the border,albeit for less than 24hours. But it's the stories that the people who were caught out because of the closure will tell that will make the best reading .For instance 1 know of one couple (who shall remain nameless) who got stuck on the Spanish side and went for a liq uid lunch that stretched into the night. They enjoyed themselvesso much tilney didn't even realise that the border had re-opened until Wednesday. For most it was an absolute nuisance,but there's always a silver lining and for those of us on the Rock at least for a change it was no problem finding a parking space. In fact you could almost park where ever you wanted.

A Special Award

As the year draws to an end,and as this is the last Gibraltar Magazine of the year, 1 spent a few moments looking through some of this year's old issues and especially at some of the antics some of Gib's more colourful characters get up to. For instance,in March of this year, young Master Andrew Read stole the headlines when he became a mem ber of the "Bad Leg Club" after ending up on crutches following a night out on the town culminating in a display of ex otic dancing that brought the night to an untimely end. Then in June Mike Clark of the Dental Surgery reached a milestone in life when he hit the big 4-0. I'm told that he still hasn't come to terms with the fact but,as some men do when they reach this age, Mike has begun to indulge himself in some big boys toys. First it was a shiny red Ferrari,but now that's gone and the latest toy is a Lamborghini that keeps him awake half the night worrying about it. So much so that whenever he goes outin it he bribes some kids to keep an eye on it. He took it out for a spin recently parked and bribed some Wds to look out for it, but when he returned they refused to go until they all satin it and had their photo taken posing in it, leaving sticky finger marks all over it.

There's never a dull moment at the Dental Surgery. Dermis is always up to something and Natalie spends her life watching her chickens that never hatch their eggs and searching for runaway rabbits that keep escaping.

But there's one name that seems to have cropped up more than most dur ing the year and that's Alan "Sparky" Sparks. Now Sparky is almost in a class

Hals offto jusl Desserts of his own when it comes to lunacy. I mean, who in their right mind would make Sparky the official bus driver on a rugby trip? But that's what happened in July, later in the year Sparky's driv ingcareer came to a temporary halt and and he took to push-biking for a few months. It wasn't very long before he came to grief and ended up gomg over the handlebars during a dispute with a car in La Linea. But now some wretched thiefhas pinched Sparkys bike and he's had to buy a new one. So for services beyond the call of duty and for giving me plenty to write about this year I've decided to award Sparky the "Nutcase of the Year" award for 2003,

Fascinating Fashions

Nicky of Attractions is a lady who likes to keep up with fashion and re cently treated herself to a new pair of trousers with tassels all over them. When 1 saw her swishing along in them 1 remarked how smart they looked. She told me that although she quite liked the lookofthem unfortunately they weren't very practical because everytime she went through a door the tassels got caught in it as it closed behind her. She did say that she might have to snip them off, but I saw her some time later and the tassels were still there. She's clearly persevering and has mastered the art of going through doors with out getting her tassels caught up.

Peaceful Rock

Manuel of Computer Plus visited London for the first time recently he told me that he quite enjoyed it but everything seemed to be a bit of a rush and was glad to get back to a bit of peace and quiet.

Congratulations!

Birthday boys and girls in Decem ber include Kate, Jane, Debbie, Chris, Ron, Aiistair and Sandra, and then in January it's Moira, Faye (who's 6), Mike Goodson, Kath the jet-setting Great Grand Ma, Pat of the Vet Clinic, who also celebrated the birth of a Grandaughter Emily Megan in Octo ber, and last but not least yours truly who gets a year older in January, who ever would have believed it "Grandad H". Congratulations also to Dermot and Val of the 3 Roses on the birth of their daughter Coleen. Best wishes

Offduty

also to Malcolm Beanland who retires in December after 36 years at what's now known as Gibtelecom.

Cheap Tricks

You can buy ballpoint pens all over Gibraltar for as little as a few pence each, which is just as well because as soon as you put one down anywhere they seem to disappear (I speak from experience). Just recently 1 witnessed a farce at Pickwicks when Mandy lost her pen and accused all and sunclry of pinching it, You would have thought that she had lost the crown jewels the fuss she made, she even made Sandra empty her handbag just to make sure it wasn't there — it wasn't so to teach Mandy a lesson Sandra ran off with her cigarette lighter, and you can get those for 50p. What a carry on.

and a Prosperous New Year

Well Christmas is just around the comer, and the year 2004 promises to be a year of celebration for the tercen tenary. On behalf of all of us at the Gi braltar Magazine I wish you all a merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year. See vou on Main Street.

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