Nick Ryman, who has died at 83, was one of the first small British wine producers to buy his way successfully into the French wine trade and the first I interviewed as newly-appointed wine critic of The Scotsman almost half a century ago.
Though not the friendliest of people, he welcomed me to Chateau la Jaubertie, his property in the Bergerac region of central France, treating me to the delicious blend of Sauvignon and Semillon. He had been struggling to develop as a novice winemaker who had previously helped to run Ryman’s, the family stationery firm but had grown fed up with it.
Having dreamed for years of owning his own French vineyard, he spent his share of the family profits on doing exactly that. Though he had no wine experience with which to bring this about, his purchase of a beautiful small chateau fired his enthusiasm and he gained his learning the hard way, battling with foul weather and other setbacks until reaching eventual triumph.
When I visited him with a handful of other wine scribes he had begun winning his first awards and had produced a successful sweet Monbazillac. Drinking the drier Chateau la Jaubertie with him in his garden, and eating lunch cooked by his wife, made all of us wish to take the same risk and settle in the same lovely but neglected part of France where Nick had been developing new methods of wine production that made many local growers seem outmoded.
Nick’s Bergerac whites struck me as the best I had tasted, yet for a time he had trouble marketing them in Britain. In Scotland, Judith Paris - who had set up her small Wines from Paris company after a career in the Scottish Arts Council - did a deal with him and made Chateau la Jaubertie famously available in Edinburgh, but before long they fell out, which was something that Nick appeared to have a talent for doing - his career was tarnished by recurring family disputes and break-ups making him come to seem one of those people who are called their own worst enemy (a description to which Judith could surely have added the words “Not while I am alive”).
Yet his wine was undoubtedly good and I have vivid memories of sipping it in the Bergerac sunshine - no bad weather on that occasion. His tie-up with Majestic Wines appeared to be a success and my first taste of Chateau la Jaubertie continues to haunt my memory.
31 July 2015
Please visit my blog: conradkmwilson.blogspot.co.uk
Though not the friendliest of people, he welcomed me to Chateau la Jaubertie, his property in the Bergerac region of central France, treating me to the delicious blend of Sauvignon and Semillon. He had been struggling to develop as a novice winemaker who had previously helped to run Ryman’s, the family stationery firm but had grown fed up with it.
Having dreamed for years of owning his own French vineyard, he spent his share of the family profits on doing exactly that. Though he had no wine experience with which to bring this about, his purchase of a beautiful small chateau fired his enthusiasm and he gained his learning the hard way, battling with foul weather and other setbacks until reaching eventual triumph.
When I visited him with a handful of other wine scribes he had begun winning his first awards and had produced a successful sweet Monbazillac. Drinking the drier Chateau la Jaubertie with him in his garden, and eating lunch cooked by his wife, made all of us wish to take the same risk and settle in the same lovely but neglected part of France where Nick had been developing new methods of wine production that made many local growers seem outmoded.
Nick’s Bergerac whites struck me as the best I had tasted, yet for a time he had trouble marketing them in Britain. In Scotland, Judith Paris - who had set up her small Wines from Paris company after a career in the Scottish Arts Council - did a deal with him and made Chateau la Jaubertie famously available in Edinburgh, but before long they fell out, which was something that Nick appeared to have a talent for doing - his career was tarnished by recurring family disputes and break-ups making him come to seem one of those people who are called their own worst enemy (a description to which Judith could surely have added the words “Not while I am alive”).
Yet his wine was undoubtedly good and I have vivid memories of sipping it in the Bergerac sunshine - no bad weather on that occasion. His tie-up with Majestic Wines appeared to be a success and my first taste of Chateau la Jaubertie continues to haunt my memory.
31 July 2015
Please visit my blog: conradkmwilson.blogspot.co.uk
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