WHAT I’VE LEARNED | Jancis Robinson MW OBE
15 December 2025
Jancis Robinson is arguably the world’s most celebrated wine writer. Aside from her eponymous website, she is the author and editor of countless books, including eight editions of The World Atlas of Wine and five editions of The Oxford Companion to Wine, and a prolific broadcaster too, notably in the early days of TV coverage of wine. The long-time wine correspondent of the Financial Times, this month she celebrated the 25th anniversary of jancisrobinson.com, and her 50thanniversary as a wine writer
‘I once told a friend that when I approach the keyboard, the milk of human kindness drains out of me. Tell it like it is, be utterly objective, and have no commercial influence at all. That’s been my guiding light.’
‘I’ve always been very keen to stress that I’m not in the wine trade. But I’m humble enough to say I’m a parasite on the wine trade. I owe my living to it, but I’m outside it, and I think being so independent has stood me in good stead over the years.’
‘I very much write tasting notes for consumers, not producers or retailers. There are enough people out there writing things that can be quoted. Although commercially, it would probably be better if we were higher-profile in retailers’ literature.’
‘My tasting notes are more impressionistic, shall we say. I want to tell people the structure of the wine, how developed it is, the acidity, the sweetness, and how much I’m enjoying it or not, rather than a long list of flavours. A physiologist once told me it is physically impossible to taste more than four flavours at once.’
‘It’s true, I’m not generous with scores. And people say our scores are too clustered together, which is a very fair criticism. But all these critics who give out 100 points all the time, they’ve got nowhere to go now. Wine is getting better all the time, so we have room for manoeuvre. And I’m sure in the next few years, we’ll be giving more and more [big scores].’
‘I never really enjoyed Bordeaux En Primeur. I felt like we were some sort of performing monkeys. We were just there to help them sell, which is not my favourite function. I’ve been quite vocal that I think it’s a slightly flawed process – as is now being shown.’
‘When I sold my website, the main motivation was that I was in my 70s and I owed it to the team to give the site a long-term future. I assumed that this big company that I initially sold to, which had lots of titles, would be really good at marketing and tech. I was wrong. But I’m thrilled now that the ex-CEO of that company has bought us, and we are his only title.’
‘I can’t imagine retiring. I would find it very difficult to give up completely.’
‘I haven’t heard anything of or from Robert Parker since he retired. I don’t know what he’s doing now but I hope he’s well and happy and having a jolly nice, restful time with his family, drinking up his cellar.’
‘I’ve been around so long that I’ve seen the pendulum swing. When I started, white wine was very much the thing, and everyone was looking for Chardonnay. Then I saw the pendulum swing to reds and then big, oaky reds. Now the pendulum is swinging very much back the other way. I like the fact that white wine is inching back – I’m a big white wine fan. And it’s nice to see different styles of rosé emerging too, not just Provence. Perhaps I’ll live long enough to see the pendulum swing back again, and everyone will say, “Oh, Port is where it’s at.”’
‘To celebrate the 25th anniversary of jancisrobinson.com we held an event featuring 25 English sparkling wines and 25 top Champagnes. It would have been impossible to do that 25 years ago, but nobody said, ‘What the heck are you doing?’ The increase in quality of English sparkling wine is a marker of those 25 years of evolution.’
‘If I look back 50 years, the biggest surprise has been the development of Northern Europe. Scandinavian countries, the Baltics, Poland… I wrote up a tasting of Polish wines quite enthusiastically recently – there are 500 Polish producers now. There will be even greater progress in the next 50 years as northern Europe warms up and expertise grows.’
‘By the same token, I worry about places like the Southern Rhône and parts of Australia, like poor old Riverland and the flats of Barossa. The lack of water is going to make things a little tricky. In California too, even Bordeaux and Burgundy. Burgundy is a good example [of the dangers of climate change] because Pinot is so transparent. Some of the hot recent vintages have really shown a completely different style.’
‘When I think about the people I most admire in the wine world, it’s surprising how many are a) women and b) Californian. Take the two beacons of subtle winemaking in Napa Valley – Cathy Corrison and Beth Novak [of Spottswoode]. Beth was an early champion of organics and biodynamics, and is very outspoken, environmentally and politically. Then there’s Barbara Banke, the head of Jackson Family Wines, who’s also done a lot of good things for sustainability, and has a knack for putting good people in place and letting them get on with it. Christian Seeley has done a similar thing at AXA Millésimes and he’s very visible as well, which is important. He’s also very funny. Paul Draper [co-founder of Ridge Vineyards] is another, as he alone of the California producers stood back from the UC Davis techno thing, took an international view, set a very high quality bar and also understood what Zinfandel could do, which most people didn’t. And an honourable mention for Eva Fricke, because she started out with not much, and has really made a name for herself in quite a conservative environment.’
‘We gave our oldest child the middle name Margaux. Not because of any particular affinity to the commune or the château, but because when I was young, both my parents got tuberculosis and had to spend a year away from us in hospital. So my saintly godmother Margaret came to live with us, and I wanted to honour her. But I couldn’t bear, in the Thatcher years, to have a daughter called Margaret.’
‘I think Obama was a good vindicator of those of us who are slightly to the left. Keir Starmer? Perhaps not. As for Trump, I’m very sad about how he has overridden the diversity issue [with] this whole anti-woke agenda. People are scared now.’
‘I enjoyed Twitter when it was a decent place to be, but I don’t want any part of the [Elon] Musk era. And Instagram just takes too much time. Plus the whole influencer thing doesn’t chime with me. I believe there is supposed to be a very obvious distinction between paid posts and unpaid posts, but I’m not sure that it’s made very clear, which is a shame.’
‘I worry about the health lobby very much. The WHO’s message is widely regarded, yet it’s been heavily influenced by temperance lobbyists rather than solid, causal influence. Very few in the medical profession would condone the WHO stance. It says there is no safe level of alcohol, but it talks about an increased risk of two decimal points or something tiny.’
‘Wine is a social lubricant, absolutely. The really sad thing is that our phones are robbing us of actual physical interaction. We’re worrying too much about our physical health and ignoring the effects of some modern phenomena on our mental health.’
‘I am addicted to wine. I drink it every night. I have my liver tested whenever I have the chance and so far, so good. My grandmother, who liked her gin very much, lived to 98, so touch wood.’
‘I also drink a lot of tea. Barry’s is my favourite – an Irish tea. I try not to drink too much caffeine though, so I’m not really a coffee drinker. The only other drink I really like is a margarita. I think it’s the acid-fruit balance, which is the same thing as I like in wine.’
‘I love fashion. This is very pretentious, but I see it as a sort of minor art form that you can practise daily. I am a frugal northerner though, so I like recycling. And I love a bargain. I buy lots of clothes from charity shops. But you have to choose your charity shop carefully. It’s got to be somewhere where well-off women throwaway nice clothes. I went to a Tesco tasting the other day in Wimbledon and picked up a nice pair of shoes on the way back.’
‘Receiving my OBE from The Queen was fun. You were allowed three guests, so I took both my daughters and my mother, and we had a very nice celebratory lunch afterwards at Harry’s Bar. I wouldn’t say I’m a royalist, but the Queen was pretty special.’
‘The only other time I met The Queen was when I was tasting wines at Windsor Castle as part of my role on the Wine Committee of the Royal Household. When we arrived, the equerry told us that the Queen was in residence, and she wondered whether we’d like to have lunch with her. Well of course we did. Unfortunately, I was sat at the other end of the table, next to what’s-his-name, beardie chops – the Duke with the big beard and the Russian connection [Prince Michael of Kent].’
‘My tastes have changed over the years. Like a lot of people, Bordeaux is a less obvious choice these days. The tannins need a bit more work to match to food, so if we eat out, a Pinot is normally more versatile. Though on restaurant wine lists, I just look for something I don’t know. I especially love it if the somm has come up with a list with lots of novelties on it.’
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TWO
MINUTES
WITH
Benjamin Leroux, Beaune
UNDER
THE
SURFACE
En Primeur – Is Burgundy going the same way as Bordeaux?
MEET
THE
SOMM
Lucy Meza Ortega