A £1,300 bottle of red does not make a sommelier
Please don’t tell me the Beckhams are going to play at winemaking next. I say this because the vanity-project-prone pair were pictured strolling through a vineyard in Pauillac with friends at the weekend, David – who’d had a particularly enjoyable rummage through his designer dressing-up box that morning – sporting a Norman-clegg-style flat cap, and Victoria trying ever so hard to nail that trickiest look: vigneronne chic.
Although the pair already own a vineyard in Napa Valley (blessedly run by a team of specialists), they’ve never previously shown any inclination to commercialise their grapes like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Cliff Richard and Donald Trump. But, really, what is the point of life, love, kids or anything unless it’s commercialised to high heaven? And David – who celebrated Mr Loopholing his way out of a speeding fine last week with a £1,300 bottle of Echézeaux Grand Cru in Paris – likes to think he knows a thing or two about vino.
Although someone might want to explain that an understanding of wine goes beyond the ability to run one’s index all the way down a list to the bottle with the largest figure beside it.