Most Tory MPs enjoy leadership elections. There may be an element of what the trick-cyclists call ‘displacement activity’. Equally, it is tempting to employ the cliché about rearranging the furniture on the Titanic.
The Brane-Cantenac 2000 was everything that a claret lover could wish for
Until 1990, the process was brief. It took only four days to elect John Major, whose team used an underground ‘bunker’ in Alan Duncan’s house as their HQ. By 1997, when the party had been grievously wounded and the election procedure extended, there were lots of gatherings which required more spacious premises – including Jonathan Aitken’s garden.
Now, even more stricken, the Tories will need a number of bunkers and will face the same problem that their predecessors had to cope with in 1997. The public are not interested. That will change, but not in any short order. At present, if most voters knew Clem Attlee’s advice to Harold Laski, they would quote it to the Tories: ‘A period of silence from you would now be welcome.’
How should Tories respond? Stoicism will be required. Tory principles are neither extinct nor irrelevant. It is the medium that has been discredited, not the message.
But there is one Tory solace which will never be unfashionable. When in doubt, have a drink. The other evening, a small group of us foregathered. Our host had been a minister and greatly enjoyed himself. He confessed to withdrawal symptoms, and found it galling to read the papers. Thoughts would come instantly to mind: ‘We should be doing this; saying that.’ No doubt indeed we should, but that will have to await the whirligig of time.
In the meantime, he was finding one consolation. Like many ministerial colleagues, he made a financial sacrifice to take office. He did not begrudge the loss of earnings and would have happily paid the price for remaining in government. But now he will be able to reinforce his wine cellar.
That said, his guests were impressed by how much had survived the years of public service. We began with a Batard-Montrachet 2017 from Olivier Leflaive. Since the oxidising disasters of the late 1990s, there have been widespread fears about the fate of great – and valuable – white Burgundies. As a result, some have been drunk too young. Although that was not the case with this glorious bottle, it was only just at the threshold of maturity, with everything that a great chardonnay should express.
Following that would not be easy, but the former minister’s generosity was up to the task. Sassicaia is generally reckoned to be the finest of the super-Tuscans – though my friend Grahame McGirr, feted here, is determined that one day, he will contest its crown. Sassicaia is undoubtedly a very serious wine, but because of its pre-eminence in the domestic market, it is not good value. For the same price, one could easily find a Bordeaux second growth, or even a super-second.
We then compared the 2009 and the 2012. Were these bottles up to second growth standards and which was the better? As for the latter, the decision was a tie. I thought that the’09 was further on: others, that the ’12 deserved the blue riband. They were both excellent wines, each easily worthy of a – third-growth – ranking.
But both were put in their place by the best wine of a magnificent evening. The Brane-Cantenac 2000 was everything that a claret lover could wish for. It would require a first growth from an outstanding year at the top of its form to over-top the Brane.
Such a joyous evening: one’s faith was wholly – if perhaps temporarily – restored in every good thing, even including the Tory party’s prospects.
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