Britain's Jancis Robinson on discovering the sensuality of wine

What do you make of the wine business in China? “It’s getting there. That said I’m blissfully protected from the 90 per cent underbelly of fake stuff. LVMH gave Australian wine scientist Tony Jordan four years to go around China and find somewhere suitable for red-wine production and hence [the Moet Hennessy Shangri-La (Deqin) Winery opened in] Yunnan. It’s not easy. It’s not accessible; if something breaks down in the winery, it’s a four-hour drive to get a spare part and you can’t quite rely on the electricity.

“China is the fourth biggest grower of grapevines in the world, so it’s good to know there’s some decent stuff being made there.”

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When did you have your first glass of wine? “Probably as a teenager at a Christmas dinner, but I wasn’t brought up with wine. My first good glass of wine was at Oxford University and it was a Chambolle-Musigny Les Amoureuses 1959 and it was so good that I realised how sensually satisfying it could be. Before that I only drank water. In Britain, people in the 50s and 60s didn’t drink wine. It was a very exotic beverage and they only got into wine from the 70s, when they started going abroad.”

How did you start writing about wine? “When I graduated, in 1971, the subjects of wine and food in Britain were seen as frivolous so I didn’t bother telling my friends I was looking for a job in this field because they would have thought it was a waste of an Oxford education. After working for three years in the travel business, and a year in Provence, I managed to get a job as assistant editor of a wine trade magazine. The timing was great because it was just as the Brits were falling in love with wine.”