1978 to 1998 - 20th Anniversary Celebrations - By Spike Milligan

Twenty years ago Winestate interviewed the comedian Spike Milligan. As part of our 20 years in publication celebrations we present an excerpt from that fascinating interview, the last in our series.

Spike Milligan had just finished the last drops of a bottle of Morris' 125th Anniversary Liqueur Muscat. He seemed to be in his own little world as he savoured the vapours that still swirled inside the glass. But he suddenly broke his trance.

"Australian wines have their own taste don't they. They are so bloody unique. Christ, everything in this country is so big - horses, bulls, merino rams grow ten times as big as they do in Europe.

"That's why I've gone wrong. I have been trying to compare these wines to those from Europe, but you just can't. These are great Australian wines."

Spike Milligan, the arch goon, whose deeds with other members of the famous trio, Peter Sellars and Harry Secombe are legendary, was reflecting on a tasting of Australian wines.

Spike whose 86-year-old mother lives in the town of Woy-Woy, on the northern NSW coast, has been to Australia many times, but has never really had a good look at the different wine styles we have.

"I don't know woy they call it Woy-Woy," he said.

One wine he does remember however, was 1967 Grange Hermitage, which he bought some years ago. He still has a few bottles left and he plans to drink them before he leaves Australia.

"That's great wine isn't it. So soft and full-bodied, I'm just continually amazed at the flavour in it."

The tasting actually came about in a strange way.

I was interviewing Spike one afternoon for a newspaper, when I happened to mention within five minutes of starting, something about wines.

He quickly turned the interview around and for the next 35 minutes quizzed me about Australian wines. He likes the sweet wine styles and I suggested a few to him.

But of course the best thing to do was to show him a selection of some of the wines and wine styles we make in this country.

I suggested a special tasting but he suggested we go out to dinner one night and that was immediately more appealing.

The restaurant chosen was Champers in Pelican Street, Darlinghurst. Its advantage is that it is open till 3am, and as Spike had a show that night we could not start till nearly midnight.

Bill and Ingrid Graham of Champers ensured that we were given plenty of time between courses to taste, and a special tasting table was set up nearby.

Chef, Steve Denny, catered for Spike's vegetarian tastes with a special dish - onion, garlic, tomato and chopped almonds, all wrapped in lettuce with a light tomato and basil sauce. Spike's comment "sensational".

Spike Milligan has a reputation for his outlandish humour which combines brilliantly quick ad libs and one liners to the slapstick.

Give him a microphone or put him in front of a camera and an audience and he becomes the instant entertainer, regardless of time or place.

But give him a glass of wine and take away the audience, and he adopts a much more serious and business-like approach.

"Wine is an interesting subject to me and I have got to learn more about it," he said.

This was a side of Spike Milligan that I did not expect but one which I found enjoyable and enlightening.

His knowledge of wines and Australian history was embarrassing at times.

We glossed quickly over some of the major wine growing areas of Australia and he kept saying, as he took mental notes: "I've got to know more about this, I've got to find out more about the wines in this bloody country - I just don't know enough."

But let the tasting begin…

We opened a bottle of 1965 Lindemans Hunter River riesling, which initially caused Spike some confusion as he examined the nose.

"I can't pick this - wait a minute, it's sweet isn't it. No, no it's coming now - it's dry. I've never seen a wine like this before, it has a peculiar nose but such incredible flavour for a riesling."

"Can you still buy this wine. Put me down for a dozen. It's sort of dry with the edge taken off it - malleable and toasty I would say.

"But that nose is so strange. You know wines from different areas have distinctive aromas don't they. I always associate the German moselles with the smell of cat's piss. I love them but that's the smell I get from them."

We then tried a 1979 Drayton's traminer.

"This is a very clean wine. It would be great with fish or before dinner, it is so clean and fresh."

Spike made an interesting comment with the Penfold's traminer riesling Bin 202, a style of wine that is aimed at the Australian palate.

"I suppose the idea is to combine the best of both worlds and make it more complex - a schizophrenic wine. I like the idea."

The 1974 Penfolds St Henri claret was impressive and Spike was immediately impressed by the flavour in it.

"Oh yeah, great. It has beautiful flavour and is nicely balanced and seems to have a bit of age on it.

Spike's girlfriend Shelagh was pleased when she commented that she liked the wine and received Spike's full approval.

To the 1975 Penfolds Bin 389, all Spike could say was; "Oh yeah, daddy".

"I would love to know where I can get some of this. It can't be as cheap as you say it is. I would have to pay $20 for a wine like this in Britain, down at my old Soho liquor shop. You know sitting here like this and sipping all these wines seems so far away from the times we spent in Morocco when we used to buy jerry cans full of this rough-as-guts stuff for about 30 cents or something like that. We'd then boil it. You see, the hotter it got the better it got and that stuff had to be near boiling before you could get near it."

The Lindemans 1966 Hunter River burgundy, one of the latest releases of their classic wines, gave Spike a chance to see a fine Australian burgundy style at its best.

His comments reflect the quality of the wine.

"Can I have this in a syringe and shove it in my thigh.

"I wish I hadn't come here now, I am running out of superlatives for these wines; they are all so good."

He had described the Bin 389 as a more majestic traditional claret but was impressed with the softness and depth of fruit flavour in the burgundy.

"This is one of the great things about wines isn't it? Every wine is so different and each has a story to tell. It is romantic to look at each one.

"A country that grows its own wines has something up on other countries - and this country has got it by the balls.

"And there is nothing snobbish about wine - or there shouldn't be. Wine is for the rich and for the poor. I remember at a dinner one time this very proper gentleman offered me this 1854 port, which he said would be great.

"I told him it was f… awful. You've got to be honest, don't you?"

We then moved on to the sweet wine styles that Spike likes so much.

Spike was impressed with the Orlando Fromm's spaetlese riesling, a good commercial sweet wine. It appealed to his sweet tooth in wines.

The Orlando Kabinett he liked very much. "There is a dryness there on the finish that seems to follow the original sweetness.

"That style of wine appeals to me because it doesn't have that cloying feeling in your mouth."

We then showed him the 1974 Orlando auslese rhine riesling, which is a magnificent wine still in need of many years development.

"What incredible fruit flavour it has. It just seems to fill the mouth with flavour and it has beautiful sugar.

"This will definitely go down on my list to buy, when I go back to England. It is absolutely magnificent. Give me another glass quickly." The Brown Bros 1974 noble riesling did not appeal to him as much as I thought it would. The style of this wine which was called a spaetlese rhine riesling till the latest release, has changed to a more austere wine which obviously needs more time in the bottle to fill out on the palate.

We finished the evening with the Morris liqueur muscat, which is perhaps Australia's only really indigenous wine style, and it really put the seal on a great night and morning - it was now about 3.30am.

"Ah this is great! What flavour! You need three noses for this wine; it's just like glue.

"If World War III came along you could feed everyone this wine and you could never lose."

"I would drop my trousers in Trafalgar Square for a bottle or just a sniff of this wine."

With half empty bottles of wine crowding the table, we were joined by Ingrid and Bill and the chef Steve, to drain a good many of them. The evening revealed that Spike certainly had a good knowledge of wines (and a remarkable capacity to drink them). His education in Australian wines has been started, but of course is far from complete.

The next time he is in Australia we may be able to extend this knowledge. The last memory I have of the evening was Spike chatting with a local garbage collector at about 4am. He discovered he came from Manchester, and the man took some convincing that he was talking to Spike Milligan.