To serve, to drink – a BA reunion

Last Thursday I enjoyed a sentimental reunion with some well-known old workmates, the first in 12 years.

Longstanding Purple Pagers may remember that from 1995 until I resigned in 2010 I was a member of the British Airways wine-buying team, initially alongside Hugh Johnson, Michael Broadbent MW and Colin Anderson MW until the financial devastation caused by 9/11 led BA to trim their outside wine consultancy team to a single person. By the end, all decisions were taken on the basis of blind tastings, after massive tenders, by just me and BA's head of wine, Peter Nixson. Then in 2009...