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Vintners' Hall in all its glory -
Jancis Robinson: a sneaky photo, sorry Master!
Vintners' Lunch for Masters and Clerks
15th September 2026Vintners' Hall
To Vintners’ Hall for the Masters and Clerks’ Lunch, hosted by the Master Vintner, Ian Harris MBA BA Dip WSET. Sadly, our own Clerk was unable to come, so the responsibility (and the wine) was all mine! Arriving with minutes to spare, I changed out of my trainers and into a decent pair of high heels moments before we were called up to the receiving line, passing Vintners’ famous Swan Uppers and Bargemaster on the stairs, resplendent in their traditional outfits and presenting their oars.
I grew up in Abingdon-on-Thames, which is the final stop on the annual Swan Upping expedition from London, so seeing the Swan Uppers at Vintners’ Hall was an unexpected and rather delightful start to the afternoon.
And so began the Livery connections …
I was hosted by the charming Richard and Julia Trustram Eve. Like me, Richard grew up in Oxfordshire, but an even more remarkable connection emerged when Julia, one of the Vintners’ Court Assistants and an expert in English and Welsh wines, told me she had worked at Henry C. Collison & Sons, the historic wine merchants at 7 Bury Street in St James’s, in the 1980s.
This really was like stepping back in time. Back then, Collison’s was part of the global corporate interests of Dr Anton Rupert, the South African owner of Rothmans International. When I first began working for Rothmans in the early 1980s, I used to buy South African wines from Collison’s for Rothmans' conference centre in Oxfordshire (and for myself!) and may even have dealt with Julia — but could never have imagined that, all these years later, I would find myself meeting someone at a Livery lunch who had been working at Collison’s while I was buying its wines.
I was one of five lucky guest Masters: the others were the Master Cutler, and good friends the Deputy Master Mariner, the Master Gold & Silver Wyre Drawer and the Master Musician. Three of the five were lady Masters: as the Master Vintner remarked in his speech, how times have changed!
I was delighted to be seated next to the Immediate Past Master Vintner, Richard Wilson MBE DL VR, whom I have had the privilege of getting to know over the past few months.
We enjoyed exchanging notes over a quite extraordinary selection of wines from the Vintners’ famous cellars, each one introduced by Master of Wine Charles Taylor: Bollinger Special Cuvée Brut; 2015 Lady May from Glenelly in Stellenbosch; 2005 Château La Lagune, a Third Growth from the Haut-Médoc; 2009 Château Coutet, a First Growth from Barsac; 1997 Taylor ’s Port; and, to finish, a 1983 Bas Armagnac from Château de Laubade.It was quite a line-up and no wonder the lunch was a lengthy affair!
On my other side was Liveryman Mrs Charlotte Stuart-Clark, who revealed another unexpected connection. Her family had once been in tobacco manufacturing, owning Pritchard & Burton, famous for its Boar’s Head tobacco: she was a Burton. The business was sold to Godfrey Phillips after the Second World War, then acquired by Philip Morris in the 1960s: she remembered production being transferred from Acton to Silvertown in east London.
Charlotte believes that her father was a member of the Tobacco Pipe Makers, so I encouraged her to think about joining us too!
The Principal Guest was the distinguished wine writer, Liveryman Jancis Robinson OBE MW. I have seen Jancis on television many times over the years, so there was something rather surreal about finding myself sitting at the same lunch as her, listening to that very familiar voice giving the speech.
Wonderful entertainment from violinist Harry Kneeshaw and vocalist Daniella Sicari, accompanied on the piano by Mark Rogers, was followed by the entire company standing to sing the rousing 1702 “Song to the Vintners”, with its famous chorus:
“Come, come, let us drink the Vintners’ good health,
’Tis the cask, not the coffer, that holds the true wealth.”
It was a splendid lunch in wonderful surroundings, and yet again a reminder of one of the great pleasures of Livery life: you never know where the connections will lead. A conversation over lunch suddenly links you to a place, a company or a chapter of your own past that you had long since forgotten.
Only slightly but justifiably the worse for wear, I managed to get the 1630 train home, where I enjoyed flaunting the menu and wine list to an envious husband.
Thank you, Master Vintner, and all the members of your Company, for a memorable lunch — and for reminding me yet again that in the Livery world, you never quite know who you are going to meet, or where the conversation will take you.