Wine Club 26 June

Robin Yapp, the dentist-turned-wine merchant who founded Yapp Bros in 1969, used to scare the pants off my poor father on forays to France.

A somewhat insouciant driver, Robin would belt along in his ancient right-hand-drive estate car, foot to the floor, with his mind on other things. Every now and then, mid-anecdote, he would drift languidly into the left lane to overtake whatever French fool impeded his progress. My father, white-faced in the passenger seat, would gulp at the oncoming camions and yell ‘No, NO, back, BACK, something’s coming!’ as Robin coasted casually back to the correct side and continued his story. ‘Robin never gets scared because he can never see what’s coming,’ whimpered my father after one particularly hair-raising jaunt to the Loire.

RY’s son Jason — now in charge along with step-bro Tom Ashworth — is cut from the same cloth. After having once nearly put us both in an early grave skidding round the corniches of Corsica, he persuaded me to join him on another Gallic jolly.