The Epoch Times caught up with Mr Blake to find out how he made this transformation from teacher to wine writer.
Raymond explained that he has been interested in wine for almost all his life.
“I could show you things I cut out of newspapers and magazines at the age of ten, I don’t really know why. But I was always fascinated with something that could age and develop,” he said.
He became a school teacher after leaving Trinity College in the 1980’s, and about 15 years ago, while he was still teaching in Clongowes Wood College, he saw an advertisement in the paper looking for a wine writer for a new magazine that was just about to be launched. At the time Raymond decided against making a formal application for the job, and instead he decided to write to the publisher and invite him out for dinner. “He must have thought it was a smart move because he rang me up and here I am today,” chuckled Raymond.
He continued teaching and writing for about three years. “I would be getting up at about 5am, writing for two hours, driving to school, doing my stuff and during the holidays I would travel and visit wine regions.”
After getting married to musician Fionnuala Hunt in 2000, he decided to pack in the teaching and become a freelance wine writer. “Which was really getting into my passion, it was what I'd always wanted to do,” said Raymond.
“Driven more by enthusiasm than anything else … freelancing is a roller coaster … you have good days and bad days.”
More recently with the launch of his website www.blakeonwine.com , Raymond says he wants his wine writing to become more immediate. “A lot of my writing for magazines is planned months in advance so there is not much immediacy, whereas with the website I can see a bargain in a supermarket and I can write it up that evening.” Raymond feels that this gives more responsiveness and relevance to certain aspects of his writing. He also uses twitter and you can follow him on @blakeonwine
“Last night I tweeted about
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Raymond hopes that his new venture will be driven by enthusiasm. “If people are checking it regularly they will begin to know my style, they will be able to come and trust me and my judgement, and that whatever I recommend they should feel safe going out and buying,” said Raymond.
“Some websites I visit are much more expert that I will ever be … I think that can be a little tedious. I think you need to revel in it a bit, it’s a social drink, enjoy it, don’t ever lose that fun, it’s made by people for people … I don’t believe in holding it at arm’s length and being overly objective,” explains Raymond, who’s passion and love of wine comes across in how he articulates and get excited and caught up in his passion for wine.
“Taste with your head, but you have got to taste with your heart as well, and that’s particularly true of my love of Burgundy … I also love to tell the story behind the wine, where did it come from, who made it, is there any quirky thing, because that then sets it in peoples’ minds rather than putting it under the microscope.”
Raymond describes himself as an old world wine lover. His favourite wines come from the Burgundy region of France, where he thinks they have the two most important ingredients that make great wines: the people and the place. Raymond says that if you go to the Burgundy region, you will notice that the producers are small farmers with approximately five or ten hectares, and they often turn out eight or ten different wines. Raymond believes that unlike regions where wines are produced industrially, Burgundy wines incorporate aspects of the environment; they are like snapshots of a certain time and place.
“1999 is a great vintage, it carries a little echo of everything in the bottle … the great thing about good wine like that is that it can mature, develop and turn into something more interesting as the years go by.” That ability to develop and improve and become more complex is what Raymond finds completely fascinating about wine.
Changing wine scene in Ireland
About 20 years ago the wine industry was dominated by French wines, with over 50 per cent of all wine sold in Ireland being French. “Then there was an explosion of interest in wine driven by countries initially such as Australia, then Chile.” According to Raymond these two countries now occupy approximately 50 per cent of the wines currently sold in Ireland.
The biggest single change Raymond has seen since he started writing about wine was the introduction of screw caps. “At first we looked at them and said ‘My God!’, now, it’s not universal but it’s widely accepted … people have lost their fear of them. Traditional cork is now fighting a strong rearguard action.”
How to improve your wine knowledge
Starting out, Raymond formed a wine club with friends where they took turns purchasing wine based on a budget for the others to taste.
They tended to buy wines you would usually not buy for yourself, but when the cost is shared you could be a little more extravagant.
“That was a fantastic way to move on, and then I started visiting wine regions,” said Raymond.
“Visiting wine regions is fantastic … the names of places up until then were just names on labels … that makes a huge difference.”
Wine selections in Ireland
“One of the key advantages of being in Ireland is because we are not a wine producing country, it means that wine from almost every producing country is available here,” Raymond explained. Therefore, in a good wine shop or perhaps a supermarket, there may in fact be wines from 20 different countries. Which is not the case in wine-producing countries. “To be a wine lover in Ireland is no bad thing, the only real complaint you can have is the high level of duty, otherwise it is a great market. There are very few markets with a better selection of wine than Ireland,” said Raymond, who added that the UK and in particular London is the wine trading centre of the world, and that you therefore have very good selections there.
What role does price play in choosing a wine?
Right now, according to Raymond, the very best wines in the world have gone through the roof in price. Particularly in the Asian markets. “Quality doesn’t always track price, but it usually does … you do get things that buck that trend and I always try to draw attention to a wine that punches above its weight, usually you will find that there is a reasonable correlation between the two [price and quality].”
