An odd bit of business

The new owners of Oddbins say they want to put the odd back in the business, but having tasted some of its latest wines, it's the bins that need sorting out.

I say this with great affection for the company. When I was but a callow youth, and Oddbins had a single branch in Monmouth Street in Covent Garden, in 1966 I splashed out 24 shillings on three half-bottles of what the business was then about: odd bins purchased from the brewers.

I came away with three halves of 1933 Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte, a wine manifesting the thrilling virtues - remember, I was callow - of antiquity, pedigree and pronounceability. I was warned, as I left the shop, that bottles of such antiquity were bought at buyers risk, but what did I care? I had bought a ticket to the vinous equivalent of a journey down the Amazon and nothing could deter me from the adventure which awaited me once I got the trio home.

Two of the bottles were salad dressing, but the third was like one of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, cobwebby, yet rich with meaning, earthy, with a hidden sweet - ness and it exuded the tired, but moving perfume of the occult.

At the Oddbins tasting in September when, at the White Horse pub in Parsons Green, some 100 bottles awaited to quench my curiosity, I tasted nothing remotely to remind me of such past glories. I experienced 43% of the wines on show and apart from a lively 2006 Bourgueil (£10.99), a peachy n.v. Cava (£5.79), a joyous 2007 Grüner Veltliner (£12.99), a decent 2008 Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£5.49), d'Arenberg's usual mastery of Voignier and Marsanne (Hermit Crab 2007, £9.49), a brisk Bierzo 2006 (£8.99), an intense beetle browed 2006 Alexander Valley Cab Sauv (Coppola, £19.99), and a classic 2004 St Emilion (Clos l'Abba, £29.99). I was as underwhelmed as a vegetarian in an abbatoir.

One wine, a 2006 Pinot Noir from Domaine Jean Marechal (£10.99), was so spineless I wouldn't even cook with it.

So guys, you've done the easy bit. You bought Oddbins from an owner desperate to sell. Now you have to fly without wings: find good wines at fair prices, which will attract Majestic customers and keep browsers out of supermarkets and Threshers. I'd wish you luck, but it's not luck you need.

You need a miracle.

Malcolm Gluck is the wine critic of The Oldie magazine.

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