A private garden near to Regent’s Park in London was the setting for a rather bizarre barbecue and wine tasting yesterday. Convened by Susy Atkins for Which? (the magazine of the consumer’s association), the goal of this tasting was to select the best barbecue wines. It must have seemed like a smart idea at the time of planning to actually have a real-life barbecue, outdoors—after all, in mid April the weather can be quite benign. But not yesterday. It was positively wintry, with a bitter northeast wind and temperatures that seemed like single figures. To cap it all, I was only coming from round the corner so I turned up in a short-sleeved polo shirt. Man, it was cold. Susy had called in a star-studded line-up of Charles Metcalfe, Sarah-Jane Evans, Fiona Sims, Peter Richards, Natasha Hughes and myself, and we bravely battled the elements to try to imagine how the cold barbecue food (having rapidly lost its warmth) and too-chilled wines might complement each other on a warm sunny day. A memorable tasting.

In the picture: Natasha finds it amusing, Susy is discussing notes with the hidden Sarah-Jane, Charles hams it up and Fiona is not impressed.