jamie goode's wine blog: Mike Rigby: a tribute

Friday, August 15, 2008

Mike Rigby: a tribute

A couple of weeks ago I heard the very sad news of the death of Mike Rigby, a good friend from a while back who I'd not been in touch with for ages. Mike, who lived alone, had been dead for a while when he was found in his flat, and his cause of death is still unknown. He was responsible for introducing me to wine, and so I thought it was appropriate to post my own, personal tribute to him here.

When I first met Mike, he was a vicar at a CofE church in Wallington, Surrey. I was aged 18, had just finished my 'A' levels, and was on a young person's 'houseparty' organized by an Anglican youth organization, held in the lovely settings of Milton Abbey School in Dorset. Mike was one of the leaders. These houseparties were great fun; coming from the background of a boys' school, to be able to spend a week with 120 other kids half of whom were female was a wonderful opportunity, and one that I made the most of.

The following year I attended the same houseparty, this time as a 'helper' (I was now at university), and Mike introduced me to a remarkable group of young people from his own church. We got on so well that I spent a good deal of time in Wallington over the next few years, and several members of this group are still very good friends. One is my wife!

In my weekend trips to Wallington I saw quite a bit of Mike. He was incredibly intelligent (one of the smartest people I've met) and insightful, yet at the same time quiet, reserved and almost self-contained. He loved truthfulness, and absolutely hated any form of control. He inspired great loyalty in his friends, but also a perplexingly intense hostility in his enemies - and, sadly, he made quite a few of these in the congregation at Wallington, which eventually led to him leaving the Anglican church to go and work on the pictures desk at the Sunday Telegraph.

In 1992 I completed my PhD and moved down to Wallington, and I needed somewhere to stay. I was engaged to be married to Fiona, but the wedding date was some months away. Unexpectedly, Mike offered me a room in his flat, so from October until the following May I moved in with him. Mike was an incredibly tidy, ordered person; I was somewhere close to the opposite, but there was never a moment's tension (I kept my mess to my room). It was during this time that Mike introduced me to wine. [It wasn't enough that he'd introduced me to the group of people who were to form my closest friendships - and in this process Fiona - he also introduced me to what was to become my career.]

Each Sunday evening a few of us would gather in Mike's flat, and he'd usually have an interesting bottle or two that he'd open. His interest in wine dated back to his time at Oxford, but he wore his knowledge very lightly, and didn't have any pretensions; nonetheless, he had a cultured, eclectic palate - and in the Wine House, a local merchant run buy a guy called Morvin Rodker, there was a good source of interesting bottles for us to experiment with.

I was inspired. I fondly remember one of the wines Mike showed us - the 1991 Brokenwood Graveyard Hermitage - which was to become my first multiple bottle purchase (3 at £13 each). I also remember Gonzalez Byas Matusalem sherry, and a birthday gift of a 1987 Warres Quinta da Cavadinha. I also recall sharing a 1982 Leoville Barton with this group, which was probably my first exposure to serious Bordeaux.

Fiona and I largely lost touch with Mike when we moved from Wallington to Twickenham in the mid-1990s. He came over to see us once; I also met him for lunch in Canary Wharf on one occasion. I wish we'd seen more of him. I guess we owe him a lot.

8 Comments:

At 9:37 PM, Anonymous Adam F said...

Its touching to hear a story from your life and those who have influenced it and your love of wine. The Aussie 'Hermitage' sounds fun!

 
At 4:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry to read of your loss of a mentor and friend Jamie.

Nicely worded reflections on his impact on your life and career.

malcolmwilliamson

 
At 9:11 PM, Blogger lucilocket said...

jamie, so glad you got to know Michael Rigby, he was such a great help to our daughter when she went through a bad patch in her life. We knew him from his church in Reading and agree with everything you said about him, however was not lucky enough to get in on the wine 'thing'!!
We lost touch when he left the church, was he still in Wallington at the time of his death?

 
At 9:39 PM, Anonymous Bill Harer said...

Jamie,

Thank you for taking the time to write your tribute. I knew Mike at Oriel College in Oxford. He was a very clever man with a fun sense of humour. Like Lucie, I did not know about his expertise in wine - it would have been nice to have benefited from it!

 
At 8:37 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Yes, he was still in Wallington, in the same rented flat.

 
At 6:33 AM, Blogger lucilocket said...

Thanks for your comment that Mike Rigby was still in Wallington, have you heard anything else as to cause of his untimely death. If you do, please post. Thanks

 
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous Michael said...

Mike Rigby contributed much to my life as he has yours, his presence will be sorely missed. He became a good friend of mine since 1999. He used to joke that we have been attending classes together for two centuries when we met in Kensington at a Tai Chi class next to the Natural History museum and later at Limehouse. Since then he became someone I admired and looked up to and his knowledge of the world, wine, and his ability to speak several languages (Mandarin being his most recent addition to French, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish as well as Russian, an incredible mind!). Having shared a glass of beer (from the Belgian monastary Leffe near his home town)on a hot day in June with the great man, he looked to be in good shape and as sharp and as caring as ever. I was looking forward to seeing him again for wine tips among other things and therefore shocked to hear the news.

He spoke of his friend the Wine Anorak fondly and how he helped inspire your love of wine tasting. I am pleased to see your tribute to a lovely guy. Everyone raise your glasses please to Mike.

 
At 5:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I knew Mike, on and off, for 3 or so years. Lovely and quirky chap. Clearly very bright. So sad the way things turned out, life is tough, wealthy or poor, (I'm poor by the way).

Love to Mike and his gentle spirit,

Mike King.

 

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