Master-Class to Success

‘My skillset,’ Bancroft laughs – jokingly, but with more than a hint of sincerity – ‘is that I’m a greedy, drunken man, who loves food and wine. First and foremost, I’m a gourmet.’ For him, however, this is the key to both his – and, accordingly, Northcote’s – success. ‘A lot of sommeliers have a huge amount of knowledge but they’re not into their food. Because my real love has always been food, in order to enjoy it better, I’ve always made sure that my food and wine were either a perfect marriage or a great contrast. That’s how I started the wine enthusiasm.’

In 1984, Bancroft’s stepmother and father emigrated to Portugal, and since then, Bancroft has developed a certain love for the Peninsula and its wine. His cousin is married to Bruce Hawker, the owner and editor of the Essential magazinesin the Algarve, Lisbon, Madeira and London. ‘He is a real Portuguese food and wine connoisseur,’ Bancroft grins, ‘and now my personal tutor!’ In fact, Bancroft has received a special award from the Portuguese Ambassador for his services to Portuguese wines. ‘Our Portuguese wine sales are phenomenal,’ he laughs, ‘because I’ve been able to brainwash most of the Ribble Valley!’ Last year also saw Northcote win AA wine list of the year and this year they have achieved two glasses with American Spectator. They have also won Portuguese Best Wine List of the Year three times.

The ethos of Northcote’s wine list is that it should have a wide range of food matching opportunities, including grape varietals from all different parts of the world. Up until 2000, Bancroft built the list himself, but, more recently, he has expanded his ‘wine team’ to include Nick Adams MW, who consults with Bancroft on a monthly basis, and head sommelier Adam Pawlowski, newly qualified as a Master Sommelier. When pairing wines for a tasting menu, Bancroft seeks to take guests on a journey, with no repeated stopovers. He believes there are two ways to make the wine match: it’s either a marriage – ‘a beautiful combination of subliminal blending where you can’t see the join’ – or it’s a contrast, bringing out both sets of flavours. ‘I always say that food and wine pairings should either marry things or divorce them,’ Bancroft laughs.

Bancroft likes to maintain control over his wine list and food and wine pairings and is reluctant to let other sommeliers into his establishment, even during an event like OBSESSION. ‘I’m quite controversial at times. I don’t want to be told by anyone – a sponsor, a grower or another sommelier – which wines to feature with any given menu. I’m not a prostitute! I’m somebody who’s going to put a wine to a food because I believe it works and I’m not doing it because somebody wants to ride on the back of our custom and our brand. I might sound arrogant, but the only time I subjected myself to do it – I was seduced by the fact that the money meant more than my pride – was the one occasion when people said to me: “My god, Craig, what’s happened to the wines tonight?” I was crying in the back of the kitchen because the wines weren’t what I would have chosen, they didn’t match the food as well as I would have liked, and, the trouble was, everybody noticed. We’ve done such a good job over the years that people are excited by the wine match and they buy it because they trust it – and us.’

So Bancroft and his team will be working hard to match wines and offer amazing global flights for all of the dinner events throughout OBSESSION 2015 and his master-class alongside TASTE PORTUGAL’s sommelier, Antonio Lopes, is bound to offer some unique and intriguing insights – and perhaps some sparks as well!