Sir Cliff Richard is not commonly associated with the pursuit of hedonism. The veteran pop star has a reputation as a clean-living ascetic, a Christian who rarely drinks anything more potent than carrot juice. 'People who've never met me think I'm a teetotal vegetarian,' he says. 'They're shocked when I tell them I eat red meat and love wine. I admire vegetarians, but I couldn't see the future without a good steak.' Wine is an important part of Sir Cliff's diet, too: whether he's at home in Surrey, Barbados or the Algarve, he drinks half a bottle of wine with dinner most days.
The interest in wine is passionately held, although Sir Cliff says his tastes are 'commercial rather than elitist'. So much so, that he has recently gone into the wine business himself, emulating Sam Neill, Gérard Depardieu, Greg Norman and Francis Ford Coppola in the celebrity wine stakes by launching a Portuguese wine called Vida Nova. Sir Cliff concedes that, for the time being at least, the project is a 'ridiculously expensive hobby', but says that making money out of Vida Nova doesn't really matter to him. 'I love the Algarve and I want to give something back to the area. People are surprised that I've set up a vineyard, but I'm surprised that they're surprised, frankly. Actors and singers have always branched out.'
What is genuinely surprising is the location of the 16-acre vineyard. Even to Portuguese wine lovers, viticulture in the Algarve is a bit of a joke. 'Some of the guidebooks say that the Algarve bottles headaches for tourists, but I'm delighted with the first vintage of Vida Nova and the reaction from critics has been hugely encouraging.' Even at £7.99 a bottle, the wine is doing extremely well, thank you. When Tesco's website released a small parcel of Vida Nova last month, the wine sold out within 24 hours, providing a vinous example of the famous, if intangible, 'Cliff factor'. 'I'm overwhelmed by the reaction, because, just like music, wine is so subjective. It's a thrill that people like my wine.'
Vida Nova was the result of a chance meeting. The Quinta do Moinho, near Albufeira, already had a three-acre vineyard when Sir Cliff bought it eight years ago, but the grapes were so bad that the previous owners gave them away to the local co-operative. Sir Cliff planted 10 acres of fig trees when he moved in, but had no intention of making wine until he was introduced to David Baverstock, a Portugal-based Australian, who makes some of the country's best reds at Espor¿o in the Alentejo. 'David tested the soils and said, "There's no reason why you couldn't grow grapes here." We dug a few bore-holes and it was all systems go.'
At the start, Baverstock asked Sir Cliff what sort of wine he liked. His answer was 'soft, velvety and full-bodied, not something where the tannins crash into my mouth'. More middle of the road than heavy metal, as it were. Sir Cliff's wish-list more or less describes the texture of the 2001 Vida Nova, an impressive blend of Trincadeira, Aragonez and Shiraz and easily the best wine in the Algarve. He made 27,000 bottles of the 2001, but plans to increase production to meet the substantial demand. Using grapes from a friend's vineyard as well as his own new plantings, Sir Cliff hopes to be releasing 100,000 bottles a year within five years.
How does making wine compare with singing or selling more than 250 million records? 'I love the euphoria of being a vintner. I can put my head round the door of the kitchen and see the vineyards. It's a bit like Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence, except that this is Twenty Years in the Algarve.' Sir Cliff adds that wine might play an even more important part in his life in the future. 'I want to slow down,' he says. 'I'm thinking of retiring and this is a project I can do for the next 20 years. Maybe this has come at the right time.'
For now, Sir Cliff is happiest as a 'rock and roll singer' out on the road. That's where he first got interested in wine, at the age of 21. 'We were filming Summer Holiday in Greece and we used to go down to the harbour in Athens at the end of the day and order a plate of grilled fish and a bottle of wine. It might have been retsina, which wasn't the best way to start, but it got me into drinking wine.' Back in England in the 1960s, Sir Cliff alternated between German wine and Mateus Ros¿, a wine he still likes to drink on the terrace in Albufeira. 'It's light and sweet, but it tastes great on a scorching afternoon.'
Touring the world has introduced Sir Cliff to some great wines, such as the 1980 Penfolds' Grange, which he drank in Brisbane in 1991. 'I was in this restaurant after a show and the waiter said, "Try this." I was overwhelmed; I'd never tasted anything that good before and it turned me on to drinking reds. The wine cost £60 a bottle, but it was worth it. After the meal, the waiter told me he'd recommended the same wine to Rod Stewart, but he'd said it was too expensive. Next time I saw him I told him what a cheapskate he was.'
Alongside Vida Nova and Grange, Sir Cliff's favourites are a mixture of the Old and New World, with Chardonnay a common theme. 'Chardonnay is popular because it's so drinkable. It's become fashionable to knock it, rather like Mateus Rosé, but I find it very reliable.' First up is the 'crisp, stylish and buttery' 1992 Yarra Yering Chardonnay from Victoria. This was another find in a restaurant Down Under, as was the 1996 Wolf Blass Red Label Cabernet/Shiraz, a 'warm, reliable, inexpensive red that gives me exactly what I want from a wine'.
Considerably more expensive is a second Chardonnay, the 1998 Carillon Puligny-Montrachet that Sir Cliff tasted on a trip to Burgundy two years ago. 'I don't collect wine as a rule, but I've got some of this stored in a chilled cabinet in my house in Surrey. I drank it in a tiny bistro with a warm chicken liver salad. I can still remember the taste.' And what was the taste? 'I'm not very good at all that wine jargon, I'm afraid. I just know if I like it or I don't.'
The 1998 Meerlust Chardonnay is a richer style of wine altogether, first tasted at the winery in Stellenbosch. 'The tasting room was closed when I turned up,' he remembers. 'I was wandering around when an old man came out and said, "Would you like to try the wines?" I didn't know who it was, but it turned out to be Giorgio Dalla Cia, the winemaker. He gave me a private tasting for two hours, opening old bottles and showing us how they developed with age. New World whites are generally made to drink now, unlike the Puligny-Montrachet. But Meerlust is a terrific wine. It was so good that I bought some and took it back to England.' And does Sir Cliff keep a few bottles in Portugal, too? 'No, in the Algarve I buy and drink wine as I go along.' Or, thanks to David Baverstock, he makes it himself.
Cliff's top six
2001 Vida Nova
1980 Penfolds' Grange
1992 Yarra Yering
Chardonnay
1998 Meerlust
Chardonnay
1998 Carillon
Puligny-Montrachet 1996 Wolf Blass Red Label Cabernet/Shiraz
