5 Minutes With… Peter Lunzer

There are people who know wine, and there are people who understand what happens around a bottle of wine.

Peter Lunzer belongs firmly in the latter camp.

Through Lunzer Wine, Peter has spent years sharing wines, stories and experiences with clients around the world. His approach is refreshingly uncomplicated: look beyond the obvious labels, understand what makes a wine show at its best, and never allow the theatre surrounding wine to overwhelm the pleasure of drinking it.

For the first in our 5 Minutes With… series, we talk to Peter about discovering wines that fly under the radar, the art of hosting, centuries-old cellars — and the bottle he would choose for one very particular table in Bordeaux.

For those who haven’t met you, how would you describe what you do?

I see myself as a commentator on wine and enjoy sharing what I learn with friends, family and clients.

The secret is that there are many amazing wines that fly under the radar. Finding them is a treat, both in terms of their affordability and because they can often closely mirror the taste and character of wines that are significantly more expensive.

What first drew you into the world of wine?

My first steps into wine came through a holiday job with a merchant in the City of London supplying wine bars and restaurants.

I had discovered, somewhat disappointingly, that I was not destined to become a world-famous architect and was looking for my next step into the job market.

The strange thing about wine is that the more you learn, the more you realise there is to learn.

After a short period, I was hooked.

What separates simply serving good wine from creating a genuinely memorable experience around it?

One of the biggest challenges with wine is that, unlike starting the engine of a car and driving away, wine often needs to be treated individually if it is to show at its best.

A warm Champagne or a cold Bordeaux, for example, is simply not pleasing.

It quickly becomes more complicated. Some wines need air to interact with them before they emerge from their shells, and food can interact both well and badly with wine, influencing our impression of what is in the glass.

Creating a memorable experience around an individual wine requires an understanding of what will make it shine.

Do you think hospitality has become too complicated?

Hospitality is not necessarily more complicated than it has always been, but the use of wine within hospitality may have become too theatrical.

People sometimes use increasingly flamboyant descriptions of wine with the intention of impressing guests. We think that can have the opposite effect.

We prefer to focus more on the stories behind the regions and the families who created wines that suited their regional cuisine.

What makes a great host?

Hosting is an art form.

It relies heavily on not simply insisting on delivering a script, but on being able to read the room instantly and adapt to the audience.

Is there a wine, place or experience that fundamentally changed the way you think about wine?

I have been very fortunate to host many trips to vineyards in France, Italy and Portugal.

I think the most impressive experience for me was looking at the cellars of Domaine Bouchard Père & Fils in Beaune, Burgundy.

The medieval cellars they occupy have been the tranquil resting place for bottles and barrels going back centuries.

Contemplating that continuity was a defining moment.

Golf and wine might seem like very different worlds. What do you think they have in common?

Somerset Maugham once said: “Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.”

In one sense, the privileged worlds of golf and fine wine require a financial commitment to witness the best of both.

Finally, if you could share one bottle of wine anywhere in the world with three other people, what would you choose, where would you be and who would be there?

I would choose a bottle of Château d’Yquem 1971, Lur Saluces, Sauternes.

It is still in its prime and is a reflection of centuries of winemaking skill at the property, dating back to the 1580s.

The location would be Bordeaux, at the château itself.

I would share it with the current Count of Lur Saluces, the late Sir Roger Gifford and my son, Oli Lunzer.

The Count should be there because his passion for what the estate produces is infectious, and the other two because I have seen them experience the same enthusiasm and love for this style of wine that I have felt since first tasting it.