' As we shook hands on the threshold, he said to me with the little bow that has almost disappeared, " Mr Saints -bury, sir, if ye ask anyone to dinner and tell them where ye got your wine we shall not be ashamed ". I confess that the wings of peace fluttered my soul as I walked past Marlborough House.'
Sir Ralph Richardson reads an extract from George Saintsbury 's Notes on a Cellar Book, first published in 1920, perhaps the most original book on wine ever written.
Producer PIERS PLOWRIGHT (A Glorious Wine: Fri 8.5)