The Story of our Branch
Early Days
The West Riding branch (as it was first known) of the IWFS came about through the direct instigation of Andre Simon. Tony Hepworth, an undergraduate at Cambridge, was a member of the University branch of the Society and came to know Andre at IWFS events. Andre pointed out that Yorkshire had a significant number of independent members with no “mother branch”. With Tony due to return to God’s Country to become involved in the family business, Andre introduced him to 2 of these – Irene Pain and David Dugdale.
Tony Hepworth, Irene Pain and David Dugdale
This triumvirate, who came to play major roles in the new branch for almost 50 years, eventually held their first event at the George Hotel in Huddersfield on 8th December 1952. The event – a tasting of wines given by Ronald Avery, marked the beginning of a long association between the branch and the Avery family, which continued with Ronald’s son, John, and in turn his daughter, Mimi, who attended the branch’s 50th anniversary dinner in December 2002.
Invitation to the First Event
The early years of the Branch were highly successful. Events were held all over the county, usually based at hotels and restaurants, and were grand affairs. Venues which featured many times included The Foxhill Club in Leeds, the Baron of Beef restaurant in Bradford and the Pavilion Hotel in Scarborough. Food writer, restaurateur and broadcaster Michael Smith, a major influencer in British cooking at the time (and cited as a mentor by Brian Turner) hosted the branch on several occasions.
Looking back, the list of events was dominated by the tastes of the time – overwhelmingly French wine, with many tastings of Burgundy, Rhone, Bordeaux (including an annual “Claret Dinner”), and the occasional entry of Hock or Port. The relatively loose breathalyser rules of the era undoubtedly aided to the enjoyment of the highly liquid nature of the evenings. Some events are almost unimaginable nowadays – November 1954 featured the “Lafite Dinner” where members enjoyed vintages from 1896 to 1914.
Lafite Dinner November 1954
Maturity
The pattern continued relatively unchanged for many years, with restaurants coming and going, and a small evolution in the range of wines – the first Southern Hemisphere wine (New Zealand) appeared on the programme in 1988. It may be true to say that this wasn’t a hit with the membership, since it was another 6 years before the branch again ventured outside Europe for a South African tasting. The programme remained very traditional, and with hindsight, failed to evolve to reflect a better-travelled public with broader tastes than just France. By the late 1990s, the branch was in decline. The number of events fell from 8 in 1995, to just 5 in 1996, and a low point of 4 in 1997. A new committee was elected and a more adventurous range of events cautiously began. Comparative tastings incorporating “new” regions such as Argentina vs Chile appeared in 2001, new trends such as Organic Food and Wines were reflected in 2002 and, by 2006, the branch had even visited an English vineyard for the first time!
Reinvention and Renewal
Branch membership fluctuated, with the lack of a clear raison d’être the key issue. Debate within the branch frequently involved lengthy retrospectives of the “good old days”, and much soul-searching took place. At one event in 2007 (the first organised by the author) a mere 5 members and 2 guests ventured to visit the Black Sheep brewery at Masham (it was a cold and wet Yorkshire evening in November…). The need for change was pressing, and came from a further change in the Committee who took the radical step of asking the membership what they wanted to see. From this, a new purpose for the branch began to emerge. Above all, members wanted events that were fun, unique, with a gently educational focus. There was also demand for a balanced programme of themes – food-led, wine-led, and trips to suppliers in the form of food and wine producers, including farms and vineyards. A new and clear Unique Selling Point for the branch emerged, which has become a mantra against which proposals for content are matched, i.e., “things we can’t do as individuals by ourselves”. This might mean a wine tasting of Burgundy versus New world alternatives, with bottles ranging in price from £10 to well over £125, or a trip foraging food on the North Yorkshire coast with an experienced guide – each delivering the uniqueness, fun, and opportunity to learn that members want.
An event demonstrating our mantra of "things we can't do as individuals"
The annual programme now consists of a balance of events – food-led, wine-led, and producer-led across a wide but affordable price range. We aren’t hung up on a particular price point, but are committed to offering value and uniqueness in everything we do. Responsibility for delivery of events is now shared between a small Committee and two flexibly-constituted groups – loosely the “food committee” and the “wine committee” – an army of volunteers who take the lead in terms of choosing, sourcing and preparing food and wine. Most events are very informal, and frequently held at a local Church Hall, which is “dressed” with soft lighting, tablecloths and flowers by another group of volunteers to create a relaxed atmosphere. There is little doubt that these self-catered events are our most popular, and the absence of restaurant overheads means that most can be priced at under £30, whilst allowing a remarkable standard of fare to be enjoyed. The biggest short-term problem is now how to accommodate our membership – we have now grown to 46, and regularly sell out, which has led to the need to explore possibilities for a new home for self-catered events. In contrast to the early years of the branch, restaurant meals now represent a very small portion of the overall mix – apart from the anniversary dinner, we would usually now only visit a restaurant if it offered something exclusive such as a special menu, or a tutored talk from the chef.
We like to travel, and have organised tours almost every year since the first trip (inevitably to Bordeaux) in 2010. Since then we have visited Jersey, the Rhone Valley, Friuli, the Alsace, Rioja and San Sebastian, the Douro Valley, Umbria, and most recently South Africa. These have proved enormously successful, with a party of 17 making the trip to Cape Town. Sadly the 2020 tour to Jerez had to be postponed because of Covid, however we are optimistic that 15 of us will travel to Jerez in September 2021 for an exciting programme of exclusive bodega visits. In the last 4 years we’ve also enjoyed weekends away in Morecambe Bay, Staithes in Yorkshire, and Brancaster in Norfolk
Visiting the Oyster Beds on our Jersey Tour
Pandemic and Survival
We started 2020 with an exciting programme arranged for the year. But after a hugely enjoyable evening in late February choosing the best supermarket chardonnay under £8 to accompany fish and chips (Morrisons, as I recall), the pandemic struck. The next two events were cancelled because of lockdown, however in June we ran our first “virtual” event by Zoom – a “Friday night lockdown takeaway” where we shared some fellowship and a few well-chosen glasses of wine. This was highly successful, and led to a full resumption of our programme, which has continued to the time of writing, entirely held via Zoom. We’ve enjoyed 5 course banquets, with a selection of wines and food delivered through a “hub and spoke” volunteer network, tutored tastings of Pinot Gris and Noir, a Christmas Quiz, and many more. We even shared part of one event with a good friend of our branch in Cape Town, which hints at the possibilities that new technology could offer… We plan to meet again in person later in June, and have already sold out our Midsummer Celebration.
Learnings and the Future
Over time, we’ve learned that, just like any successful enterprise, the branch needs both to move with the times and, in particular, to listen to its membership, which we actively attempt through surveys and open discussions at AGMs. We are blessed with a hard-working team of enthusiasts who share the workload, and have recently renewed our committee with 2 new recruits. We try to keep up with trends in the wider wine and food arena, but above all endeavour to find new ways in which, by following our mantra, we are able to experience and share unique and enjoyable “gently educational” experiences with a friendly group of like-minded members.
Stephen Harrison
June 2021
The author would like to thank Tim Gittins and Bruce Naylor for their help recalling the branch’s history.