Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure: Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 Box Set [DVD]

Poor James May. He just wanted to go on a drinking holiday and get absolutely clattered. Oz Clarke, though, wants to turn him into a wine ponce, and the third year (possibly the best so far) of his trying is currently showing on tv.

May knows chuff all about wine. He sniffs it at Clarke's behest, and stretches himself to describe it as "fruity", and "sort of winey" (sounds about right to me, but what do I know? Am a Ribena girl) before collapsing in snorty, snuffly laughter, much to Oz's disgust.

The pairing seems incongruous. Oz Clarke, at first glance, appears to be a posh, pretentious prig, while James May... isn't. In fact, this may be a good time for a brief aside. Put aquamarine near green, and it looks sky-blue; put it by blue, and it looks like emerald green. And so it is with May - put him next to Clarkson and the Hamster on Top Gear and he appears to be a gentle, old-fashioned, slightly melancholic classical pianist who has somehow inadvertently stumbled across this car lark. Put him next to Oz Clarke, though, and he appears to be a burping, scratching, slightly boorish, alcoholic, laddy petrolhead.

It shouldn't work... but it does. In fact (and I know this will sound ridonkulous) it may work even better than it does with Clarkson and Hammond. May certainly seems to have more fun, and it's not just to do with being tanked.

The first series has them travelling through France, and there's no friendship at first; they are clearly strangers who find one another a little trying. But as they pootle around in a lovely old Jaguar, they really do become friends. They sup old wines in French chateaus, and taste homemade champagne made in cobbled back-streets, and somewhere along the way, they become very fond of one another and it's genuinely sad when it's over.

So having series 2 in the same box is fabulous. Just wait til you see May's obvious joy at seeing Clarke waiting in the distance as they meet up on a California beach - proof positive that this here is a bonafide bromance. In California they are travelling round in a mammoth great trailer (look for Oz's expression when he realises) and they run with, amongst others, wine-making bikers, and a crazy Iranian in Napa Valley.

They also visit the site of James Dean's death, where an incomprehensible sign has been erected by a Japanese fan.
"He was a rebel without a cause," says Oz sadly.
"He was a rebel without an airbag," comes May's reply.

Series 2 places a little more focus on their relationship, down to their sharing a spoon to eat some Cap'n Crunch, and you realise that while May hasn't changed, at all, Clarke has loosened up hugely; he's actually become the sort of bloke you'd go to the pub to have a drink with... on the proviso that you, too, had an Ozzilator - a wee old whistle James blows when Oz pontificates too much about the plonk.

This review has become far too long already, and am worried I've failed to explain how indescribably wonderful Oz and James is. Wine tasting seems to involve using too many adjectives so in that spirit: Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure is sunny, funny, happy, relaxing, feel-good, surprising and joyful, with chubby, nutty low-notes.

Buy it buy it buy it.

A very funny and highly entertaining program of well known wine expert
OZ Clarke and Jamas May known form Top Gear, who together travels on a
wine adventure. James knows nothing about wine, but have chosen the car
for the adventure (of course an English jaguar) and is like a rebel
boarder school boy taught by the slightly older and more distinguished
Oz Clarke, who continuously tries to learn James about the different
wines and the impressions they make. It all turns into a lot of very
entertaining and very funny situations, filled with humour, and there
is a lot to learn and view, both from the more experienced and newcomer
to wine tasting, on this fantastic wine adventure filled taste -and
sense impressions.

Not having seen the series, I was urged to buy this boxset by an insistent friend, and I confess to doubts - lots - not least because, with a couple of exceptions, I've never found a wine that didn't leave a horrible metallic aftertaste and harsh acidity. I've always been convinced that old saw 'the more expensive the wine the better it is' was just a rip-off ploy by vintners!
On Top Gear James May's 'character' is vital, but subtle - he is the straight man, the foil for big shouty and little angry; to be the understated Everyman always almost but not quite in the limelight.
But I had real doubts as to how well that would translate in 'Big Wine Adventure'. True, May's affable irony and wry self-deprecating wit on TG were tempered by occasional flashes of a darker, inner bleakness, as he sometimes inadvertantly let slip a tendency towards melancholia(quote: "that moment of Black Dog despair") but away from Hamster and Jezzer, wouldn't it be bland and boring? I didn't really see how the combination could work - Oz Clarke, genuine theatre thespian dahlink and leading Brit wine critic alongside a beer-swilling, petrolhead pianist with depressive tendencies. I prepared for boredom or one of those celeb obviously-in-it-for-the money jaunts.
And I'm very, very sorry, because the DVDs are worth every penny. Both seasons were perfect examples of what documentary shows should be - funny without descending into juvenile puerility, and you learn useful stuff almost without noticing it. Season 1, as these two disparate men adjusted to each other brought forth several moments of hilarity: sharing a tent, the naked Spa pool, and my personal favourite was the Ozilator, a penny-whistle James blew whenever Oz went on too much in that sort of pretentious waffle usually only seen in an AA Gill food review column in The Times. Who hasn't craved such a thing to shut up some pontificating windbag at some point? Priceless!
But Oz wasn't obnoxious. Despite his occasional lapses into overblown oratory, he loves wine, he's interested in the history and the culture and his enthusiasm makes the viewer interested as well. Likewise James stayed true to his 'affordable wine for normal people' stance without being offensive, boorish or an 'inverted snob' about it. And both men clearly genuinely got on well with each other. JM has always been diffident about admitting to any real emotion on screen (remember Hammond's return to TG after the accident - Jeremy launched in with a bearhug, James backed away from Hamster like he was a live cobra and proffered a handshake). Oz gently poked fun at James' aversion without being cruel or offensive about it. It was...nice TV, pleasure-to-watch TV.
And the California one was, in my opinion, even better. I'm trying to avoid spoiling it because my advice is to buy the boxset - Amazon making both seasons available as a boxset is an excellent idea - and I sincerely hope it doesn't end there. I can surely hear all non-French/Californian vintners gnawing their livers in frustration at how much Franco-Californian wine sales must have increased - what about Italian/Spanish wines, or Latin wines (Chile, Brazil), then there's Eastern European wines (Hungary, Romania, etc) and of course, the Antipodes of Australia and New Zealand. I can just see the tagline for Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure Series 3 now; "Oz does Oz in May..."