Mind your language, Sir Cliff!

Last updated at 09:01 09 June 2006


He has talked repeatedly about his love of wine-making, even mooting the idea that he might retire from singing to concentrate on developing his vineyard in Portugal.

But perhaps Sir Cliff Richard shouldn't give up his day job just yet after being tricked into rubbishing his own vintage by the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

The incident happened when Sir Cliff appeared on the new Channel 4 series of Ramsay's 'The F-Word' and agreed to take part in a blind taste test.

Ramsay gave the singer a couple of red wines to taste and asked him to pass judgement.

The first one Sir Cliff thought was "amazing," Ramsay said. "Of course it was, it was a £400 bottle."

But the second went down rather less well.

Speaking at the launch party for the new show, the famously potty-mouthed chef said: "I told him it was a sort of £12.99 bottle and Cliff said, "That's rubbish. I wouldn't pay for that, it's tainted, it's insipid. It tastes like vinaigrette. I'd never buy that."

For Ramsay, who likes nothing more than humiliating people who claim to know about food and wine, it was music to his ears.

"I told him, 'Cliff, that was your wine' and, well, f*** me, he went off. Bananas. He lent over and [beckoned me towards him] with his finger and said, 'Young man, go f*** yourself."

Ramsay, of course, is no stranger to the f-word. But even he appeared stunned to hear it from the lips of a clean-living Christian knight of the realm whose idea of controversy is singing to the crowds at Wimbledon.

"Sirs can't swear like that," the 39-year-old chef said.

"It was extraordinary. That was his wine from Portugal. We are now using it for vinaigrette at Claridge's [one of Ramsay's restaurants].

"I got 75 bottles for free and it really is going down tremendously well with the tuna."

Although Sir Cliff has always insisted his taste in wine is "commercial rather than elitist", being caught out in such a way will be profoundly embarrassing for someone who claims to be passionate about wine, drinking half a bottle a day.

But it is also likely to cause a hangover for his 16-acre estate in southern Portugal where Sir Cliff grows his own vintage, Vida Nova.

Although the 65-year-old singer has always insisted he regards it as simply a 'ridiculously expensive hobby', hopes that it might become commercially viable were raised in 2002 when the first batch sold out within 24 hours of hitting the shelves of Tesco, making it the fastest-selling wine in the supermarket's history.

However the Algarve is not known for its viticulture and subsequent vintages have conformed to type.

Ramsay, 39, who has just signed a new £5m deal to keep him at Channel 4 for another four years, could barely conceal his delight at Sir Cliff's mistake.

"[He talks] about this vineyard in Portugal that he is obsessed about - crushing grapes, the harvest at the end of September, producing this amazing vintage. Well, he couldn't even identify his own wine."

The new series of 'The F-Word' starts later this month.