WINELIFE MEETS HUBRECHT DUIJKER

Hubrecht Duijker is the Netherlands' first professional wine writer and has been in the business for 50 years this year. Our country now has many journalists and bloggers who write about wine, yet Hubrecht Duijker is still active and visible. Recently, for instance, he wrote the foreword to the newly published Wine Guide of the three Dutch Masters of Wine. WINELIFE goes to visit Hubrecht Duijker. By Charlotte van Zummeren

'How timely you are!' Hubrecht Duijker opens the door of his home on a leafy avenue in Abcoude. An avenue that also inspires him creatively, but that will come later. He leads the way to the living room where we have a side view of the special wine room, where at that moment someone is working on the climate control. The house is full of small and larger paintings in a distinctive colourful style, leaning towards impressionism.

High eyes
Hubrecht Duijker and yours truly know each other from many tastings. During the interview, we had a cup of tea. Although Duijker always answers his e-mails promptly, he did not respond to my request to play a board game together during the interview - after all, it's a bit easier to talk. 'All the board games have gone to my children and grandchildren.' Because what few people know is that Duijker was the country's first and only games critic from 1980 to 2000. He had a games panel that tested all new games. Not only did he publish books under pseudonyms about this, including two guides to first-generation video games, but also a series of TV programmes about games entitled High Eyes. To my other question whether his American wife Julie could be present for a photo of the two of them, he could not answer either. This is her regular bridge afternoon. Bridge is the only game Duijker still plays and which he would also like to play during the interview, were it not for the fact that yours truly has not mastered it and you cannot play it in pairs.

Read the whole article in WINELIFE #62. Buy it in shop or order it here!

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