Oz Clarke reveals his desert island drink is organic milk. He gives the nation tips on how to truly appreciate its taste with tasting notes which he calls the ‘Four S’s’

TV wine expert Oz Clarke has swapped the vineyard for the farmyard in a bid to help us appreciate his favourite drink, organic milk. Oz joined OMSCo diary farmer Mike Cottrell from Commonwork Farm in Kent for a day on the farm to lend his eloquent palette and create some useful vintner style ‘tasting tips’ for organic milk which he calls the ‘Four S’s’.

Oz admits he’s often asked what his desert island drink would be and reveals that people are often surprised when he says organic milk.

“Everyone expects me to pick some grand red wine, some exalted champagne or venerable vintage port. But I don’t. I tell them that all I’d want is a supply of the finest, freshest, purest British organic farm milk,” Oz explains.

“If I’m to drink one drink for the rest of my days on some South Pacific atoll, I want one that I’ll never tire of, one that satisfies my thirst, calms my spirit and gives me a delight in its taste which will never cloy. Milk: naturally pure fresh organic milk, milk as it should be .”

Oz’s Organic Milk Four S’s

See

Take a good-sized clean glass, a carton of organic milk, and get ready. Have the milk at the right temperature, somewhere between cool and room temperature. The pleasure starts from the moment you pour, that pure, deep, creamy white cascade, promising all the goodness of the countryside. Swirl the milk round, see how it coats the inside of your glass and clings languidly to the surface like a lush, misty veil.

Smell

One more swirl and then take a sniff, inhale the sheer freshness of the milk. Don’t have it too cold, or the perfume won’t develop. At somewhere between cool and room temperature you’ll be able to smell the seasons – the bright optimism of spring, the heat and haze of high summer, the mellow but wistful richness of autumn, all coated with cream.

Savour

The trouble with good milk is that you get seized by an uncontrollable urge to down it in great draughts. Well, go on, if you have to. But if you can restrain yourself, take a generous mouthful, roll it over your tongue, and as the milk warms up, the flavour surges round your mouth, the cream in the milk brings back memories of clotted cream and heather honey on home-made scones, dollops of thick whipped cream on Wimbledon strawberries, fresh churned butter on crisp new white bakers’ bread, cream as it melts on a warm blackberry and apple pie. And if you close your eyes, you can taste the moist greenness of the fields, the fresh tang of the country air, you can hear the lowing of the cattle as they amble home across the meadows at dusk. It’s our countryside at its beautiful, verdant best that you’re experiencing.

Swallow

You’d have done this anyway – only wine tasters actually spit their stuff out. But good organic milk leaves an aftertaste, a glow of the great outdoors, a mellow, soothing coating of pleasure. It’s a rare moment when I don’t pour myself just a little bit more, to savour one more mouthful of the magic that is organic milk.