Sir Trevor's weakness for fine wines sparks a health warning

ALCOHOL

Veteran newsreader risks serious harm with after-work burgundy and champagne breakfasts, campaigners say

Alcohol campaigners warned last night that the veteran newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald is endangering his health after he revealed he often drinks a bottle of wine a night and enjoys champagne breakfasts.

The presenter of ITV's News at Ten spoke of his penchant for the finer things in life, particularly high-quality burgundy, in an interview in the latest issue of the wine magazine Decanter. "The problem with that is that it's never a glass. I get home at 11pm and then look at my watch and it's midnight and I'm on my fourth glass."

But Sir Trevor, 68, said he had actually slowed down since he began his career 35 years ago, when journalists spent most of their waking hours in the pub. "There was a bar across the street and most people could be found there day or night," he said. "My co- presenter, Reggie Bosanquet, had to be dragged out at five minutes to 10 and persuaded to sit down. How we used to carry on working I'll never know. Looking back at what we drank then, it was pretty awful - Liebfraumilch and Mateus Rose."

However, a career in which he has risen to the top of his profession and earned a knighthood has imbued Sir Trevor with a taste for the finer things in life and he now chooses only the best burgundies and champagnes. "One of the tragic things about wine is that once you've drunk better it's terribly hard to go back," he admitted. "There's an auction at Sotheby's I'm planning to attend. I've been salivating over the catalogue for days."

Sir Trevor was circumspect when it came to revealing the largest amount he had ever spent on alcohol, saying only that he had once shelled out "far too much" on a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne at the Ritz on his wife's credit card. "Not a good idea," he added. His habit of cracking open a bottle of champagne at 11am on a Sunday has also landed him in trouble with his wife, but he said he tells her, "it's midday in Paris".

Professor Ian Gilmore of the Alcohol Health Alliance said drinking a bottle of wine a day equated to three times the weekly recommended safe drinking levels for a man. "Drinks are getting stronger and glasses larger," he said. "If you do drink above recommended limits you have to realise you are increasing your risks of some physical, mental or social harm."

Copyright c 2008 Independent Newspapers UK Limited. All rights owned or operated by The Independent.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.