Arm wrestling with Chas & Dave. Youth hostelling with Chris Eubank. Wine tasting with Brendan Venter. Two of those are among the suggestions made by a flailing Alan Partridge in the famous “smell my cheese” sketch, the other took place on a chilly Tuesday night in north London this week. No prizes for guessing which, given recent events, but 12 months ago it would not have been so easy. Things move fast in the Saracens world, however.

When the invitation arrived, you could not help but smile. Saracens would dispute that Venter’s temporary job title change from director of rugby to head of rugby culture and wine consultant was, to put it bluntly, taking the mickey. But, still, there was something delicious about it. Curiosity took hold, invitation was accepted. A poisoned chalice or a peace offering?

It soon became clear this was a charm offensive. Saracens have been through the mill of late and felt the need to issue a fierce statement this week defending themselves. To recap, they were fined because Prem Rugby executives felt Venter was dodging media obligations. They have endured mixed results to date but the performance against Sale, witnessed by a worryingly sparse crowd, was cause for concern. And they sacked the 21-year-old Totoa Auvaa after his latest brush with the law. Accordingly, Saracens threw open the doors and wheeled out the big guns. Chief executive, chairman, owner, Owen Farrell, Ben Earl and George Martin and, of course, Venter, in his element with dozens of bottles of red to get stuck into.

Venter’s reasons for not wanting to fulfil media duties are roughly threefold. One, because he does not like the banality of it all. “What are your thoughts on that match?” is a question for which life is too short. Two, he wants to promote his coaches such as Joe Shaw. Three, he does not trust himself to bite his lip and avoid disciplinary proceedings.

The first two points are more persuasive than the third but Venter has acknowledged things played out regrettably and here we are, in Saracens’ home dressing room about to discuss notes and tones. Venter is deeply passionate about wine and that he loves to talk about it. “You get to explore wine,” he says.

“It’s like rugby, you’re never going to beat rugby, there are always better ideas and different permutations. I know I’ll never master either of them. Just when you think you’ve got it, you don’t have it and it slips away. Just when you think you’ve figured it out then you are humbled.”

We are blind tasting to avoid preconceptions, just as he did with the Saracens squad during pre-season, before running out on to the training field. “We are so subjective as human beings,” adds Venter. “We can’t help it. We see things, we hear things, and we are influenced. When I tell you this wine costs £100, or it’s this fancy label, or it’s this old, or it comes from this country, you will think it is a good wine.

“The lesson was brilliant for [the players] that day. I am not going to know how much you earn. I don’t want to know how old you are. I’m going to measure you by how you taste, and it was for the players then to get an opportunity to get a seat at the table. If you’ve got a seat at the table, you are going to be up for selection.”

Venter is in full flow. Cabernet is the base of most Bordeaux, he says, and as a result, represents the defence. Merlot, by virtue of being softer, is the attack. Cabernet franc represents kicking, petit verdot and malbec the unseen work that knits everything together. South Africa wines, in Venter’s eyes, are big, meaty and they’re the props.

“The Italians would without doubt be the wings, the flamboyant style,” he says. “The French would be the centres, the same thing, the Aussies would be the meticulous people, the scrum-halves, the fly-halves, the New Zealanders would be the sevens, really tough. And then the Georgians would be the hookers.”

Venter’s stock at Saracens is sky-high despite indifferent results this season. The wonders he worked in his first spell, laying the foundation for players such as Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George and the Vunipolas – Mako and Billy – to form England’s most dominant team for more than a decade make sure of that. Put simply, he has returned to do so again.

“In rugby we see today so much, we don’t see the bigger picture,” he says. “The bigger picture is developing people over a longer period to try and win a Premiership. We need to build again. If you think about it, we were so good for so long with these superstars. And they’re at the end of their time and we need a new group. They’re not going to fall from the air, we need to develop them.”

Farrell is one of the few remaining. He has taken his first steps into coaching – the smart money is that he is still at the club long after hanging up his boots – but he too sees reasons for optimism in Venter’s second stint. “We’re doing it in a bit of a different way from what we’ve been used to but we feel like that will benefit us in the long run. We did the same thing with the wine tasting and then we went out to train after. I can’t remember if it was one of our best sessions. Not because I had too much! He’s very clear and makes it about what we’re doing now – not about what’s been before.”

Time will tell if Venter’s second stint is a success but in wine, there tends to be truth.