If you’re of a certain age you may remember a routine by Ben Elton. He described his anxiety about getting on a train or a bus and how you “...
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Sam Euthanasia, the World’s Oldest Wine Critic, rates the 2016 Bordeaux
While other critics try to be the first to publish scores of a new Bordeaux vintage, Sam Euthanasia, who, at 95, is the World’s Oldest Wine Critic, as well as...
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The chef that writes wine lists
Which comes first: the celebrity chef’s animated persona or their success in television? Martin Lam has largely eschewed the media over his 45 years in the restaurant business. Perhaps it’s...
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Where have all the wine merchants gone?
What makes a good wine merchant? As a significant chunk of the UK trade returns from Bordeaux, having tasted their way through a few hundred samples of youthful, unfinished claret...
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Crapaholics Anonymous
Hello, my name is Ronald. And I’m a Crapaholic. Hello, Ronald! This is my first time speaking at a Crapaholics Anonymous meeting, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the...
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Ignoring the wine snobs
When I was a music student back in the 1990s, a bomb went off in classical music. The world’s three greatest tenors – Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras...
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Rock n’ roll excess
When I listen to electro I crave Riesling. The precise polished perfection of the sound somehow recalls the technicolour citrus acidity of the wine. Châteauneuf-du-Pape however suggests the gothic aesthetic,...
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Is meat really made for Malbec?
The wine trade loves a good shibboleth. Sauternes is the best match for foie gras, for instance. (Wrong, unless you’re into having your palate clagged up by an unctuous sweet...
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Making wine on the West Bank
Imagine a wine region where delays at checkpoints are a part of daily life and your land can be confiscated at any time for “security reasons”. Where daily life is...
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Can you mix wine and politics?
“Stick to wine, Tim – you’re wasting time.” If you spend as many hours on social media channels as I do, then you get used to – and even rather...
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How the Russians are secretly destroying the wine business
Solid evidence has been slow in coming, but there is little doubt that over the past decade the Russian government, under the direction of Vladimir Putin, has been tampering with...
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Tricky food and wine matches
I really shouldn’t admit this as I could be talking myself out of a job, but most food and wine matching comes down to basic common sense. You don’t have...
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