The Palace of Westminster Tomorrow is budget day in the UK. Like the Grand National, the Baftas or the last night of the Proms, it’s something of a national ritual....
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2010 Rhônes: still time to flash the plastic
“They are both for sale.” The response of the Bordeaux château owner to my question about the relative merits of the 2009 and 2010 vintages was delivered with tongue lodged...
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Is this the best value Pinot in the world?
Germany? Are you sure? Drinkable cheap Pinot Noir is almost an oxymoron. We Pinotphiles are all too aware that we need to pay over the odds to get a fix...
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Drinkers versus investors
Listening to people discussing their claret portfolios has become as boring as the house price conversations we Brits used to have to endure in the 1990s. For “I bought this...
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In search of “ordinary” wine consumers
Imagine a wine column that began with the following sentence: “Now since there is much to be written on wine, let us discuss briefly some points of special interest after...
Read MoreRobert Parker, Nigel Tufnel and the 2009 Bordeaux
There’s a famous moment in This is Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner’s spoof “rockumentary” about an ageing English heavy metal band, when the lead guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, is showing off his...
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Argentina: full speed ahead?
The recent arrival of HMS Dauntless in the south Atlantic, complete with Prince William in his role as a search and rescue helicopter pilot, hasn’t done much for Anglo-Argentine relations....
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My Dream Cellar
Imagine, just for one minute, that you were richer than Bill Gates: more loaded than a Hollywood film star, Warren Buffett and a Russian oligarch put together. Which wines would...
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Burgundy 2010: the year of the sorting table
Vosne-Romanée. © Tim Atkin MW Burgundy week has become such an established feature of the annual tasting circuit – half of London’s livery halls, art galleries and old court rooms...
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Me, Kurt Vonnegut and wine
One of my favourite cuttings, passed on to me by my father more than a decade ago, first appeared in an unlikely place: Inc. Technology magazine. It’s an interview with...
Read MoreCrystal ball gazing: the world of wine in 2012
As this is the last OLN of 2011, I’ve pulled my dusty crystal ball from my bottom drawer a little earlier than usual. Predicting anything is unwise at the moment...
Read MoreWin a Christmas Hamper from Berry Brothers
Xmas Competition Berry Brothers & Rudd have kindly offered one of their Best of British hampers (worth £219) as a prize for my Christmas competion. All you have to do...
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