It was among the most famous heists in the art world. Early one February morning in 1994, two crooks propped a ladder against the wall of Oslo’s National Gallery. They...
Read MoreAustralia: the joy of Melbourne
Coffee culture You don’t need an excuse to spend time in Melbourne. At least, I don’t. It’s Australia’s most cosmopolitan city, with a fantastic food and wine culture and some...
Read MoreWine and alcohol: how low should you go?
“And how many units of wine do you drink a week?” If you’ve been to see your GP for a health assessment recently, you may recognize the question as well...
Read MoreA wino visits El Bulli
General de Gaulle famously complained about the difficulty of governing a country that produced 246 different cheeses. Dining at El Bulli, the world’s most famous restaurant, leaves you with a...
Read MorePass the artichokes: difficult food and wine matches
Long before Ant and Dec came up with the idea of subjecting minor celebrities to the indignity of eating witchetty grubs in the Australian jungle, a friend of mine invented...
Read MoreWine, moustaches and 50 words for snow
The Inuit languages famously have more than 50 words to describe different types of snow, enabling native speakers to distinguish between a landscape that is variously fresh, firm, packed, rippled,...
Read MoreIn praise of older wines
How long does it take you to drink a bottle of wine once you’ve bought it? A day? A week? A year? I’m not sure how accurate the statistic is,...
Read MoreAre wine consumers stupid?
One of my favourite “Yobs” cartoons from Private Eye shows a couple of thugs sitting at a restaurant table. “Great,” says the male skinhead to the sommelier awaiting his verdict...
Read MoreThe cult of the winemaker
The death of the Nouvelle Vague film director Claude Chabrol earlier this week has prompted a spate of national mourning in France, with president Sarkozy comparing the great man to...
Read MoreSyrah: New Zealand’s other great red
Back in 2007, I was one of a number of journalists who attended New Zealand’s first ever Syrah Symposium in Hawke’s Bay. It was a bold — some might say...
Read MoreJilly G, Gary V and wine TV
Call me a member of an endangered minority, but I still miss Food and Drink, the BBC cookery show that Delia Smith once dubbed “the most disgusting programme on television”....
Read MoreTurning water into wine
Someone once described the BBC as the “least worst” television service in the world, an opinion which remains valid while the licence fee continues to exist. The quote reminded me...
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