As oxymorons go, they may not be as absurd as “French resistance”, “amicable divorce” and “camping holiday”, but there’s still something fundamentally silly about Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Spaghetti Bolognese,...
Read MoreWine, social media and the power of the internet
Clay Shirky may sound like the sort of moniker people come up with when they combine their first pet with their mother’s maiden name to create a fictional porn star,...
Read MoreRasputin and underwater wines
What is it about the Baltic and champagne? Last week’s high profile discovery of a cache of bubbly aboard a shipwreck is not the first time fizz has been found...
Read MoreWines to drink by the Med
When the package tour operator Goldtrail Travel collapsed last week, cancelling the summer holidays of some 50,000 customers, bar owners in Greece and Turkey must have had mixed feelings. Goldtrail’s...
Read MoreWhere now for post-World Cup South Africa?
The idea of golf being used as a symbol for the new, racially integrated South Africa might sound absurd to some. You’ve only got to walk around a top course...
Read MoreIn praise of natural wine
The wine style I want to promote doesn’t come from a specific region, although most of its exponents are French and Italian. More frustratingly still, it has no legal definition...
Read MoreA toast to Spain
Oh to have been in Rioja when Spain clinched the World Cup on Sunday. The spot I would have chosen is Los Caños, one of my favourite tapas bars, which...
Read MoreReds to help you chill out this summer
The sommelier’s eyebrows arched like circumflex accents as he spat the words back at me, Gallic steam hissing from his ears. “Vous voulez un seau à glace?” he demanded incredulously,...
Read MoreHow fine is Tesco’s Finest*?
Tesco’s Finest, or rather Finest*, wine range is celebrating its tenth birthday at the moment, complete with a press tasting, some corporate chest beating and a Finest Limited Edition 2000...
Read MoreEating out? Please bring a bottle
How do you spend $47,221.09 on lunch for six people? Assuming your credit card company will authorise the transaction, it’s surprisingly easy if you’re a billionaire. To paraphrase Withnail in...
Read MoreAu revoir, Chamarré?
“Made in France, enjoyed everywhere,” runs the tag line on Chamarré’s appropriately colourful website. At the time of writing, both parts of this statement remain true, but for how much...
Read MoreThe trouble with Australia
Australians don’t do pessimism. They’re generally such a chipper, stop-moaning-and-get on with-it nation that they’d rather share a hot tub with a great white shark than be accused of whingeing...
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