How reliable are wine judges? When I saw the headline, I assumed the worst. Newspapers like The Daily Mail like nothing more than printing stories about professionals who can’t blind taste...
My first memories of drinking involve no-name bottles; the greasy, Crayola-funk of MaxFactor kohl; the fusty basement sitting room of a friend’s Wandsworth semi. I drank Kentish vodka, before that...
It was an ideal way to remember a dear friend – with great wines, good company and an impromptu rendition of the Marseillaise. Just over a year after his death,...
Château de Jonquières is located just to the north of Montpellier, its slate turrets and honey stone quietly distinguished, history writ large in its cobbles and flagstones. An ancient archway...
I’ve got a great idea. Every time somebody asks my husband a question, I’m going to answer it for him. And it won’t be the answer he would give, because...
“Excellent!”, tweeted Donald J. Trump. That is all that it took for many in the US wine business to begin spewing soundbites like, “Disaster Averted” and “Panic Over”. Such nonsensical...
As the tragedy of Australia’s 2019/20 bushfires continues to unfold, the most significant impact on the wine industry has been tragedy in the Adelaide Hills. So far, Tasmania has largely...
The life jacket seemed like a good idea, given the size of the launch and the strength of the wind barreling down the jetty. Nervously, I climbed on board and...
“All our hands are dirty, but some are dirtier than others” – Frédéric Neyrat Climate, for so long a remote ledger of mankind’s bid to unshackle itself from the brutishness...
I write in a time of ashes. Not only have certain political dreams and projects recently gone up in smoke; the destructive fires have been raging more literally, all across...
I have often been told I am a dream restaurant customer. I love thinking and discussing everything about them: the décor, the ambience, the service, the food and the wine...
When I was training to be a radio journalist in the 1990s there was a machine in one of the radio studios called the ‘bulk eraser’. As the name suggests...