The Best Wine Books of 2021
by Henry Jeffreys
How do you write a wine book that appeals to the general reader? All the stuff about schist, clones and yields that make up a good part of wine writing...
Henry Jeffreys
Henry Jeffreys is a writer from London. He writes regularly for the Spectator, the Guardian and Food & Wine, and has appeared on the Food Program and Broadcasting House on Radio 4. He is the author of Empire of Booze: British History through the Bottom of a Glass, winner of Fortnum & Mason debut drink book 2017, and The Home Bar.
Articles by Henry Jeffreys
Damned Good
by Henry Jeffreys
Before I knew anything about Roger Scruton, who died last year, I knew him from his wine column in the New Statesman, which ran from 2001 to 2009. In what...
The Best Booze Books of 2020
by Henry Jeffreys
“The juice of the carrot, The smile of the parrot, A little drop of claret, Anything that rocks.” Like Ian Dury, I have found a little drop of claret a...
The Good Old Days
by Henry Jeffreys
“It is quite remarkable how Britain has gone from being a still white wine producer of declining relevancy in the world of wine to being a contender for the title...
Remembering Mr Lebanon
by Henry Jeffreys
There aren’t many winemakers who get an obituary in the Daily Mail. But then there was no one in wine quite like Serge Hochar. Even the manner of his death,...
Initiating the uninitiated
by Henry Jeffreys
Wine lists can be difficult for the uninitiated to understand. One restaurant in Los Angeles, Hatchet Hall, has taken this a step further: not only is their list incomprehensible to...
Rudy Kurniawan: last man standing?
by Henry Jeffreys
Before watching the documentary Sour Grapes, I had a mental image of American wine collectors as like the effete Crane brothers in Frasier. What I did not expect was what...
Rethinking wine: back to the future?
by Henry Jeffreys
It might surprise you to learn that London had a fleet of electric taxis in the late 19th century. They were known as hummingbirds because of the noise they made....
The Tour de West Norwood
by Henry Jeffreys
Whilst most of my boyhood friends had pictures of John Barnes or Ian Rush on their walls, I had Gianni Bugno and Laurent Jalabert. In my teens, cycling was my...
Feck & Drink: why isn’t there more wine on TV?
by Henry Jeffreys
If you want to annoy certain people in the wine world, lean over and say to them, ‘what you really need is a Jeremy Clarkson of wine.’ Or a Jamie...
The truth about Christmas wine columns
by Henry Jeffreys
Elizabeth David’s spiced beef recipe is one of my Christmas traditions. It involves rubbing a piece of beef every day for up to four weeks with a selection of spices,...
In praise of PR people
by Henry Jeffreys
Sometimes people’s names determine their whole life. A. J. Splatt and D. Weedon are both doctors of urology. There’s an Israeli tennis player called Anna Smashanova and a Dutch architect...