From public bar to cocktail bar: books for the discerning drinker
There’s something for all tastes this year, whether poetic meditations on the pub, advice on wines for extended cellaring or recipes for new-wave martinis
It’s time to stop the war on Malbec
The German historian Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz wrote about British tastes in alcohol in the eighteenth century: ‘In London they liked everything…
Cheers to corkscrews!
For the first 50 years of the corked bottle, there was no easy way to get into it. The combination…
How Britain sobered up
The people of these islands have long been famous for their drinking. A Frenchman writing in the 12th century described…
The shocking truth about adulterated wine: it was delicious
Provided it wasn’t actually poisonous, a beefed-up burgundy in the 1970s was often preferred to a weedy pure vintage pinot noir, says Rebecca Gibb
The great breakfast dilemma: should baked beans be part of a full English?
A popular pastime in Britain is to post one’s breakfast on social media for strangers to pass judgment on bacon…
How to make a royally good Dubonnet cocktail
The Platinum Jubilee celebrations look like boom time for the drinks industry, with various whisky, gin and port brands all…
More than one bad apple: the sorry demise of English cider
Can you imagine if, in the 20th century, wine producers in France had switched from a product made (almost) entirely…
Why Florence’s ‘wine windows’ are making a comeback
Stroll around Florence and you’ll notice little ornate openings embedded in the walls of Renaissance palazzos. They look like doorways…
Is this the end of the wine bottle?
Picture the world before the invention of the bottle: if you wanted a nice glass of claret at home, you’d…
Tips for Christmas tipples
It’s telling that perhaps the best wine book of last year, Amber Revolution by Simon Woolf, was self-published, though you’d…
Break out the daiquiris, home bars are back in vogue
When I mention to people that I have written a book about home bars, the most common response is, ‘my…
Henry Jeffreys is charmed by the irrepressible wine expert Oz Clarke
There are only two British television wine presenters taxi drivers have heard of, Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke. Who can…
How Steven Spurrier enraged the French — and was never forgiven
Fine wine rarely makes it into the public consciousness, but one event in 1976 has proved of perennial interest: the…
Why old bangers beat shiny new cars hands down
I was collecting my daughter from school when my path was blocked by an enormous black Range Rover sitting in…
From Stalin’s poetry to Saddam’s romances: the terrible prose of tyrants
‘Reading makes the world better. It is how humans merge. How minds connect… Reading is love in action.’ Those are…
University Challenge
One programme that still shines out as a beacon of intellectual rigour among the sea of dross on television is…
What did the Romans ever do for us when it comes to viticulture?
Taste has a well-noted ability to evoke memory, so it is curious how infrequently most wine writers mine their pasts…
Why smoked salmon doesn’t taste anything like it should
I’m just about old enough to remember when smoked salmon was a rare treat. Then, around 1986 or 1987, suddenly…
Soho drinking clubs
When someone says ‘Let’s go for a drink at my club’, what do you imagine? A grand St James’s establishment…
