Drink
How gin escaped from Gin Lane
In the mid-18th century, London was awash with gin. Socially-conscious members of the bourgeoisie believed that this was the root…
A toast to Roger Scruton
In clubs and other admirable locations throughout the civilised world, glasses have been raised and toasts proposed. But this was…
My recipe to cure a hangover
Journalists exaggerate, often reaching for superlatives to chronicle mildly interesting events. Even so, there are times when it is necessary…
Christmas without God in the Appalachians
Christmas: without being grand and Proustian, this is a season when time present inevitably takes one back to time past.…
Politics of a certain vintage – and wine to match
I wonder how they do things now at Tory headquarters. For the ’79 election, the preparations had been completed weeks…
Wine that puts politics in its place
In the era of vinyl, lost in one of Bruckner’s longueurs, it could be hard to tell what was stuck,…
The delights of Spanish wine – and art
First, an apology. In my last column, I appeared to be saying that good champagne does not age. This must…
The finest champagnes do not age
The other night, I dreamt about Brexit. Awakening to the oppression of an urgent task, it took me a few…
A vintage tale of Thatcher, Reagan and some truly great wines
Poor Old Girl. The final act may not have been sanglante, but as the third volume of Charles Moore’s life…
There is always time for a bottle of Champagne
My friend Dominic decided that it was time to convoke a lunch. There were matters to discuss, including that perennial…
Claret, dogs and nothing to grouse about
What do you get if you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac and an agnostic? Someone who wakes up at 4…
Reasons to be cheerful: gardens, Ben Stokes and cold wine
‘The Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.’ Is there a more charming passage in…
Like Team Boris, I’m staying in London this summer
Foolish me. I could have been writing this by the shore of Lake Trasimene, with only one problem: how to…
A wine of Boris’s vintage
My host twinkled sardonically. ‘We’re bound to be discussing Boris. So what’s the right wine?’ I suggested a bunker-busting Australian…
The tastes of summer: polo, Pimm’s and plenty of Champagne
England. On a glorious summer afternoon in the Sussex countryside, I had been invited to watch polo at Cowdray Park,…
A toast to the wisdom – and wit – of Norman Stone
We were in a club, discussing Norman Stone, recently departed, over a meal that he would have enjoyed. Norman divided…
Ian Botham’s Ozzie Chardonnay is too good for the convicts
Cricket is the most gracious of games. County grounds in the lee of cathedrals, village greens in the perfect setting…
In an era of illusion and fantasy, let the wine do the talking
We had all said everything there was to say about Brexit a hundred times over. So the conversation took different…
Debunking the Greek wine myth
A book, a bottle, a bower set in an ancient garden: you think that if you walked round the right…
Save us from fads and change for change’s sake
There is no new thing under the sun. Over the weekend, I read a book which was alarmingly relevant to…
Finding hope in poetry, politics – and white Burgundy
During the Middle Ages, some of the monastic halls which evolved into Oxbridge colleges allowed their younger inmates to indulge…
Independence for Dorset? I’ll raise a glass to that
There was a shrewd old Tory MP called John Stokes. He was not on the left of the party. Indeed,…
Three Tories gather for a convivial, and consolatory, glass of wine
Three tribal Tories had gathered for a convivial glass, and also a consolatory one. One quoted Huskisson’s verdict after Goderich’s…
Red meat and red wine: the ideal way to spend the first Sunday of Lent
Life is far too important to be taken seriously. At least, that was the conclusion which we meandered towards as…
Twenty years on, the Walbrook is still an enchantment
Early last century, an impoverished youth emerged from the East End. Able and hard-working, he discovered — as many had…
