Wine
Vega Sicilia: the best Spanish wine I have ever tasted
Four hundred and fifty years ago this month, a great victory helped to safeguard European civilisation. The battle of Lepanto…
Is this Greece’s finest wine since Homer strummed his lyre?
We were in deepest Dorset, l’Angleterre profonde. The weather was also typically English: inundations followed by counter-attacks from the Indian…
The wonder of Lebanese wine
In the Levant, the grape has been cultivated for millennia, some of it used for wine. The hills of Lebanon…
Spain vs Italy: who would win the wine Test?
In London, the weather is a gentle sashaying mockery. An Indian summer reminds us of the sullen apology of summer…
The wine that made me change my mind about Valpolicella
There was a marvellous general of yesteryear called George Burns. He had a good war and a splendid peace. He…
The true cost of my week in Wales
Rather miraculously, my daughter managed to leave the country last week to go on holiday with a group of friends.…
The beauty of wine from the Rhine
In an apparently benign — almost prelapsarian — setting, the Rhine is an epitome of the human condition. Scenery is…
The wine that made me change my mind about rosé
Some time ago, I wrote that rosé should only be drunk south of Lyon, but one could start on the…
A new take on New Zealand wine
‘The doors clap to, the pane is bright with showers.’ With ‘summer’ determined to do its worst, there is one…
How to drink in the delights of France (without leaving the country)
It is hard to decide which is more depressing, the extension of the lockdown or the public support for this…
The wine that links Thomas Jefferson, Charles II and Samuel Pepys
It seemed a suitable topic for a bank holiday. We were discussing Haut-Brion, a bank-breaking wine. There is a question…
A taste inquisition on Stink Street
Walking up through the Stink Street medieval arch with a bag of shopping, I spotted Michael between the oleander branches…
A novel approach to New Zealand’s wine
The last Saturday of lockdown — inshallah — and we were discussing literature. Specifically, when does a detective story become…
I’ve swapped booze for Pot Noodles
Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…
My thrilling rendezvous with the sausage lady
One day last week we did a wine run up to Manosque in the foothills of the Alps, leaving early…
Nights – and wines – to remember in Paris
Some friends claim to be making marks on the wall to count the days until liberation. Ah, the forgotten delights…
Memories of Stellenbosch and South Africa’s finest wines
Lockdown provides time to think, and to reminisce. A South African friend, trapped in Amsterdam, phoned the other day. Had…
Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder
The wine has been flowing in the Young household this week. The reason I’ve been celebrating is because I managed…
My palate and the plague
Later this week, on Spectator.co.uk, I will resolve a mystery that has featured in a lot of Zoom traffic around…
How Argentina conquered Malbec
When Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor of France in 1852, he unwittingly kickstarted quality wine production in Chile and Argentina.…
Lockdown means it’s time to drink your most prized bottles of wine
Losing your sense of smell due to Covid is no joke when you make a living in food and wine.…
The beauty and tragedy of Lebanon
I was thinking about tragedy. Could one use the term ‘chronically tragic’? My first instinct is against. Tragedy is the…
Why you can’t trust supermarket cheese
We were celebrating the end of lockdown by talking about war and deer stalking — over a business lunch, naturally.…
Lockdown might bring the Dickensian Christmas back into fashion
I feel like a prisoner, making daily marks on the cell wall to chart the approach of freedom. But will…
Drinking to the glories of Burns and follies of Boris
At least in London, midwinter spring has not been entirely vanquished, and the trees are still a couple of strong…
