Wine

A toast to Tim Beardson

31 October 2020 9:00 am

I am in an Eliot mood, not a Keatsian one. ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ is a surprisingly… mellow…

Perry Worsthorne: a man incapable of dullness

17 October 2020 9:00 am

I had known Perry Worsthorne for several years before I went to work for him in 1986 (horrifying how time…

The finest Rioja in all of Spain

3 October 2020 9:00 am

It had been a long and no doubt fractious sea voyage. The crew would have signed up for a variety…

A perfect luncheon wine

5 September 2020 9:00 am

I suspect, though this may be romanticising, that if a French lorry driver with hitherto suppressed culinary tastes won France’s…

The difference between American and French wine-drinkers

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Is it safe to visit the continent? On the one hand, abroad is likely to be less crowded this August…

A lament for the foreign correspondent’s house – and his hospitality

8 August 2020 9:00 am

Provence-Alpes-Côte D’Azur Until January the foreign correspondent lived in a late-18th-century house with a vineyard, olive grove and vegetable garden…

The hunt for a Test-class claret

25 July 2020 9:00 am

In one respect, there has been a reassertion of normality, though this is nothing to do with the virus. Although…

The best wine since incarceration

11 July 2020 9:00 am

The woodpecker jinked across the lawn like an especially cunning partridge. Its goal was a skilfully constructed bird table with…

Two bottles to help eradicate cabin fever

27 June 2020 9:00 am

The virus is in retreat, the lock-down is crumbling, the sherbet dispensaries will shortly reopen and there is a second…

Bitter memories: my craving for a pint

30 May 2020 9:00 am

It is enough to drive a man to drink. The most glorious weather, so suitable for white Burgundy on a…

The best New Zealand wine I’ve come across

16 May 2020 9:00 am

I was once invited to the Cheltenham races and found the experience underwhelming. Everything was too respectable: not nearly Hibernian…

Clarets to see in the summer

2 May 2020 9:00 am

This April was indeed the cruellest month, at least for those of us banged up in cities. From the country…

I’m drinking half as much as usual – with no ill-effects

18 April 2020 9:00 am

I cannot remember a prettier Easter, or a more frustrating one. This was no time to be in town. But…

No blues, just reds and whites: the Oxford vs Cambridge wine-tasting

14 March 2020 9:00 am

The cellar room is almost silent save for the sound of slurping and spitting and the odd gentle sigh. One…

The Spanish winemakers with a missionary zeal

7 March 2020 9:00 am

It is time to begin with an apology, and hope. In the course of these columns, I have already admitted…

My recipe to cure a hangover

11 January 2020 9:00 am

Journalists exaggerate, often reaching for superlatives to chronicle mildly interesting events. Even so, there are times when it is necessary…

Politics of a certain vintage – and wine to match

7 December 2019 9:00 am

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

23 November 2019 9:00 am

In the era of vinyl, lost in one of Bruckner’s longueurs, it could be hard to tell what was stuck,…

A vintage tale of Thatcher, Reagan and some truly great wines

12 October 2019 9:00 am

Poor Old Girl. The final act may not have been sanglante, but as the third volume of Charles Moore’s life…

Claret, dogs and nothing to grouse about

14 September 2019 9:00 am

What do you get if you cross a dyslexic, an insomniac and an agnostic? Someone who wakes up at 4…

When did ‘big girl’s blouse’ become an insult?

14 September 2019 9:00 am

Fotherington-Thomas was introduced by Nigel Molesworth, the narrator of Down with Skool!, in 1953: ‘As you see he is skipping…

Like Team Boris, I’m staying in London this summer

17 August 2019 9:00 am

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

3 August 2019 9:00 am

My host twinkled sardonically. ‘We’re bound to be discussing Boris. So what’s the right wine?’ I suggested a bunker-busting Australian…

Letters: why Rose Hudson-Wilkin is the right choice for Bishop of Dover

27 July 2019 9:00 am

Rose is the right choice Sir: Every Wednesday for the past nine years, it has been my privilege to attend…

A toast to the wisdom – and wit – of Norman Stone

6 July 2019 9:00 am

We were in a club, discussing Norman Stone, recently departed, over a meal that he would have enjoyed. Norman divided…