Wine
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…
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…
Dear Mary: What should you do when friends invite you to lunch but don’t offer wine?
Q. I was invited to birthday drinks in London. On my way there the name of someone I haven’t heard…
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…
Is wine an art?
Acouple of lawyers were disagreeing about a matter which could become increasingly relevant. Could a sitting president pardon himself? But…
Barolo, the only comfort in a world full of chaos
It appeared to be an uneven contest. A few friends were meeting for a festive wine-tasting, to compare and contrast…
In the midst of Brexit agony, one thing remains certain: disputation needs drink
It is enough to drive a fellow to the bottle. I am not given to agnosticism. My view is that…
The paradox of Burgundy
I was trying to remember what I once knew about the theology of the Reformation and especially the various factions’…
How violence in France led to the creation of London’s Courtauld Gallery
Darkness, but not the blanket of the dark. This was a sinister darkness, beset by smoke and flames, by the…
Searching for God in the twilight on the Aegean Sea
My friend Jonathan Gaisman recently gave rise to a profound philosophical question concerning wine. Jonathan is formidably clever. He has…
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…
Stockbridge, Hampshire: an unexpected gastronomical haven
‘The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers / Pass me the bottle, old lad, there’s an end of summer.’…
My host’s reciprocity was almost embarrassingly generous
Peace came dropping slow. I have never regarded west Flanders as part of la France profonde, but here we were,…
Weak but stable, Theresa May is the opposite of a good claret
It is enough to make a man turn to drink. On a distinctly non-abstemious day, I was sitting in one…
Farewell to a bottle and a half per day – I have finally embarked on a diet
Are there still travelling fairs? In many villages, they used to be part of the annual round. For weeks, the…
Put your trust in Hungarian wine (yes, really)
The wines of Tokaji run like a golden thread through Hungarian history. There are references to their nectar-like quality in…
When it comes to food and wine, there’s no place like Rhône
As often, a good glass stimulated good talk. We were drinking some promising young Rhônes and the discussion ranged wide,…
I’m grateful for my grateful drinking friend
The phone rang. ‘You are the last person in the world I should be talking to’, proclaimed an old friend…
Is the great vintage of 2015 retreating into itself
We were pondering the relationship between military history and wine vintages. It is extraordinary to think that the French managed…
How Christmas lunch became Christmas dinner
It was a culinary triumph. My hosts do not spend much time in the UK, and are determined to entertain…
Found in a friend’s cellar — the wines of a lifetime
In longevity, great wine can march with human life. Creating (better still, maintaining) a fine cellar really is a compact…
Gender comes in fluid form
I have lost faith in British boyhood. In mixed schools, young males have failed to seize an opportunity that previous…
All’s fair in love and Waugh
I was reminded of Wild West films from boyhood. Then, the beleaguered garrison scanned the horizon; would the US cavalry…
Thank Evans for good wine
There was an entirely forgotten leftist called Allen Ginsberg, a so-called beat poet (surely an oxymoron) who once produced a…
