Wine
A six-year-old sharpshooter and a New Zealand white – both bound to improve with age
The Honourable Society of Odd Bottles began proceedings with a report on the activities of our junior branch. These youngsters…
The true France in a bottle
‘There lies the dearest freshness deep down things’ — and also the dearest Frenchness. It is easy to be rude…
Charles Moore’s notes: The anti-EU camp need to be sure what No means
It is natural to assume that, if a majority votes No in the referendum on Britain’s EU membership, we shall…
Lunch with a claret fit for gods, heroes and David Cameron
I cannot remember a jollier lunch. There are two brothers, Sebastian and Nicholas Payne, both practical epicureans. They have made…
Could any cook help me overcome my terror of tapioca?
There are those who claim that this column is idiosyncratic. They have seen nothing yet. I am about to mention…
A wine pro finds himself out of his depth at the Varsity Blind Wine Tasting Match
One of the great jokes of the wine trade is: ‘Have you ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux?’ ‘Not since this…
The greatest wine I’ve ever drunk
The supermarket chains are not always blameworthy. Their missionary efforts have helped to ensure that wine drinking in Britain is…
The triumph of Guatemalan rum (and a disaster for a Guatemalan ambassador)
For many years, the Central American republic of Guatemala had a grievance against the United Kingdom. It claimed sovereignty over…
Wines to toast a warrior saint
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
A dog to remember (and the wine he inspired)
Meeting to taste wine, we started by talking about dogs. Roy Hattersley is good on the subject, which ought to…
France, England and the tragedy of DSK
When we consider poets who perished before their day, thoughts turn to the Romantics or the war victims: Burns, Keats,…
My initiation into the fellowship of wine (I swallowed)
This month’s wine club lecture was on red burgundy. The members were settling themselves at two large tables when I…
The spirit of Prohibition lives (if you’re a haggis)
It is an old adage, but still pertinent. ‘Every generalisation about India is true, and so is the opposite.’ The…
The battling brilliance of Burgundy
There is only one answer to the question ‘Burgundy or claret?’ ‘Yes, but never in the same glass.’ Yet I…
Not a barrel of laughs: a history of hogsheads, kegs and puncheons
Few people, perhaps, will immediately seize on this title as just the thing for a relative’s Christmas, even if their…
The great lunchtime wine showdown
This is a tale of two lunches, sort of. The first was a classically English affair. We started with native…
The real French embassy is a restaurant
Semper eadem. There is some basement in a Mayfair street that is forever France. It is not far from the…
Wine merchants might just be the happiest people in the world
A delightful girl came to see me this morning. She is helping with the research for a biography of David…
The secret kinship of good wine and good cricket
A high proportion of wine-lovers also enjoy cricket, and vice versa. This might seem natural. Anyone with an aesthetic temperament…
Proof that the Japanese know how to make great Bordeaux
Château Lagrange, a St Julien third growth, has the largest acreage of any Bordeaux classed growth. For much of the…
Horse racing, Sancerre and escaped lobsters
A stint in dry dock — the ‘dry’ literally — has one advantage. There is time for lots of long…
Visiting Burgundy from my hospital bed
There have been some splendid rumours about my health. According to the most exotic, I was cas-evacked from a hill…
Dear Mary: How can I make my polite English husband interrupt like a German?
Q. My dear English husband has never mastered the knack of timing his interventions in conversation. He hesitates politely, and…
Some consumer advice: do not sell your daughter for a bottle of 90-year-old port
Port, or Hermitage? This does not refer to personal consumption. I was trying to remember Meredith’s Egoist, in which one…
Our daily haggis
Give us this day our daily bread: those are also words of great culinary significance. Even if the ‘bread’ takes…
