Henry Jeffreys

How Britain sobered up

20 January 2024 9:00 am

The people of these islands have long been famous for their drinking. A Frenchman writing in the 12th century described…

The shocking truth about adulterated wine: it was delicious

4 November 2023 9:00 am

Provided it wasn’t actually poisonous, a beefed-up burgundy in the 1970s was often preferred to a weedy pure vintage pinot noir, says Rebecca Gibb

Gilets

30 September 2023 9:00 am

The great breakfast dilemma: should baked beans be part of a full English?

9 July 2022 9:00 am

A popular pastime in Britain is to post one’s breakfast on social media for strangers to pass judgment on bacon…

How to make a royally good Dubonnet cocktail

4 June 2022 9:00 am

The Platinum Jubilee celebrations look like boom time for the drinks industry, with various whisky, gin and port brands all…

More than one bad apple: the sorry demise of English cider

14 August 2021 9:00 am

Can you imagine if, in the 20th century, wine producers in France had switched from a product made (almost) entirely…

Why Florence’s ‘wine windows’ are making a comeback

15 August 2020 9:00 am

Stroll around Florence and you’ll notice little ornate openings embedded in the walls of Renaissance palazzos. They look like doorways…

Is this the end of the wine bottle?

18 April 2020 9:00 am

Picture the world before the invention of the bottle: if you wanted a nice glass of claret at home, you’d…

Tips for Christmas tipples

16 November 2019 9:00 am

It’s telling that perhaps the best wine book of last year, Amber Revolution by Simon Woolf, was self-published, though you’d…

St Peter-on-the-Wall, one of England’s oldest churches

Break out the daiquiris, home bars are back in vogue

13 October 2018 9:00 am

When I mention to people that I have written a book about home bars, the most common response is, ‘my…

Henry Jeffreys is charmed by the irrepressible wine expert Oz Clarke

6 October 2018 9:00 am

There are only two British television wine presenters taxi drivers have heard of, Jilly Goolden and Oz Clarke. Who can…

Steven Spurrier at the launch of Wine — A Way of Life. Credit Getty Images

How Steven Spurrier enraged the French — and was never forgiven

23 June 2018 9:00 am

Fine wine rarely makes it into the public consciousness, but one event in 1976 has proved of perennial interest: the…

Why old bangers beat shiny new cars hands down

26 May 2018 9:00 am

I was collecting my daughter from school when my path was blocked by an enormous black Range Rover sitting in…

Millions of copies of Stalin’s works were printed,but few survive

From Stalin’s poetry to Saddam’s romances: the terrible prose of tyrants

28 April 2018 9:00 am

‘Reading makes the world better. It is how humans merge. How minds connect… Reading is love in action.’ Those are…

University Challenge

21 April 2018 9:00 am

One programme that still shines out as a beacon of intellectual rigour among the sea of dross on television is…

A Roman mosaic showing the crushing of grapes — but we don’t know what the wine tasted like

What did the Romans ever do for us when it comes to viticulture?

17 March 2018 9:00 am

Taste has a well-noted ability to evoke memory, so it is curious how infrequently most wine writers mine their pasts…

Forman smokes wild salmon, too — for a price

Why smoked salmon doesn’t taste anything like it should

16 December 2017 9:00 am

I’m just about old enough to remember when smoked salmon was a rare treat. Then, around 1986 or 1987, suddenly…

Hidden den: Gerry’s Club on Dean Street

Soho drinking clubs

7 October 2017 9:00 am

When someone says ‘Let’s go for a drink at my club’, what do you imagine? A grand St James’s establishment…