Drink

Lockdown means it’s time to drink your most prized bottles of wine

16 January 2021 9:00 am

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

19 December 2020 9:00 am

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

12 December 2020 9:00 am

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

28 November 2020 9:00 am

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

14 November 2020 9:00 am

At least in London, midwinter spring has not been entirely vanquished, and the trees are still a couple of strong…

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…

With good wine, it’s all in the timing

19 September 2020 9:00 am

Three bottles, three questions that delivered three different answers. I was in Dorset — cannot keep away — enjoying the…

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…

Soave, an original sin-free wine

22 August 2020 9:00 am

‘The Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day’: surely one of the most beautiful images…

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…

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…

Recollections of Burgundy

13 June 2020 9:00 am

More than two months: who would have thought it possible? Before the great closure, I had been trying to decide…

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…

Drinking in isolation is far less appealing

4 April 2020 9:00 am

Spring sense, caressing sunshine: last week, London enjoyed village cricket weather. Even in normal circumstances, the season would not have…

If we can’t go to the Veneto, we’ll drink to it

21 March 2020 9:00 am

We live in a world where yesterday’s inconceivable becomes today’s commonplace, but even so. I never thought that the day…

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…

Which water goes best with whisky?

21 February 2020 10:00 pm

Peaty water ought to be classed as a luxury. You have spent a day on the hill, a’chasing the deer.…

How gin escaped from Gin Lane

7 February 2020 10:00 pm

In the mid-18th century, London was awash with gin. Socially-conscious members of the bourgeoisie believed that this was the root…