Drink
My new-found love for Marsala
Western Sicily is one of the most wonderful places on Earth. From the Greek temples in the south to the…
The Chinese tried to get me drunk
China: what next? Around the time of the millennium, I wrote that during this century, many of the world’s great…
The Berry Bros supremacy
For more than 50 years I have assumed that any sensible person will be a right-winger, even if not all…
Could Trump’s tariffs be good news for British wine-lovers?
Professional Englishmen and women – doctors, accountants and even journalists – could once afford to drink first-growth claret like Château…
The seductions of Provence
Riches, ancient cities, great architecture, splendid landscape, agriculture to match, trade routes, romance. Records of human settlement stretching to the…
Should you bother decanting wine?
We were almost having a symposium and I was invited to define Toryism in one sentence. I replied that one…
The best way to approach sake
We were discussing civilisation, as one does, and its relationship with cuisine. Pasta in Italy, paella in Spain, the roast…
The Reagan effect on wine lists
Let us indulge in a slight paraphrase. What rough beast slouches towards the White House to be reborn? The inauguration…
Kemi should prepare for a political pounding
It is extraordinary to remember. When I was a small boy in Scotland, Christmas Day was not a holiday. My…
Letters: Where to find the best negroni
Free thinking Sir: Your leading article (‘Article of faith’, 14 December) appears to have forgotten the connection between rationalism and…
Negroni inflation is out of control
Forty years ago this Christmas I visited Hong Kong for the first time – a few days after the signing…
My bottles of the year
This has been the most fascinating political year I can remember. I have even found myself dreaming about politics –…
Advent is the season for revelling in fine wine
Crime. Fear not: none of us was planning to break the law, with the possible exception of hate speech. Where…
Chilean wine is hard to beat
We were assembled to taste Chilean wines assisted by magnificent Scottish food, courtesy of the Scottish embassy in London, otherwise…
How Maggie took her whisky
The whirligig of time brings in his… astonishments. Who would have thought it? Even a couple of decades ago, the…
The finest Rhône I have ever tasted
The medics would have one believe that alcohol is a depressant. That may be their conclusion drawn from test tubes…
Alan Clark’s wines were as remarkable as he was
Où sont les bouteilles d’antan? For that matter, où sont les amis with whom one consumed them? These autumnally melancholic…
Nick Elliott and a life worth drinking to
The English language has immense resources, but the odd weakness. What, for instance, is the translation for ‘Auld lang syne’?…
The wonder of wine from the Mosel
Conservatives used to be good at inspiring a mass membership, underpinned by organisations. Before the first world war, the Primrose…
The healing power of wine
What goes best with a broken rib? The answer, I think, is any drink you enjoy that will not make…
When in doubt, have a drink
Most Tory MPs enjoy leadership elections. There may be an element of what the trick-cyclists call ‘displacement activity’. Equally, it…
How to drown your sorrows
Age. At the Spectator party last week, the editor asked me how long I had been attending the festivity. I…
The key to dealing with this election? Wine
An old friend phoned. Normally cheerful, he was fed up. One of his business partners was being more than usually…
A lunch good enough to lift Tory spirits
Things could have been worse. My host was determined to lunch al fresco, and after all it was late June.…
