Wine
Med winter warmer
The larger islands of the Mediterranean all have their glories. Fought over for millennia, they now seem to have attained…
The Cape of good reds
‘Earth has not anything to show more fair.’ One can admire the view from Westminster Bridge and feel near the…
Deliver us from vinegar
Rich men often look out for bargains. I suppose that is why they are rich. But there can be problems.…
A bottle with the battle
Four hundred and fifty years ago this month, a great victory helped to safeguard European civilisation. The battle of Lepanto…
When the stars align
We were in deepest Dorset, l’Angleterre profonde. The weather was also typically English: inundations followed by counter-attacks from the Indian…
Of vice and men
In the Levant, the grape has been cultivated for millennia, some of it used for wine. The hills of Lebanon…
Testing times
In London, the weather is a gentle sashaying mockery. An Indian summer reminds us of the sullen apology of summer…
To the gentlemen of Verona
There was a marvellous general of yesteryear called George Burns. He had a good war and a splendid peace. He…
Tried and tested
Rather miraculously, my daughter managed to leave the country last week to go on holiday with a group of friends.…
A Rhine art
In an apparently benign — almost prelapsarian — setting, the Rhine is an epitome of the human condition. Scenery is…
A rosé future
Some time ago, I wrote that rosé should only be drunk south of Lyon, but one could start on the…
A time for New Zealand wines
‘The doors clap to, the pane is bright with showers.’ With ‘summer’ determined to do its worst, there is one…
French toast
It is hard to decide which is more depressing, the extension of the lockdown or the public support for this…
Haut topic
It seemed a suitable topic for a bank holiday. We were discussing Haut-Brion, a bank-breaking wine. There is a question…
Low life
Walking up through the Stink Street medieval arch with a bag of shopping, I spotted Michael between the oleander branches…
A novel approach
The last Saturday of lockdown — inshallah — and we were discussing literature. Specifically, when does a detective story become…
A creature of habits
Along with many other people, I gave up drinking for the month of January and then resumed with gusto on…
Low life
One day last week we did a wine run up to Manosque in the foothills of the Alps, leaving early…
We’ll always have Paris
Some friends claim to be making marks on the wall to count the days until liberation. Ah, the forgotten delights…
Memories of Stellenbosch
Lockdown provides time to think, and to reminisce. A South African friend, trapped in Amsterdam, phoned the other day. Had…
Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder
The wine has been flowing in the Young household this week. The reason I’ve been celebrating is because I managed…
My palate and the plague
Later this week, on Spectator.co.uk, I will resolve a mystery that has featured in a lot of Zoom traffic around…
Argentine conquests
When Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor of France in 1852, he unwittingly kickstarted quality wine production in Chile and Argentina.…
Open that special bottle now
Losing your sense of smell due to Covid is no joke when you make a living in food and wine.…
A toast to Lebanon
I was thinking about tragedy. Could one use the term ‘chronically tragic’? My first instinct is against. Tragedy is the…
