Wine

Stockbridge, Hampshire: an unexpected gastronomical haven

29 September 2018 9:00 am

‘The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers / Pass me the bottle, old lad, there’s an end of summer.’…

My host’s reciprocity was almost embarrassingly generous

15 September 2018 9:00 am

Peace came dropping slow. I have never regarded west Flanders as part of la France profonde, but here we were,…

Weak but stable, Theresa May is the opposite of a good claret

23 June 2018 9:00 am

It is enough to make a man turn to drink. On a distinctly non-abstemious day, I was sitting in one…

Farewell to a bottle and a half per day – I have finally embarked on a diet

9 June 2018 9:00 am

Are there still travelling fairs? In many villages, they used to be part of the annual round. For weeks, the…

Put your trust in Hungarian wine (yes, really)

28 April 2018 9:00 am

The wines of Tokaji run like a golden thread through Hungarian history. There are references to their nectar-like quality in…

When it comes to food and wine, there’s no place like Rhône

31 March 2018 9:00 am

As often, a good glass stimulated good talk. We were drinking some promising young Rhônes and the discussion ranged wide,…

I’m grateful for my grateful drinking friend

17 February 2018 9:00 am

The phone rang. ‘You are the last person in the world I should be talking to’, proclaimed an old friend…

Is the great vintage of 2015 retreating into itself

20 January 2018 9:00 am

We were pondering the relationship between military history and wine vintages. It is extraordinary to think that the French managed…

How Christmas lunch became Christmas dinner

6 January 2018 9:00 am

It was a culinary triumph. My hosts do not spend much time in the UK, and are determined to entertain…

Found in a friend’s cellar — the wines of a lifetime

16 December 2017 9:00 am

In longevity, great wine can march with human life. Creating (better still, maintaining) a fine cellar really is a compact…

Gender comes in fluid form

18 November 2017 9:00 am

I have lost faith in British boyhood. In mixed schools, young males have failed to seize an opportunity that previous…

All’s fair in love and Waugh

23 September 2017 9:00 am

I was reminded of Wild West films from boyhood. Then, the beleaguered garrison scanned the horizon; would the US cavalry…

Thank Evans for good wine

9 September 2017 9:00 am

There was an entirely forgotten leftist called Allen Ginsberg, a so-called beat poet (surely an oxymoron) who once produced a…

True or false? The Temple of Bel, Palmyra, before and after its destruction at the hands of Islamic State

Why confront the ugly lie of Islamic State with a tacky fake?

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries

Dear Mary: Is it OK to ask to drink the wine you brought to a dinner party?

28 May 2016 9:00 am

Q. What is the etiquette regarding asking to drink the wine you have brought to a dinner party? The man…

Nicholas Soames’s Twitter account is a miracle (and so is his diet)

21 May 2016 9:00 am

Miracles are not ceased. A few years ago, a kindly educational therapist took pity on John Prescott and set out…

The wonders of white Burgundy

7 May 2016 9:00 am

I promised a return to Burgundy and the 2014 vintage, which becomes no less impressive when recollected in tranquillity. We…

Dinner with a Grand National winner

23 April 2016 9:00 am

Not quite nil humanum a me alienum, but I have always been interested in other people’s trades and worlds. That…

The kindest man in the Bordeaux wine business

9 April 2016 9:00 am

There was a moment during the war when De Gaulle was being more than usually impossible. Roosevelt, furious, asked Churchill…

On the trail of a Burgundian Holy Grail

26 March 2016 9:00 am

It was a scene evoking the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony. The evening sunshine was caressing the verdant woods…

The perfect wines to toast the end of the hunting season

13 February 2016 9:00 am

A few years ago, a distinguished cove in the diplomatic service was made High Commissioner to Australia. To prepare himself…

Charles Moore’s Notes: The demented accusations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall have at last been dropped

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Many have rightly attacked the police for their handling of the demented accusations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall, now at…

Like southern France — with added kangaroos

The lovely Clare Valley, like southern France with added kangaroos

23 January 2016 9:00 am

It is a century and a half since The Spectator noted the exceptional qualities of South Australia, a colony of…

Tis the season for disagreeing with your spouse about everything

12 December 2015 9:00 am

The older I get, the more Scrooge-like I become. I’m dyspeptic, misanthropic, curmudgeonly, parsimonious and unsentimental. Caroline, by contrast, is…

Even great wine can’t quite give me hope for Lebanon

12 December 2015 9:00 am

Housman had a point. If men could be drunk for ever, the human condition would be tolerable. But thought always…