Wine
A gentleman of Bordeaux
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 Holy Grail
It was a scene evoking the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony. The evening sunshine was caressing the verdant woods…
Game show
A few years ago, a distinguished cove in the diplomatic service was made High Commissioner to Australia. To prepare himself…
The Spectator’s Notes
Many have rightly attacked the police for their handling of the demented accusations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall, now at…
The Clare Valley
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
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
Housman had a point. If men could be drunk for ever, the human condition would be tolerable. But thought always…
An overflow of bookshelves, a huge kitchen, a cellar, music, dogs, hens, donkeys children . . . all the ingredients for civilised life
In the later 1850s, Palmerston was Prime Minister: Gladstone, his Chancellor. It was a successful partnership between two very different…
The Spectator’s Notes
When Jeremy Corbyn says it is better to bring people to trial than to shoot them, he is right. So…
We celebrated a birth with a wine that will last decades
Good Saturday, 2015, stepping westward. Autumn sunshine: autumn leaves, almost comparable to New England: pumpkins everywhere, very New England. We…
Manchester has marvellous wines, and it’s not finished yet
It will seem an ungrateful comment after the lunch which I am about to describe, but Manchester has some way…
Club mischief
When it comes to nightclubs, many have written, but none has surpassed the Perroquet in Debra Dowa. Le tout Debra…
La Baule
The reaction of the chap on the door at Le Bidule told me that they weren’t used to seeing English…
Stewed Siena
The Indian summer was still fending off the mists and mellow fruitfulness. But the autumn term was about to begin;…
Our holiday in a French Butlins
I’m currently at a French campsite in the Languedoc, having been persuaded by my wife that it would be a…
Oporto
‘When he’s away, the thing he misses about Porto is the tripe.’ I was talking to Eduarda Sandeman, wife of…
Young guns
The Honourable Society of Odd Bottles began proceedings with a report on the activities of our junior branch. These youngsters…
Deep Burgundy
‘There lies the dearest freshness deep down things’ — and also the dearest Frenchness. It is easy to be rude…
The Spectator’s Notes
It is natural to assume that, if a majority votes No in the referendum on Britain’s EU membership, we shall…
The claret of the gods
I cannot remember a jollier lunch. There are two brothers, Sebastian and Nicholas Payne, both practical epicureans. They have made…
Spawn of the devil
There are those who claim that this column is idiosyncratic. They have seen nothing yet. I am about to mention…
Wine tasting
One of the great jokes of the wine trade is: ‘Have you ever confused Burgundy with Bordeaux?’ ‘Not since this…
A taste of heaven on earth
The supermarket chains are not always blameworthy. Their missionary efforts have helped to ensure that wine drinking in Britain is…
A rum encounter
For many years, the Central American republic of Guatemala had a grievance against the United Kingdom. It claimed sovereignty over…
A toast to Spain
Towards the chimes at midnight, a few of us left a — respectable — establishment near Leicester Square. Eight or…
