Mums are great. So is wine. They deserve each other. Find the perfect wine in this tongue-in-cheek Mum and Wine Matching Guide. Yummy Mummy Young, bright and bubbly, fresh-faced, nicely turned-out, looking just as good in wellies as she does in Jimmy Choos. She’s chatty, friendly and fun and somehow she crosses the boundaries of […]
I present Bordeaux tastings all the time but this one, in Baldon Oxfordshire, stood out. We weren’t tasting first growths, or indeed any growths. It was a tasting of Everyday Bordeaux – not a great term really, meaning that the wines are affordable, but I tell you what, I would be happy to drink any one of […]
Those of you who know me, know that I don’t do sport. I don’t watch it, follow it, read about it, engage in it. Yet here I am participating in Sport Relief. On the evening of Friday 21st March I shall be swimming 2.5km at Fox Hollies Leisure Centre. Now I realise this is not anywhere near on […]
We’re more than half way through Fairtrade fortnight and my conscience has pricked me into action. Being a bargain hunter, having to pay a few pence more than necessary for my bananas, sugar, coffee, doesn’t sit comfortably with me. However, I do have a soul and a social sense of what’s right and wrong. I […]
Now we’re not suggesting that nothing says ‘I love you’ like a ten quid bottle of fizz, but it could get your day off to a very good start if you buy Champagne Louvel Fontaine Martel Brut from Asda at £10, or indeed Aldi’s Veuve Monsigny at £9.99, mix with orange juice and deliver it in […]
There you are with your boss/clients/ in-laws/hot date. You’ve negotiated the awkward intros and deciphered the menu, when along comes the man in black threatening your composure, exposing your ignorance and risking your reputation by waving a loaded wine list in your face. With sweaty palms and a false smile you take what’s coming to […]
The Bordeaux châteaux owners, and in fact anyone at all who sold Bordeaux wine, were vehement in their declaration that the 2000 vintage would be the best ever. They wanted us to believe that it was special, incomparable, in much the same way the Champenois rather wanted us to believe that the millennium celebrations would leave a dirty great […]
Torres’ first vintage of Viña Sol was 1962 so this year they celebrate 50 years of its launch. Well, they must be doing something right for a brand to last so long with not a hint of looking behind the times, jaded, tired or old hat. I’m vintage 1962 and I rather wish that I had lasted so well, looked so fresh, […]
I am so lucky to have gentleman friends; gentlemen friends of a certain age with wonderful cellars and an amazing generosity of spirit who can put on a tasting of this quality. Not a great tasting for anyone who is diabetic/on a diet/suffers from hyperactivity as, really, it is almost impossible to spit these wines […]
I’m a sucker for Champagne. I’m a sucker for mature wine. A tasting billed as Old Vintages of Champagne organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine was then made for me. Held at Trinity House and moderated by Mark Bingley MW, the presenters were Stephen Leroux and Thierry Roset of Charles Heidsieck, Export Director […]