Spectator

Rage Against the Tagine: Cocktail and bull

4th December 2010

It has always seemed to me that the bar — if you’ll forgive me — is set very low indeed for those wishing to call themselves ‘mixologists’.

Rather as with…

Because We Can

21st October 2010

Last month I completed twenty-five years as an inhabitant of the great and glorious wen that is our capital city. As I am only forty-nine and three-quarters, this means I…

Holy Mole

12th October 2010

I wonder if Sarah-Jane Evans is thinking of celebrating the recent publication of her ground-breaking choccypedia, Chocolate Unwrapped (Pavillion, £14.99), by indulging in the six-course, chozza-themed menu offered by Clos…

The Furtive Flavour

29th September 2010

Alan Davidson’s monumental Oxford Companion to Food — 20 years in the writing — doesn’t mention it. And Davidson writes as authoritatively about the cooking of a capybara (care is…

Bubbly Bounty

17th September 2010

Of all the demographics – or even “groups of people” – likely to know what the term “Growers’ Champagne” means, the readers of this blog are likely to have the…

Chariots of Chow

16th April 2010

As the grotesque, green-backed Godzilla that is the 25-Dollar Martini stomps towards the streets of Manhattan ($23.95 at The Algonquin already smashes its fist through that wall with tippage, but…

Wine Metropolis

16th December 2009

We all know that restaurants make a substantial proportion of their profit from the mark-up on wine, don’t we? We resent this to such an…

The Michelin man

3rd December 2009

When SpectatorScoff! issued me the challenge of eating lunch in London’s Michelin-starred restaurants every day for a working week on a total budget of £200 — and ‘total’ meant total,…

Wine Union

30th November 2009

Believe it or not, there are vineyards in every state in the Union (and yep, that does include Alaska and Hawaii) but so long is…

Champagne Sauce

9th September 2009

Marinating myself in Louis Roederer’s luxuriant Brut Premier on Monday evening at their annual Wine Writer’s Awards (the stupendous venue for which was the glass domed-thing at the very tip…

Italian Lessons

5th September 2009

Grignolino d’Asti, Lagrein, Lacrima di Morro d’Alba, Falanghina di Sannio, Refosco (not your common or garden Refosco from any old bit of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, though – I’d prefer a Refosco…

Never – Unless I’m Thirsty

12th August 2009

I love writing about Champagne because it’s all so deeply crazy. On the few occasions I’ve tasted Krug Clos de Mesnil I’ve thought that; a) it’s very good (and can…

Stags’ Leap In Steamboat Springs

6th August 2009

Wine is made in all 50 of these United States and I’m crap on 45-and-a-half of them. Forgetting California – for obvious reasons – I’ve had world-class wines from the…

A Wide Place in the Road

24th July 2009

In the States: Bristol, Colorado. The flatlands, not the Rockies. “A wide place in the road,” Mrs G calls it. Her mom and pop live here. Most of the time,…

Anyone For Pimm’s?

13th July 2009

Has a fortnight really passed since the Speccie’s summer party? I was made to drink Pol Roger on an empty stomach until I was sick. Not really, but I do…

Outstanding in their field

2nd July 2009

Donkeys’ years ago I went with a chum who was writing for the Sun newspaper to Millwall Football Club as part of a Saturday sweep of England’s football grounds to…

In The Drink

1st July 2009

An interesting weekend of boats, booze and bibulous dilemmas. Friday afternoon saw us on Cowes’ Royal Yacht Squadron start line for the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Morgan Cup race to…

Oops, I Sipped It Again…

25th June 2009

Just back from Brittany and finally getting used to saying that name without thinking I should be saying “Britney” – but still not over the shock that that should be…

The future is three for a fiver

1st June 2009

Two entirely unrelated events in the world of wine have set me to cogitating on the likely future shape of the drinking habits of UK Man (and, increasingly, Woman). Apart…

British Superwine Selection

19th May 2009

‘Crisis? What crisis?’

If you wanted to find a group of people who might be able to ask that question with a straight face then I dare say the attendees…

World Wine-Scoring Federation smackdown

13th May 2009

I have no intention of saying anything more about Bordeaux – except that I always know spring will soon turn into summer when the annual spat between the English wine…

Hunt for the wine value sweet-spot

30th April 2009

I do think (indeed I do blog) about things other than Bordeaux. I really do. I’m just choosing not to right now – OK? Fact is, I find myself tempted.…

From Sangria To St Emilion

22nd April 2009

Back from Bordeaux much the wiser (mostly). Thirty-five years of wine-drinking and I wouldn’t have expected that the first glass of the stuff I would ever drink in its alma…

A trip to Bordeaux

15th April 2009

Off to Bordeaux tomorrow. Quite how I’ve managed to masquerade as a wine writer for this long without actually setting foot in the place is a mystery. Because, whichever way…

In the bag

26th March 2009

It’s well known that some Chablis — the posher ones, mainly — can have a slight tinge of green; less well known is that so can some really old tawny…

Wine guys are the wise guys

30th September 2008

Funny how things change. Traditionally, young Sicilian men faced the stark choice between a back-breaking life of agricultural toil or of throwing in their lot with the wise guys.

Now…

Winter warmer finds its perfect match

1st December 2006

Out in the wilds of the Languedoc, you’d want your winemaker to be somewhat wild of hair, with features sun-burned to copper and a handshake like a blacksmith’s. The ones…

Autumn leaves a taste for Alsace

30th April 2005

I’m not quite sure why it is that Alsace wines put me in mind of autumn – and vice versa – but it must be something to do with their…