You know the old saying, ‘I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food’? Well, that was kinda what a recent cooking lesson with Babich Wines at the Underground Cookery School was like recently! It was great fun and I managed to leave the event with all my fingers intact despite the fact that I was...
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Champagne just seems to be coming out of my ears at the moment (not a bad thing in my opinion). Earlier this week I attended an informal tasting with Frederic Panaiotis, cellar master of the house. It was the first tasting of the 2004 Dom Ruinart Blanc de blanc in the UK so we all felt very priviledged. Fred came bounding into the...
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English Wine Week has begun and last night I was invited to the new pub, The Bull at the Hyde in the City to a dinner hosted by the Richard Balfour-Lynn, the owner of English vineyard, Hush Heath Estates. This was the first dinner for the pub’s new tasting club, The Cunning Plan Wine & Spirits Club. Richard first planted...
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“We are all consumers. Wine should be a pleasure and enjoyable…” That in a nutshell is the philosophy of Barone Francesco Ricasoli who was hosting a Brolio wine dinner recently at the Corinthia Hotel here in London. Francesco is the owner of Barone Ricasoli vineyards, set in the hills of Tuscany, and the 32nd...
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The avenue de Champagne in Epernay is a long and elegant stretch lined with some of the biggest and most famous Houses of Champagne, each behind an imposing gate behind which stand some of the most beautiful examples of 19th century architecture. There is one house that stands out due to its simplicity. Set behind a high wall and...
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Last week I was invited to lunch with one of the young up and coming winemakers of Champagne, Elise Losfelt of Moët & Chandon. Elise is relatively new to the Moët team and is originally from a family of Languedoc winemakers but ended up in Champagne. We met up with Elise at Heston’s Dinner in the Mandarin Oriental. It was...
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I recently came back from the Dordogne region of France. If you’re like me, the Dordogne rings a bell as one of the rivers of Bordeaux. But, it’s a lot more then that. The river may end in Bordeaux but it’s starts far inland and the history that courses along it’s riverbanks goes back to the Middle Ages and...
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I love taking the Eurostar to Paris, I haven’t taken a plane to Paris since I don’t know when – I always take the train. It’s just so much easier to go via Eurostar and seems a more civilized way to travel, to me anyway. Eurostar is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary this year, hard to believe that...
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Brown Brothers are an Australian wine family with a long tradition in wine making. I was recently introduced to some of their wines at a dinner at Hix in Soho with their Ambassador, Andrew Harris. Andrew has been involved in the wine making process with Brown Brothers for many years but now spends his time travelling around the...
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Next weekend, May 10th, is Decanter’s Italian Fine Wine Encounter. I always enjoy going to these events because it’s the perfect opportunity to meet and taste some fabulous Italian wines. I love Italian wine but sadly, I never seem to have the time to really get to know them. Decanter’s tasting serves as a good...
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