Le Snob Guide to Champagne, despite the name, is a great little stocking stuffer for the champagne lover in your life. I met Giles Fallowfield, the author of this handy little book at a champagne launch, afterwards, during lunch he introduced me to his book and I had to the chance to chat with him about all things champagne. Le...
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When food and wine matching are done right, there’s nothing better. Although I am the Winesleuth, I find that wine with food is almost always better and I relish the opportunity when such occasions present themselves. Recently, I found myself a guest of The Winechap at Coq d’Argent in the City to not only sample the...
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What I like about Tsuru, besides their katsu curry and sustainability credo is their wine list. Emma, one of the 3 owners of Tsuru, is always tweaking the wine list, looking for wine that not only go along with their Japanese hot food and sushi but also follow their commitment to sustainably sourced ingredients. Recently, they’ve...
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2003 was a tough year to be a grape in Champagne. First they had to contend with an unusually cold winter followed by a deceptively warm spring only to be zapped by hail and not once, but twice by frost, the worst of which was on April 11th destroying up to 3/4 of the Côte des Blancs Chardonnay crop. To add insult to injury that...
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I went to The Four Seasons University in Florence, Italy. How’s that for an alma mater? Seriously, I was invited to take part in what they term their “university” to learn more about The Four Seasons Resorts and Hotels and, in this particular session, showcasing the regional and artisanal food and wine on offer. With hotels...
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Swine and Wine. Sounds like my idea of a very good night indeed and my friends over at DVine Wine teamed up with Lardy Da (cute) to put on a supper club-y type dinner the other night somewhere under an arch near London Bridge. A big sparse room, with concrete floors, art pieces scattered around the walls and a rockabilly bass...
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I, for one, am very pleased with this trend of chic cocktail bars in London. For some reason, cocktail bars seem to have taken off in the finer hotels of London. As cocktails originated in America, it’s not too surprising it’s in the luxury hotels (all those trans-Atlantic businesspeople) and it’s great to see...
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Sandeman’s 20 yr old Tawny port recently won the International Wine and Spirits Competition’s best port in the world for 2011. The annual competition picks the best wines in the world in various categories every year. Sandeman was established in 1790 by Scotsman George Sandeman, who founded his port and sherry trading...
read moreLike many in the UK wine trade, I started off in my wine career at Oddbins. I came to Odd after it’s heyday but it was still a great place to learn about wine both for us employees and the customers. Sadly, Oddbins couldn’t keep up with the times and due to years of neglect and mismanagement, went the way of the Dodo,...
read moreHow often do you get to taste the entire range of a Burgundy producer in one go? Daniel Lambert Wines had a vertical tasting last night of the Domaine de la Pousse d’Or 2010 en primeur in Mayfair and I was able to taste through all those fabulous Volnays, Chambolles and Corton Grand Crus. La Pousse d’Or has quite a...
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