A weekend in Paris
Returning to the UK with a sunburned face I look a little like an umpa lumpa who has wandered from his sun-bleached saccharin idyll to a perpetual cloudy, dark October day. In fact, if you were to look upon my bright orange forehead you may wonder which Caribbean Island I have spent the last few...
Brewdog: Where will it all end
The introduction of craft brewing has to be a good thing. In the UK it stems from the 1970s and the small scale production of cask ales, a welcome reaction to the influx of Euro-pop lagers which flooded into the UK at this time. Many of the local breweries had closed due to company...
I don’t like Chardonnay, but I like Chablis
One sentence that is heard over and over in wine retail outlets, perpetually throughout the UK must be people suggesting that they don’t like Chardonnay, refuse to drink it, blame it for hangovers, single the grape out in particular as the reason that they always seem to get a headache, yet don’t seem to know...
The more obscure regions of the world of wine
Alongside trying some of the offerings from the established regions of the wine world, imported and distributed by the powerhouses of the UK wine market, Bibendum, John E Fells and the like I had the opportunity at the LIWF to try some wines from the more obscure regions and from makers who are creating...
The little app that makes everyone a wine genius
I came across, recently, a new iPhone app from a Dutch company called WineStein. The app is really pretty impressive. It has a massive and ever increasing database of wine and the exact scientific food matching for different wines. This can be as simple as searching Australian Shiraz and a list of apt dishes will...
A brief introduction to English wines.
I have over the last couple of weeks had my patriotism excited from its usual simmer, simmer in the broadest sense of the word, more of a single, occasional bubble in a sea of indifference, excited none the less to a boil and my outlook on these green and pleasant lands buoyed and brightened by...
