What does it really take to win the title Master of Wine? September 7, 2021 There are only 419 living Masters of Wine in the world, and a further 77 who are no longer with us, which means that more people have been in space than have successfully passed this rigorous test of wine academia. This total includes the three Masters of Wine who joined the ranks just last month, [...]
Sotheby’s Jamie Ritchie on the future of wine auctions September 3, 2021 If Jamie Ritchie were on Desert Island Discs, which is not beyond the realms of possibility, his luxury item would be his gavel. “In 1994, as part of Sotheby’s 250th anniversary celebrations, I was given a wooden gavel. It has been the only gavel I have ever used. It has required some occasional re-gluing as [...]
Last chance to join the English Whisky Festival this Friday September 1, 2021 There is still time, if you hurry, to get tickets for the two-day virtual English Whisky Festival, which runs from 3-4 September. Organized by Exploring English Whisky, the event gives you the chance to sample the handiwork of 17 of the country’s 30-plus whisky makers. Some are well known: the St George’s Distillery at Roudham [...]
Why a bespoke wine cellar might not cost what you think September 1, 2021 So maybe you have a burgeoning wine collection: a couple of cases of Super Tuscan you picked up for a good price en primeur, a Château Lafite you’re saving for a special occasion, some Cabernet Franc that won’t be at its best for another six or seven years. What you need, my friend, is a [...]
How to Mix: MY&SANNÉ’s theatrical The Blue Bird Cocktail September 1, 2021 When creating the cocktail menu for MY&SANNÉ we really wanted to offer guests a fun, theatrical experience. One of the restaurant’s hero cocktails, The Blue Bird, embodies just that and to this day is one of our most popular drinks. The development process of The Blue Bird Cocktail was lots of fun and we spent [...]
Working Lunch: Isabel is as bouji and buzzy as anywhere in Mayfair August 27, 2021 In the decade I have lived in London, I must have walked down Albemarle street a hundred times. And, gun to my head, I would have sworn that Isabel had always been there. Despite opening in 2017, it has the feel of a classic Mayfair restaurant-cum-nightclub, with a neat row of understated outdoor seats giving [...]
Forget everything you think you know about sambuca August 27, 2021 When you think of sambuca, the chances are you imagine sticky shots in a dark nightclub, that one friend who insists on buying a round after everyone has already had too much, dizziness, nausea, hangovers. Sambuca has a place in the British psyche alongside Jagermeister and tequila as a drink of debauchery and trouble. But [...]
How to mix: The Tomatini, AKA the spirit of the South of France August 26, 2021 The story of the Tomatini starts at the Plage de Passable in St Jean Cap Ferrat, the swanky neighborhood next to Nice on the French Riviera. The Plage or beach is just below the home of Arjun Waney, our chairman and founder and it’s where he spent most of his days during July and August [...]
How to share a glass of pet-friendly plonk with your cat or dog August 25, 2021 Always a nation of cat and dog lovers, lockdown has made many of us absolutely barking when it comes to our pets. If on any of those long, lonely isolation nights you wished you could share a nice glass of Riesling with Rover or a Frascati with Felix, those prayers have, somehow, been answered. food In [...]
Harlot: The inside story of England’s most controversial new wine August 24, 2021 Harlot. Whatever that word brings to mind, it’s probably not an English sparkling wine recently launched by MDCV, which is causing consternation among wine circles. Harlot’s “playful branding” involves sticking “two fingers up at the status quo” and “refus[ing] to conform”. So is this the Pussy Riot of the wine world? Not according to those [...]