How Indian whisky moved from back-street dens to pride-of-place May 11, 2021 The thought of Indian whisky once made even the least discerning spirits-drinker shudder. Now the price of it does. Bangalore is a long way from Islay but its distillers have changed the way we think about Indian spirits. Leading this charge is Amrut, a distillery founded in Karnataka in 1948 and initially producing spirits including [...]
How to celebrate World Cocktail Day this Thursday May 10, 2021 This Thursday is World Cocktail Day, and what better way to celebrate than splashing out on some new glass- and silverware with which to shake and sip your mix of sugary booze? For collectors that means more than a cursory scroll through the Amazon listings: must-have items include Art Deco Parisian ‘Boston’ cocktail shakers and [...]
What does your postcode say about your taste in wine? May 7, 2021 The most popular wine in north and east London this year was the Picpoul De Pinet, Réserve De La Roquemolière. In south and west London, it was Comte De Provence Rosé, La Vidaubanaise. According to on-demand delivery service Wineapp, East Londoners order 15 per cent more red than white wine. West Londoners order 30 per [...]
Rosé-all-day : Why it’s time to get serious about this fun wine May 7, 2021 Spring is in the air, terraces have opened up and despite what the rain gods may think, rosé season is upon us! But what is a rosé? And why are red and white wines defined by grape or region like Cabernet Sauvignons or Chablis, yet we lump all rosés together under that one umbrella term? [...]
City restaurants lead remarkable recovery, says D&D boss May 7, 2021 After four long, miserable wintry months of confinement I guess we should have expected it. But the pandemic has turned us all into pessimists. After a year of lockdowns, reopenings, Covid restrictions and more lockdowns, I doubt that there were many hospitality industry CEOs predicting the joyful scenes of packed restaurant and pub terraces of [...]
Drinking around the world: Take a trip to Lanzarote, wine paradise May 6, 2021 The latest wine region to erupt onto the wine tourism atlas is Lanzarote, with the Canarian island hoping to be among the first destinations to revive European wine tourism. With travel restrictions lifting, a former investment banker and surfing instructor from Guernsey and a former GB Olympic swimming trials finalist from Sunderland want to make [...]
Drinking around the world: Tasmania is a winemaker to watch May 5, 2021 You have probably never considered stocking up on wine from either Swansea or St Helens. Both are on Tasmania’s Great Eastern Wine Trail, one of four in Australia’s island state. Tassie, the “Apple Isle”, is also home to the Tamar Valley wine road, the East Coast route and the Cradle Coast region, which boasts Ghost [...]
Leadenhall Market to become neon-soaked cinephiles’ dream May 4, 2021 Leadenhall Market will this month swap its Victorian grandeur for in-your-face neon lights, transforming into a living art exhibition courtesy of God’s Own Junkyard. The neon artists at the famous Walthamstow-based studio will create Electric City, an “immersive technicolour production”, featuring highlights from its 40-year history making neons for cinema, including Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide [...]
Drinking around the world: The Corsican wine loved by Napoleon May 4, 2021 Napoleon, the son of an Ajaccio winemaker on the Granite island of Corsica, died two hundred years ago this week. Films portray Corsica as a place of scrubland, beaches, vendettas and banditry, while cookery shows spotlight the island’s world-beating urchins, “figatelli” smoked chestnut sausage, cured hams and ripened brocciu cheese. But they ignore the excellent [...]
Red faces full of port wine: how to drink England’s favourite wine May 4, 2021 What’s the first thing you think of when you read the word “port”? I suspect for many of you it will evoke a very distinct stereotype, and not all of that will be positive. Some of you, I’ll wager, thought “gout”. Most of the images that came to mind will have been of well-off, well-upholstered [...]