For casual wine tasting there’s no better place than Humble Grape January 27, 2022 If you are looking for a fun and simple way to get out of your wine comfort zone then let me recommend Humble Grape. With various locations around London, I stopped into my local one in Battersea for a casual dinner and discovered ‘Tasting Tuesdays’ where, for only £15, one can try four wines selected [...]
How Vivino democratised wine January 26, 2022 For wine drinkers Vivino has been a disruptive and democratising force. I have often seen supermarket shoppers whip out their phones to check the rating and flavour profile of a wine before making a purchase. Two heads are better than one so they say, so just think what a community of 54m can do. The [...]
Anya Hindmarch on her new Low & No Off License The Dry Drinker January 22, 2022 Dry January has never been cooler thanks to Anya Hindmarch CBE, the award-winning British Designer who has turned her attention to the new wave of ‘low or no’ alcohol drinks. For a limited time only, Hindmarch has teamed up with The Dry Drinker to launch a booze-free off license in her Anya Village in the [...]
Dining Diary: A tasting in Sky Garden showcased Great British wine January 12, 2022 I always recommend the Sky Garden to anyone visiting London. It has 360 degree views across our glorious city, with three bars, two restaurants and plenty of space to meander through the indoor garden or on the outside balcony. Fenchurch is the fancier of the restaurants, sporting its own wide terrace where I sipped Simpsons [...]
Wine Wednesday: Hail a Cab from South Africa January 11, 2022 South Africa does wine well. Be it the elegant wines of Elgin or the rustic innovations of the Swartland, this is a country that can produce a bottle to suit anyone’s inclinations. The international media has gone into spasms of delight about the New Wave of winemakers in up-and-coming areas but Stellenbosch, the largest Wine [...]
Christmas wine for your dry bird: How to pick the perfect festive bottle December 15, 2021 It is the festive season, and we will soon be shoving turkeys into ovens to feed the masses, but turkey is a notoriously dry bird and calls for the right wine to help wet our whistles. Though traditionalists may feel the classic Bordeaux is always acceptable beware of drying tannins. A wiser choice if you [...]
The wine diaries: Living the roaring 20s with Ramon Bilbao December 2, 2021 What a night was had at the celebratory launch of Ramon Bilbao’s The Journey Collection at glamorous Hispania. Throwing back to the joie de vivre of the 1920s, guests in varying degrees of vintage dress clinked crystal martini glasses in front of jazz singers before being swept up the turning staircase to a sumptuous candle-lit [...]
Wine Wednesday: Buy Burgundy – and buy it now! December 1, 2021 Burgundy has established a world-wide reputation for excellent quality, premium wines, despite the term being created as an Anglicised word for marketing purposes. In France the region and wines are ‘Bourgogne’ and there is a push among winemakers in the area to reclaim this original name. Whether you call it Burgundy or Bourgogne, however, if [...]
Maurizio Zanella: The man behind the rise of Franciacorta November 28, 2021 Franciacorta is a small but mighty Italian wine appellation currently making waves on the sparkling scene. Though wine has been produced here since the sixteenth century, Prosecco is the Italian sparkling wine that jumps more readily to the international mind. Franciacorta, however, is made via the traditional method and was the first region to gain [...]
Collectivino: The ethical wine company making it easy to drink good wine November 24, 2021 Sustainability is the current watch word in wine. As bottle weights and recyclability are increasingly discussed, companies must at least nod in an environmentally friendly direction or risk falling behind competitors. People are increasingly aware of the impact their choices make on the planet but buying ethical wine sustainably can be a tricky thing to [...]