A bottle of wine will be at least £4.69 and four cans of lager £3.52 under Scottish ministers’ proposalsScottish ministers have set the planned minimum price for alcohol in Scotland at 50p a unit in a move which will push a bottle of wine to £4.69 a…
You may know Savoie for its skiing, but this part of the French Alps is now producing wines to match its stunning scenery and top-notch foodDraw a line on the map from Geneva to Chambéry 50 miles to the south and you mark the eastern boundary of a reg…
Despite what traditionalists say, it looks like the cork has had its day”It would be very useful to know when a wine is ‘corked’ – what to look out for, and when to send it back in a restaurant,” wrote one reader recently.Well, it’s not alw…
Yes, we all know fizz is de rigueur, but what if the budget won’t stretch to limitless vats of bubbly?One question I often get asked is what wine to drink for a wedding. Champagne, and lots of it, might be the first response that comes to mind, but wha…
Three less well-known European wines to stretch your palateTesco Finest Gavi, Piedmont, Italy 2011 (£7.98, Tesco) Forced to choose an own-label Italian white, I’d almost always go for Piedmont’s Gavi, which most supermarkets now stock, over a run…
While New Labour preferred an Italian restaurant in Islington, the Tories clearly plump for a more upmarket venue in MayfairNew Labour had Granita, the now defunct Italian restaurant in Islington where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown famously carved up the…
‘I’m sure the habitual pinot grigio drinker would be perfectly happy with a falanghina’From the lists of supermarket promotions I get every month, you’d think the British drank only four or five wines: pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc and the occasio…
Do you need to change your glass depending on what you’re drinking?It doesn’t seem long ago that merely owning wine glasses was enough to mark one out as a sophisticate of the highest order. Such affectations were for professional establishments like t…
Wine lists are following menus in becoming more focused and concise, and that’s a good thingAt last in the UK, wine is becoming something we drink rather than revere, but wine lists can still be daunting things. Predominantly organised by price (if sho…
Kanye West and Drake have a point. The Piedmont white is definitely on the upFor years the drinks most associated with hip-hop were distinctly aspirational. Busta Rhymes rapped about Courvoisier, Jay-Z about Louis Roederer Cristal and later, after fall…
From beer and cider to gin and sparkling wine, the English drinks industry makes products to match the best in the worldI’m not a great one for flag-waving, but there’s no escaping the fact that we’re heading for a robustly British summer, starting on …
Three wines, including a cava, to toast the warmer weatherCamillo de Lellis Biferno Rosso Riserva, Molise, Italy 2007 (from £7.25, thewinesociety.com; greatwesternwine.co.uk; butlers-winecellar.co.uk) A bottle of this longstanding favourite of mine ad…
When you want to learn about the wine of any region, it usually pays to check out your local wine merchant or independent firstOne of the best ways to explore the wine world is to concentrate on a particular country or wine region for a …
Egg-based recipes have a bad rep as being hard to match with wine, but the problem is over-ratedI guess there’s a fair chance you’re going to be eating eggs this weekend but what – apart from a cuppa – do you drink with them? Eggs are held to …
Easter is a time when the supermarkets tend to come up with some tempting offers. Here are some of the best out there…Unless you’re the kind of wine drinker who has their favourites and sticks to them year in, year out, the end of March marks th…
The first thing that Britain – like any alcoholic – needs to do is face up to the problem and avoid denialModern Britain has a drink problem. We drink too much alcohol. We have too many alcohol-related health problems; and we suffer too much alcoho…
It’s one of the most reliable of wines – you rarely come across a bad bottle – but with those floral, fruity tones, what on Earth can you eat with it?Having had years of Delia and Nigella sending products flying off the shelves, it now looks a…
With Andrew Lansley sulking and the budget hangover lingering, the home secretary unveiled plans that contained few surprisesIt may seem curious that the Commons announcement of the biggest public health intervention since the ban on smoking was left t…
A generation of winemakers with a cosmopolitan outlook are transforming the Spanish vineyardsPatience is a virtue in the slow-moving world of wine, but few take the principle as far as the R López de Heredia bodega in Rioja. When the López de Heredia…
Number of bottles shipped to UK from France fell last year following strong rise in the previous 12 monthsUK consumers are turning their backs on champagne in favour of more affordable alternatives such as sparkling wine, according to new figures which…
The island of Mazzorbo, a ferry ride from the centre of Venice, is a world away from the crowds of St Mark’sIndulging yourself in Venice normally means checking into one of the Serenissima’s famed luxury hotels – the exclusive Cipriani or majestic Da…
Alcohol level is the single most important issue for many wine consumers, and producers are starting to take note big-timeThe big wine story so far this year is turning out to be not prices but alcohol levels. According to recent research conducted for…
An American members-only online wine company, Lot18, has just launched in the UK. Is it different enough to avoid the usual downsides of wine clubs? Fiona Beckett investigatesThe high profile launch in the UK last week of the US-based wine club Lot18, …
Do the terms winewriters use to describe a wine really give consumers an idea of its flavour, or just confuse the issue?A couple of weeks ago, a link was passed around on Twitter to a random wine review generator that came up with spoof descriptions su…
This is a cheat’s version of the traditional soup. Thick, comforting and ready in no timeThis is a great, thick stew of a soup that is cheap to make, filling and tasty. In the traditional recipe, you would use the scrag-end of neck or breast …
The Mayfair wine merchant, family run since 1698, is a venerable model for ‘non-predatory’ capitalism to followSquint through the elegant arched windows of Berry Bros & Rudd’s famous store in London and you half-expect to see sombre clerks using quills…
There’s a commemorative day for just about everything these days, but Carignan Day? Are they serious? Well, yes, actually…Barely a week goes by without some commemorative day or week to celebrate, and now is no exception: Fairtrade Fortnight starts&n…
Historic collection includes ports and cognacs dating back to the French Revolution and Napoleon BonaparteIt is the most valuable and fascinating drinks cabinet in the world. In a locked and chilled store room in what was once a cowshed, Bay van der Bu…
Pink champagne may seem the romantic gesture, especially on Valentine’s Day, but does it really justify the additional expense?I was banging on the other day about the ludicrous cost of a £95 Valentine’s gift box of pink champagne when I stopped to as…
Pre-paying for wine – or en primeur – may seem an attractive option, not least to fend off potential price rises. But is it always such a good idea?The idea of spending less on wine if you pay for it up front – known in the trade as buy…
