Below are a selection of our latest articles covering wines, spirits and food. We also review Wine and Chocolate, Wine and Cheese.
Cheerful and inexpensive, we used to buy Cava when we could not afford Champagne. That was before Prosecco arrived with a bang and squeezed modest Cava out into the third place. The style is still classic, produced exactly like Champagne, the quality is fast improving with many top producers now competing with Champagne including with their prices.
Read MoreIn 2006, when Sacha Lichine bought the run-down Chateau d’Esclans near St Tropez, there were only two good quality wine rosés on the market, both by Domaine Ott.
Read MoreLocated in one of the busiest and most popular areas of the West End, Broadwick Street in Soho, where once upon a time William Blake resided, The Ivy Soho Brasserie is a very sought-after destination – and this is totally justified. It’s a large restaurant with many works of art “inspired by Soho’s music scene, as well as by William Blake”, a very busy bar in the centre of the room, where you can watch the cocktails being made by the cocktail maestros. There is also a specious private dining room and a terrace for dining alfresco.
Read MoreIn 2012, Hedonism Wines was opened in Mayfair as a fine wine and spirits boutique, became a huge success and changed the wine map of London for good. Six years later, in April this year, Hedonism opened its own restaurant on Piccadilly, called Hide, and it became an instant hit. There are three floors with a restaurant on each of them: Hide Above, Ground and Below. Hide Above offers dinners and a beautiful view of Hyde Park; Hide Ground serves breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner - the dining here is more informal; Hide Below is a basement dream bar where you can choose from a selection of cocktails, the most impressive spirits and even more impressive wines. It boasts a walk-in wine cellar where you can choose your wine yourself and there are three outstanding thematic private dining rooms: The Broken Room, The Shadow Room and The Reading Room.
Read MoreIt’s hot, green and sunny and it’s asking for some fizz. Or should that be spritz? Surely that sounds much better. Quite a few spritzy wines are available on the market but if you want something different, or new, why not head to the Basque Country and try the wine called Txakoli? It may have been produced there since the beginning of the 17th Century because vino chacolin was already documented in 1616. It’s had its own ups and downs and it’s now definitely on the up.
Read MoreGlorified by Francois Rablais in the first half of the 16th Century, the modest Cabernet Franc grape, which most of us know as a minor constituent in the Bordeaux blend, is an important ancient grape variety that is not only responsible for the creation of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenere and others, but is also the core of a whole range of Loire Valley reds.
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