Well, the stock markets are in another tizz. Up and down like the price of US claret. This time Dubai is the potential bad debt – yes the entire state! I am not sure what all the fuss is about. I understand the exposure is a mere £60bn [...]
I am so excited I could eat a bowl of soup. And if you want to be as excited as me you have until 11am tomorrow (1 December). Oh, and you need to be a member of the Sunday Times Wine Club. Oh, and you need to have a [...]
OK, firstly a surprising admission. I have finally found it in my heart to give those blasted Aussies credit for something more than being reasonably adept at cricket.
But before you accuse me of lionising various flying winemakers, wombat oenologists and possum pressers, I [...]
Fred is completely tee-total. Whilst she is my wine “Nose” and can smell an Eton Mess on a Chateau Latour from 100 yards across a landfill site, ne’er a drop of liquor passes her lips. This poses a problem for a Wino like me. Every time I open a bottle [...]
Surely it’s a W? Why do I seem to disagree with most leading economists, investors and politicians? In my wine tainted mind, a double dip recession is more certain than ever. In the UK, at least.
We have temporary low purchase tax, temporary hyper-low interest rates and temporary Bank intervention, pumping [...]
Silence please. There is a time and a place for a little reverence. I have just opened my first bottle of a very important wine. Château Lynch-Bages 2005. A wine that even en-primeur, cost me over £50 per bottle.
The Sunday Times Wine Club [...]
This is just the sort of place I imagined an upmarket New York restaurant would look like. Solid, spacious, salubrious and snobby, and that is a compliment. It is expensive in the evening but if, like me, you are on a budget, there are some great deals at lunchtime. I [...]
At £17.50, this must one of the bargains of the whole wine world. The catch is that you have to be a member of the Wine Society. But don’t worry, they let anyone in these days. You don’t need to roll up one trouser leg and hop through the [...]
I’ve just returned from EWBC in Lisbon with a newfound passion for Portuguese wine. The whites impressed me most, even though they represented a mere champagne flute to the magnum of reds on display.
Esporão Reserva 2007 was a leftover bottle of tinto that found its way into my luggage [...]
Sounding a tad venereal, La Clape came to me via a “South by South West” mixed case from the Wine Society. Like all retailers who think we are firmly in a W shaped recession (as I do), the Wine Society is looking for wines at the cheaper end of the [...]
An open top “Tommy the tourist” bus in New York is indisputably the best place to learn about New York culture. Well, if you believe the tour guides (and assuming that you tip them enough). I learnt that if you want to eat cheaply in NYC there are two options: McDonalds, or [...]
I was pretty chipper about my Combine Harvester, installed in 2008 at Bathgate Towers. It has kept my finer bottles in tip top condition and is a super talking point when anyone remotely interested in wine visits.
But I am a mere amateur according to a book just published in [...]
After a Spring 2009 visit to an architectural gem of the highest order, and possibly the most erotique et fantastique et en meme-temps grotesque bâtiment du 20eme siècle, la Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, I dropped down the hill to the arty farty and over-rated Bohemian 18e arondissement.
Occasionally I like to take a break from Progressive House and listen to a couple of real “Old Skool” albums. Tonight I sampled Counting Crows’ “August and Everything After”, Steve Winwood’s “Back in the High Life” and David Bowie’s experimental and innovative (at the time) “The Rise and Fall of [...]
Have you ever placed a bet you can’t lose? Cast iron guaranteed?
Just prior to the start of the season I wagered the considerable sum of £10 with fellow Man City fan, Jamie Goode.
As I write this, our beloved team [...]
Lightly sparkling, fresh and with bright acidity, this is a veritable Bellini in a bottle even without the peach!
I first tasted this at a Wine Society tasting in sunny (ok it was a few weeks ago!) Manchester. I immediately placed a bulk order for, erm, quarter of a case. As the [...]
Signs of ageing are mostly self generated and excepting wrinkles, are usually related to the people you socialise with, the places you go, and the material goods you consume. I discovered what seems like yonks ago that BBC Radio 2 plays better music than Radio 1. In fact it plays much [...]
“This is a traditional New York Italian family restaurant” said our Pacific Island looking waiter pointing at a huge canoe full of pasta being delivered to the next table. A random walk around the pleasant residential areas of the upper west side had [...]
Beaujolais can sometimes be a bit sickly - anyone remember Bazooka Joe bubble gum, or prawn shaped candies? But this is no excuse for ignoring it. Anyone who has passed a lazy lunch, in late summer, at Café de la Bascule in the village of Fleurie with a Pot Lyonnais [...]
My favourite gastro-pub in the whole wide world is situated in the Yorkshire Dales near Skipdale (for Emmerdale fans that is just a few miles from Hotton). Back in the real world, Hetton village is a mere cockstride from Rylstone, famous for bra-less jam-makers.
Beans on toast. One of life’s staple meals. So simple, so healthy, so cheap, so erm, studenty? Of course there are only two types of baked bean, Heinz and shite. And there are only two types of toast, the type that sets my smoke alarm off, and the type that [...]
Back to reality, with tonight’s University Challenge yielding less than 5 points to the Wino intellect (or lack of). And this despite a dumbing down of questions this series, to include word games, “modern” music and, of all things, 20th century architecture.
My lack of success at quiz events is partly [...]
Super trouper. No, not a huge stage light illuminating Anni-Frid’s gorgeous pupils. Not a 1960’s smog over London. Not even a receptacle for doggie-doos (or is that a pooper scooper?)
None of the above. Just my thoughts on the first 2005 Gevrey Chambertin I can remember tasting.
Some stories go on and on. I suppose you cannot blame people for desperately trying to wring every last sou from their fifteen minutes of fame but I had to smile when I read that Peter André has signed up for a cook book. I try very hard not [...]
A bit of renewed interest (and support) in my campaign to get wines served at the right temperature but I fear I am fighting a losing battle.
I dined at Fino last week, an upmarket tapas place on Charlotte Street, London. I ordered a bottle of Crianza and asked what temperature [...]
I don’t know why it has taken me so long to wander over to Berry Bros & Rudd wine blog.
I found it quite refreshing actually. That sounds condescending because it implies that I expected it to be all stuffy and “establishment”. But it’s a right interesting read, much more [...]
Red sparkler? Are you having a laugh?
When I poured this Shiraz from the Lynn family in Coonawarra, it held all the promise of a Heston Blumenthal raspberry sorbet. Alive fizzy and erm…raspberry coloured.
But it disappointed badly. A heavy wine with some cherry and banana but [...]
According to Haircut 100 in the 1980’s, my favourite shirt was “on the bed”, but it didn’t encourage me to do a somersault on my head.
Another musical/clothing misnomer came from Scottish warbler, Paolo Nutini who extolled the virtues of new shoes. I think most readers will agree that old shoes [...]
I am always looking for awkward wine/food matches like boiled eggs, beans on toast, and chicken massalla. I’ve just hit the jackpot with the latter having grabbed this Tannat based wine on a rare visit to Nicolas.
I bought this last year from one [...]
I’ve just come back from the Amazon. I couldn’t resist the recommendation they emailed me for a couple of reasonably up to date books on my favourite subject. Both reference works of some weight, metaphysically as well as in the sense of excess baggage.
So if, like me, you fly on [...]
I was going to review this place next year when I could have titled the post, 4030 2010. But on the 40th floor bar of 30 St Mary’s Axe the view could not wait and, verily, it must be one of the most stunning in the [...]
Are you a wine magpie? I can’t resist a tempting offer and, bearing in mind the stellar reputation of 2005 Bordeaux, a Wine Society mixed case from the Côtes was a no-brainer. My theory that a rising tide lifts all boats (i.e. in a good year even crap winemakers are [...]
I have a theory that the more a place is off the beaten track the harder it has to work to get custom, the more it relies on regulars and, therefore, the better the food and wine.
32, Great Queen Street is on, well, you’ve guessed it. Just off the main [...]
At only 10.5% alcohol and a mere 25cl bottle (a large glass of wine at most British pubs) this wine had to live up to a £11.44 price tag. Yes, I know, only Costco could come up with this odd valuation.
I assured some French friends who visited recently, that ignorant southerners who claimed that it rained in Manchester 24 hours a day were plain wrong. In my experience the average precipitation is a considerably more modest 23. I am looking forwards to tomorrow between 8 and 9am when we are [...]
Sounding like a Vic Reeves’ Shooting Stars comedic expletive is not normally a criterion by which I evaluate whether to buy a wine, but somehow this just grabbed my attention on a recent visit to Majestic, Leeds.
South Africa is a bit of a blind spot in my wine rack and [...]
It is all too easy to be sniffy about the major wine brands when you’ve had your nose in the books of Parker and Robinson. But have you tried anything from Chilean producer Concha y Toro lately? Or the sub brands Cono Sur and Casillero del Diablo? Interesting stuff and generally high quality, [...]
Yes, you guessed it - sigh. You can now follow me on twitter @tiptoptaps.
[...]I am not the sort of person to waste money on a premium product unless I see real value. Vintage Champagne is rarely, if ever, in my wine rack, but this is because I have never really thought it worth extra. In January, I spotted a bottle of 1999 [...]
My good mate, Easto, came over for a barbecue at the weekend and brought a bottle he had stored for too many years (or so he thought).
Having recently bought into my two fundamental theories of life:
a) that wine should be drunk at the right temperature; and
b) that your [...]
I have a lot of respect for Stuart Pearce. I liked him as manager of Man City although clearly he was not experienced enough at the time. For the last couple of years he has been preparing England Under 21s for the European Cup. We were clearly the best side [...]
Think of a long, lazy, boozy summer lunch in the south of France and you think of rosé. Well I do.
Les Arbousiers, Coteaux du Languedoc 2008 arrived from Virgin Wines in exchange for 699 of the 2,899 pennies kindly refunded to me [...]
Italian wines are often accused of being over-tannic. I guess that is a matter of opinion but I woke up with a headache this morning.
Last night I had the pleasure of attending my first Wine Society event, an informal tasting within the impressive architecture of the Freemason’s Hall on Bridge [...]
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