Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: London’s best dog-friendly restaurants March 26, 2025 Last week Franco Manca announced that they have become ‘dog friendly’. This a welcome turnaround for the restaurant group that turned away a guide dog from one of their venues in 2018. Fortunately, this shameful incident led to my meeting with Dave Kent, the blind gentleman who required his trusty friend Chad to lead him [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines diary: I visit Oxford’s trendy new rooftop March 26, 2025 This week in Libby’s Naked Wines diary, our wine columnist visits Oxford Simon Drake glides up to me in a jacket that looks and feels like he has skinned the Velveteen Rabbit. Indeed, it is so soft I pause for just longer than is potentially acceptable to stroke his velvety arm – before he gently [...]
Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: The best restaurants in Florence March 20, 2025 Last week began with a wonderfully long lunch in Bluebird Chelsea with Mirabeau founder Stephen Cronk and his chief exec Richard Larkin. Everyone in the drinks business loves these guys, but I take credit for introducing the Batman and Robin of Provencal rose to each other back in 2017. In Bluebird, the restaurant atmosphere was [...]
Hannes Myburgh’s Meerlust Estate is wine tasting paradise March 18, 2025 Meerlust Rubicon was the first wine I bought en primeur. This is the process of buying wine while it is still aging, ahead of it coming to market. It means securing sought-after bottles at potentially lower prices while the winemakers receive an early cash flow. I felt very grown up and sophisticated and rather lucky [...]
Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: Best Japanese restaurants in London March 12, 2025 Last week I was busy spending time dining charitably with sporting heroes. It began by sending Shawsey off on his ‘Legends of Telemark’ mission (he raises funds for MND) with a lunch where beautiful beef wellingtons reigned. It took place in the company of former Scottish international, Ryan Wilson at the Black Lamb in Wimbledon [...]
Diving for wine in the ocean paradise of the Maldives March 7, 2025 You don’t think of the Maldives as a wine country. It’s dry for a start, and no vines grow on these sandy atolls. But exciting things are happening here. Emerald Maldives Resort and Spa have started aging wine on the sea floor and, to show there are no depths I will not go to for [...]
Eat, drink, sleep, repeat: The best gastropubs in London March 6, 2025 The past week has been one of celebrations. Gordon Ramsay opened his 22 Bishopsgate venue, where I enjoyed caviar and Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir as Nick Grimshaw played tunes and GQ’s Worst Dressed Man of 2018, Joe Wicks, danced with Angela Hartnett and other ‘A-listers’. I enjoyed an amazing St David’s Day dinner at Quaglino’s [...]
Libby’s Naked Wines diary: artful drinking in Mayfair March 5, 2025 Libby’s Naked Wines diary: this week, CityAM’s wine columnist Libby Brodie is with Mayfair’s art set It was one of those events where everyone is the most interesting person in the room. A small gathering of London’s fashionable and fascinating to wish farewell to Stephen Webster’s Mount Street Salon, as he moves his London [...]
International Women’s Day: The future of women in wine March 3, 2025 This International Women’s Day, I caught up with Queena Wong, a wine enthusiast who is helping to reshape the industry for the better Queena Wong has become a controversial character in wine after spearheading the first UK Women in Wine Survey. According to marketing research agency PROOF Insight, 78 per cent of the women who [...]
Why Tasmania is Australia’s overlooked wine destination February 26, 2025 It was only four years ago I was served a glass of House of Arras, an exceptional sparkling wine, full of crystalline precision and refined fizz. I was surprised to hear it was from Tasmania. Before then, I knew very little about wines from this region. London is the most exciting marketplace for wine in [...]