How Indian whisky moved from back-street dens to pride-of-place May 11, 2021 The thought of Indian whisky once made even the least discerning spirits-drinker shudder. Now the price of it does. Bangalore is a long way from Islay but its distillers have changed the way we think about Indian spirits. Leading this charge is Amrut, a distillery founded in Karnataka in 1948 and initially producing spirits including [...]
How to celebrate World Cocktail Day this Thursday May 10, 2021 This Thursday is World Cocktail Day, and what better way to celebrate than splashing out on some new glass- and silverware with which to shake and sip your mix of sugary booze? For collectors that means more than a cursory scroll through the Amazon listings: must-have items include Art Deco Parisian ‘Boston’ cocktail shakers and [...]
What does your postcode say about your taste in wine? May 7, 2021 The most popular wine in north and east London this year was the Picpoul De Pinet, Réserve De La Roquemolière. In south and west London, it was Comte De Provence Rosé, La Vidaubanaise. According to on-demand delivery service Wineapp, East Londoners order 15 per cent more red than white wine. West Londoners order 30 per [...]
Drinking around the world: Take a trip to Lanzarote, wine paradise May 6, 2021 The latest wine region to erupt onto the wine tourism atlas is Lanzarote, with the Canarian island hoping to be among the first destinations to revive European wine tourism. With travel restrictions lifting, a former investment banker and surfing instructor from Guernsey and a former GB Olympic swimming trials finalist from Sunderland want to make [...]
Drinking around the world: Tasmania is a winemaker to watch May 5, 2021 You have probably never considered stocking up on wine from either Swansea or St Helens. Both are on Tasmania’s Great Eastern Wine Trail, one of four in Australia’s island state. Tassie, the “Apple Isle”, is also home to the Tamar Valley wine road, the East Coast route and the Cradle Coast region, which boasts Ghost [...]
Drinking around the world: The Corsican wine loved by Napoleon May 4, 2021 Napoleon, the son of an Ajaccio winemaker on the Granite island of Corsica, died two hundred years ago this week. Films portray Corsica as a place of scrubland, beaches, vendettas and banditry, while cookery shows spotlight the island’s world-beating urchins, “figatelli” smoked chestnut sausage, cured hams and ripened brocciu cheese. But they ignore the excellent [...]
The age of the staycation: Why you should visit… Guildford May 4, 2021 Welcome to the golden age of the staycation. Last week rail bookings trebled, with the most popular getaway destinations being Margate, Weymouth, Brighton, Inverness, Cambridge, Bournemouth and Guildford. The latter can be reached in little over half an hour from Waterloo. But what is the secret to Guildford’s popularity? The County town of Surrey and [...]
The wine untouched by the scourge of daylight April 30, 2021 Slovenian Untouched By Light sparkling wine does exactly what it says on the bottle. Its Chardonnay grapes are picked on moonless nights on the Bouvier family (as in Jackie Kennedy) Radgona vineyard in south-east Slovenia and matured in pitch-black, 170-year-old cellars. They are bottled in 99.8% black glass and shipped and sold in vacuum-sealed light-free bags. [...]
Drinking around the world: Care for a glass of Dutch red? April 28, 2021 When one thinks of wine growing terroir, thoughts turn to the rolling valleys of the Languedoc or the rugged terrain of the Duero River Valley. The flat-as-a-pancake Dutch countryside doesn’t generally spring to mind. But with more than 200 active, commercial vineyards, Holland is slowly gaining international attention as a wine-making region as it recovers [...]
Wine’s not just for tasting: Meet the wine photographer of the year April 28, 2021 Wine is not just about the nose, the finish and mouth feel. It’s about inspiration, lighting, styling, composition and framing, and being in the right place at the right time. Spain’s Oscar Olivares, an award-winning vinographer, has just become the 2021 Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year, receiving a prize of £1,000 and the prestigious [...]
