Wine » General drinking

Guy should not be looking so happy

Lunch with Guy and Marie-Pierre – could try harder

On Sunday we had great fun hosting Guy Dennis and his fiancée Marie-Pierre. It was great that Guy had found a partner so charming and generally lovely. Shame only one of the other four things Guy brought along was any good. The meal was a great success (once again) for the meat of Woodlands Jersey [...]


Ricard with Cuvee 735

Pleasures of the flesh with Ricard and Dani

The charming Ricard Sariola joined Dani and I to celebrate St George’s day with a wing rib of beef. Roast beef is about as English as things get and so am I! We also tasted Riesling, Burgundy and a selection of heroic Mourvedres. Truly we are serious chaps to undertake such an engagement for Monday [...]


Simon Taylor with Balthazar Cornas 2001

Drinking with Stone, Vine and Sun

Being fairly new to the Winchester area it is good to make new friends. Consequently, on Monday night we enjoyed going the The Old Forge in Otterbourne to go drinking with Stone, Vine and Sun’s Simon Taylor and Gordon Coates. They are the local serious wine merchant and based upon what we enjoyed together I [...]


Mission 82, Mouton 89 and lovely Keithy P!

Lunch with Keith Prothero

This will be a brief report, but I hope to capture the brilliance of the occasion that was lunch with Keith Prothero. Not only is he a lovely fellow, but all his friends are too, and all share exquisite taste in food and drink. Best lunch I’ve had in ages – well done Nigel P-M [...]


Lance Foyster with Henri Jouan Gevrey Chambertin Aux Echezeaux

Lovely Gevrey-Chambertin

I visited the Specialist Importers Trade Tasting (SITT) a few days ago. It was a large event with far too many wines on show to taste the lot, but a lovely Gevrey-Chambertin from Domaine Henri Jouan really stood out as being marvellous. Henri-Jouan is a new domaine to me. He is based in Morey-Saint-Denis and [...]


Mac Forbes and I flash our favourite ones

A day of superlatives – pizza, purveyor and producer

Tuesdays are rarely thought of as the most lark and jape-filled days, yet this Tuesday I had a royal time quite unlike any other Tuesday in recent memory. Not only was there excellent food and wine but greater enjoyment value was provided by seeing two friends who are firmly established at a far more grown-up [...]


Some of the wines we sampled

An evening’s drinking rarely leaves me this impressed

Once again it was our pleasure to host Peter Sidebotham (of Hand-Picked Burgundy) and Peter Palmer (the Black Sea wanderer) at Elitistreview Towers. We drank quite mind-bogglingly well, but I was a tad dejected that three weeks off the sauce whilst in hospital has done my historically epic tolerance no favours at all. I was [...]


Domaine Tempier 1999s

A convocation of captains

James Hardy, Peter Palmer and I are rightly proud to have been captains of the Oxford University blind tasting team. As I am sure you can imagine, this means we are very keen on drinking top bunny wine. Just the other day (well, it was 10 days ago, but my computer being functionally-challenged and my [...]


Richard celebrating his son's first birthday in a minimalist style

Stunning drinking at a one year old’s birthday party

It really has been a dismaying length of time since I attended a one year old’s birthday party, so long indeed that time has bleached the memory from my tired old brain. What I can be sure of is that way back then I did not drink such a stunning array of joyously engaging wines, [...]


Kathryn Tully modelling Cos d'Estournel 1988

A few days drinking in Jersey part 2 – the reds

Part two of my report on the Ile d’Amour larks is about the red wines. Edward has a bit of a thing for Claret, which my long-term reader will know I view as over-priced, over-hyped and just so god-damned dreary. But I liked the two he popped (hmmmm… liked? Perhaps ‘endured with a smile’). The [...]

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