These Top 5 drinks lists will introduce you to my favourite wine regions, bars, wines, cocktails and wine folk.
Japanese Whisky By Fredrik Uden The history of Japanese whisky starts with Masataka Taketsuru going to Scotland in 1918. He is already a chemist and comes from a family with a long history of sake brewing. His sole purpose in visiting Scotland is to study the art of whisky making. This is the beginning of […]
While cocktails are typically served before dinner, I find some are better suited to the end of the evening. Here’s my version of five classic cocktails that are perfect after, or instead of, dessert. Make your own simple sugar syrup by combining equal quantities of water and sugar or have fun with the exciting range […]
Let’s take a quick vicarious holiday to the town of Jerez de la Frontera and its surrounds, a fascinating part of southern Spain. I visited a few years ago to learn about my favourite wine style, Sherry, and discovered there’s so much more to this very special spot just over an hour’s drive from […]
Often relegated to the aperitif and dessert ends of a meal, the complex wines of the Jerez region of southern Spain are in fact incredibly diverse and food-friendly, great at every stage of a meal. Here’s an excuse to get a few friends together for a Sherry-matched lunch or dinner: my suggested menu, with […]
Top 5Marco de Jerez For over 50 years, in order to be classified as Sherry a wine produced in Jerez had to be fortified with neutral grape spirit to raise its alcohol level to at least 15%. Originally though not all Sherry was fortified, some made it to the requisite strength of 15% simply from […]
How do you like your pinot: black, grey, white or speckled? Sparkling, still, red, white or rosé? Perhaps a serious Burgundy or a cheeky little blanc de noir? Confused? Don’t be, here’s everything you need to know about one of the world’s most versatile (and delicious) grapes. Pinot is a very old grape variety, which […]
I don’t mean rosé, I mean real red wines that are just so good drunk with a bit of a chill, especially in summer! After all, red wine is intended to be drunk at ‘cellar temperature’ and a European cellar is probably around 15°C all year, not the 35°+ our bottles reach when they sit […]
What is this term, pet nat, appearing on crown-sealed bottles of cloudy fizz? It’s shorthand for the French pétillant naturel, or ‘sparkling natural’. Sure pet nats are one of the latest things in the world of natural wine … but then everything old is new again, and these are made by the simplest and oldest […]
Forget cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and even pinot noir just for a moment. As fine as they are, there’s a whole world of grape varieties out there to explore, and many of the most widely available in Australia hail from Italy. Hardly surprising given our enduring love affair with Italian food and culture. Every region of […]
One of the less visited areas of France, Jura is a diverse landscape of plains, vineyard-clad hills and the rugged Jura Mountains, which it shares with neighbouring Switzerland. There’s some spectacular scenery and delicious food, but most exciting of all is the unique vin jaune (‘yellow wine’) that has made this region famous among oenophiles […]
