Drink
A toast to the wisdom – and wit – of Norman Stone
We were in a club, discussing Norman Stone, recently departed, over a meal that he would have enjoyed. Norman divided…
25 years off the booze has taught me three simple things
What I’ve learnt from 25 years off the booze
Save us from fads and change for change’s sake
There is no new thing under the sun. Over the weekend, I read a book which was alarmingly relevant to…
Is wine an art?
Acouple of lawyers were disagreeing about a matter which could become increasingly relevant. Could a sitting president pardon himself? But…
Why our soldiers are more impressive than every other kind of leader
One of the pleasures of journalism is the opportunity to meet eminent persons: bankers, businessmen, civil servants, diplomats, politicians, vignerons.…
Stockbridge, Hampshire: an unexpected gastronomical haven
‘The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers / Pass me the bottle, old lad, there’s an end of summer.’…
How blind tastings led to wine’s identity crisis
Blind tastings have baffled since ‘the Judgment of Paris’
Is Frank Skinner the new Alan Bennett? Edinburgh Fringe round-up
For recovering teetotallers, like me, Thinking Drinkers is the perfect Edinburgh show. On stage, two sprucely dressed actors perform sketches…
Farewell to a bottle and a half per day – I have finally embarked on a diet
Are there still travelling fairs? In many villages, they used to be part of the annual round. For weeks, the…
I’m grateful for my grateful drinking friend
The phone rang. ‘You are the last person in the world I should be talking to’, proclaimed an old friend…
Tasting the true island spirit: single malts from the Isle of Arran
Arran, in the Firth of Clyde, is an island whose charms vary with the seasons. In summer, the hills are…
Found in a friend’s cellar — the wines of a lifetime
In longevity, great wine can march with human life. Creating (better still, maintaining) a fine cellar really is a compact…
Artisan gins leave me in low spirits
Spare me the hype over craft gins
Rare whiskies can be a better investment bet than first-growth clarets
Henry Jeffreys says a rare Scotch can be a better investment bet than first-growth claret
I survived a hen party — just
The hen party was seated at an outside restaurant table under the plane trees when I arrived. They sat with…
My love affair with single malt whisky
Mark Palmer on his late-blooming love affair with single malt whisky
Burgundies that taste of T.S. Eliot
Eliot. After 50 years trying to make sense of his verse, and at the risk of admitting to rampant philistinism,…
The wonder of Wetherspoons
Of all the stories I’ve heard about the fallout from Brexit — families divided, work jeopardised, friendships ended — the…
From kittens to claret: an ideal education
Call me a sentimental old whatever, but watching a four-year old hearing The Tale of Samuel Whiskers for the first…
Bloody Marys and the funniest woman in the House of Lords
To the Western Isles, or at least to its embassy in Belgravia. Boisdale restaurant always claims to be extra-territorial. There…
The only good thing about the Soviet Union was cheap caviar
I know an immensely grand aristocratic lady, impeccably mannered, with a regal grace and presence, who cannot be trusted near…
A better year ahead? That’s what the tsar expected in 1917
Someone came up with a century-old quotation plangent with irony and sadness: ‘The year 1916 was cursed: 1917 will surely…
How pub quizzes became normal
For more than 20 years now, I have been trudging up the hill to the Prince of Wales in Highgate…
Should I hang myself out to dry again this January?
And so it begins again. This time last year, I decided to see how long I could last without alcohol.…
Had someone deliberately messed up Lord Archer’s dinner?
I first ate at the London version of Harry’s Bar in the early 1990s. Back then, Jeffrey Archer and I…
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