The other day I had one of those awkward moments. We were guests at dinner. ‘You’re a wine writer!’ said our host. ‘I’d like your opinion on these two!’ You’re still supposed to say, ‘Goodness, these are delicious! What did they cost? Only £4.99 a bottle! That’s amazing!’ Instead you cast round for words that
Adam Brett-Smith of Corney & Barrow says this offer contains two of the least expensive fine wines in the world. He’s probably right. We are offering both, plus a couple of less pricey wines for parties, restoring the tissues, or any occasion. Prices are reduced, and there is the Brett-Smith Indulgence, whereby you can knock
An excellent selection of European wines this week from Private Cellar, the first-rate East Anglian merchants who sell loads of fine, established wines but always keep an eye open for less expensive bottles which often are as good, if not better, than their more famous neighbours. And with the pound down against the euro yet
The annual offer of Château Musar is here, and The Wine Company of Colchester has again given us some very generous discounts. I never recommend wine as an investment, partly because I believe it is for drinking rather than money-making, and also because I don’t want to be blamed for you losing your life savings.
Around twice a year, I visit the Swig world HQ (an office in Chiswick, west London) and taste some of the most delicious wines known to humanity. Next day I consult my notes, and realise that it is going to be almost impossible to make a choice. They are too good, too delectable and such
Our new offer comes — this always sounds like a misprint — from FromVineyardsDirect, the terrifically popular wine merchants which sells vast quantities of wine to Spectator readers. And no wonder; their list is fairly short but impeccably selected. They track down delectable wines and buy them directly from the people who make them, which
Some people think that Southwold, that tranquil seaside town in Suffolk, is hopelessly middle class. So what? I love it. I like staying in the Swan hotel, with its great gilt swan on the outside, eating from the adventurous menu in the Crown, walking on the eccentric pier, admiring the strand of beach huts, and
I’ve always been baffled by the French attitude to wine. Either they drink too much or too little. When I was a student, a long time ago, I spent some months travelling around the country, including a few weeks at the house of a friend of a friend of my father. Every day my host
A question I’m often asked is -whether a particular wine is ‘worth it’. The answer, generally, is ‘no’ if the wine costs £3.99 and resembles alcoholic dishwater; ‘yes’ if it costs £19.95 but tastes like nectar and fills you with joy as you sip it. I mention in my book, the second edition of Life’s
Father Christmas this year comes disguised as Mark Cronshaw of The Wine Company in Colchester. He has offered some huge savings on fine wines for yuletide glugging, and so while this Mini-Bar costs somewhat more than our usual offers, it does include special treats for your holiday feasting. There are three great Burgundies, and that
Last year a similar offer by FromVineyardsDirect was the biggest seller in Spectator history. I wasn’t surprised. These Bordeaux wines are astonishing value, all coming from some of the most celebrated châteaux in France. We generally can’t tell you where they were made – it’s part of the deal – but we can drop heavy
Four delicious wines from the estimable Private Cellar. Three are from France, and one from Italy. A mixed case would, I think, cover all your drinking needs for quite a few days. The Italian is a Soave. That’s Italian for ‘suave’, but much of the wine sold under that name is less boulevardier than chav.
My colleague and friend the late Alan Watkins was for a spell wine writer on the Observer. Though I had not yet taken up the Spectator job, we disagreed on some important oenophiliac issues. I liked full, rich, strongly flavoured wines, often from the New World. He said they were all well and good, but
This is a splendid offer made by FromVineyardsDirect, always a favourite with Spectator readers. It’s a little more expensive than some recent offers, but each wine is such tremendous value that I have no hesitation in recommending them all, heartily. As we move into autumn and winter approaches I’ve picked three terrific reds and just
An offer from Corney & Barrow, with their amazing range of wines and wonderfully efficient service, is always welcome. Corney & Barrow specialise in some of the finest wines available to humanity (© Withnail and I) — think Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Pétrus — but here I have made a selection of medium-priced bottles which
August is a slow month for wine sales, which no doubt is why Mark Cronshaw of The Wine Company in Colchester has slashed so many prices in this offer. These six wines are all delectable. One is reduced by a remarkable £48 a case. (Often this happens because a wine is absolutely first-rate but largely
Earlier this month we held a wine fair at The Spectator, using the tents that next day sheltered the magazine’s summer party. It was great fun, and our six principal partners sold plenty of wine. The event is free; come next year! There were some terrific bottles, many discounted, such as the gorgeous Chilean Pionero
You wouldn’t necessarily use the word subtle to describe a programme in which a well-dressed, well-spoken woman describes a speech that’s been altered as ‘pencil-fucked, completely’ but Veep (Monday, Sky Atlantic) is subtle, sinuously subtle. In his way Armando Iannucci is as creative with the English language as James Joyce. He is proof that doing
The BBC has been heavily criticised for its coverage of the Jubilee flotilla, and the tone was incredibly annoying. All those smiley celebrities pretending to enjoy themselves! The tabloids, those for whom the Beeb can never do anything right, would have been just as mean if the treatment had been sombre and serious. ‘And we
This is the week we almost drowned in Jubilee programmes. Sadly, many of these were unavailable to reviewers, possibly because to criticise such a programme would itself amount to lèse-majesté, or perhaps they just hadn’t finished the edit. But I doubt we’ve missed much. This weekend BBC1 (Friday) was running A Jubilee Tribute to the
