Allegedly, chicken tikka marsala is our new national dish. True or not, it's a good conversational poppadum to snap over a masala dosa. What is certainly true is that the South Asian restaurant industry is a well-established part of the modern high street.
Read more...It's easy to conclude that hiring an external wine list consultant is purely for the restauranteur with more money than sense. How hard can it be to write a wine list after all?
Read more...It's a bit complicated interviewing Patrick Bernard. You talk to this very affable, very charming man for whom wine is a third career - and you realise that the second career, which was in the family brandy company, is still part of the story, because the ownership is the same as for Millsima.
Read more...Having just returned from the London International Wine & Spirits Fair, probably the last thing you want to think about is another exhibition. But MiWine, which claims to showcase the finest spirits and wine makers throughout Italy as well as exhibitors from other producing countries, takes place from 12-14 June in Milan.
Read more...You grew up in Bordeaux but learned about wine in Jersey. Isn't this a bit back to front?
I suppose it is. For some reason, the wine courses at my catering college were very complicated - maybe I didn't really click with the teacher or something - but when I arrived at Longueville, I was encouraged to learn about wine in depth.
The more I travel across Eastern and southeastern Europe, the more amazing I find it that countries geographically so close can be so vastly different in their cultures and in their wine industries. Each of these countries has its own distinct challenges and opportunities ahead, not least influenced by the long arms of the EU.
Read more...The market research profession gets a bit of a mixed press. First, the good news: thanks to advances in technology, it has never been easier to gather views on the products individuals buy and consume.
Read more...It's taken for granted now, but there was a time when Mis en bouteille au chteau' was a badge of honour, signifying that a wine had not been sloshed around in a barrel while en route to the UK. Bottled at source and with its cork firmly in place, the quality of the wine was vouchsafed by its arrival: intact, labelled and ready for the consumer. Taken for granted, but increasingly not the case.
How did you start?
I was a management trainee at the Coconut Grove, then went on to manage the Hampton Court Brasserie, Sweeney Todd's in Northampton and The Golden Pheasant in Oxford. And then I managed a caravan park in the Lake District.
Two years ago there was a press visit to Gallo's headquarters in Modesto and to its Livingston winery (which claims to be the largest in the world). Letting the press into the heart of the Gallo operations would have been unthinkable a few years before. Since then, I have been chasing the chance to meet Joe Gallo, the man at the centre of what is probably the largest single wine brand in the world.
Across many northern hemisphere countries, the 2005 vintage was exceptionally dry, while a few had the opposite problem. Harpers rounds up the most important harvest reports from an already much-hyped year
Read more...Those who feels that the relatively recent ros revolution' represents just a footnote in the history of UK wine consumption need do little more than glimpse at the latest release from publishers Weidenfeld & Nicholson to be convinced otherwise.
Read more...The World Cup is over and Australia inched to glory after a tense and sweaty final against gallant runners-up Portugal.
Brazil was forced into early retirement after an embarrassing first-round thrashing, while Germany succumbed in the semis.
Two years ago I visited several wineries in Romania all making wines that, in terms of quality and value, could hold their own with what is on UK wine shelves, at least up to the 10 mark. I was able to express enthusiasm about the wines, but my heart sank when, as inevitably happens when visiting a region not well established in the UK, I was asked about how they might prosper in the UK.
As a consumer, I readily to admit to being something of a Riedel convert. After all, I've done the tastings, seen the light and got the glasses (well, some of them). Wine really does seem to taste better in a Riedel glass - especially if it's the right' one. And yet, the journalist in me can't help but remain a tad agnostic about some of the proselytising in Riedel's sales pitch.
How did you get into this business?
I was in the RAF for seven years, in a catering squadron, and when I left I planned to go home to Sydney. But I had a house in Torquay that I wanted to sell first. In the interim, I needed a job and I spotted an ad for a general assistant at Gidleigh Park Hotel. I had never heard of Gidleigh and had no idea about Relais & Chateaux or Michelin stars. I remember driving down this narrow, winding road and coming round the last corner to see this mock-Tudor mansion embedded in the hillside. Paul Henderson, the owner at the time, is a former US marine, so we spent most of the interview discussing my time in the service. He took me on and I ended up staying until 2002.
What made you set up shop in Torquay?
Simon, my husband and the head chef, went to school round here, and his family live in Paignton, the town next door, so we know the area. People have this image of Torquay, but it's not like Fawlty Towers any more.
Last month, a press release arrived at Harpers Towers declaring that the recruitment process was under way to find a UK director for Wines of Argentina's London office. This will be a challenging appointment,' it said. They're not wrong.
Read more...If the worldly trials of the drinks industry ever get you down, a trawl through the entries relating to religion (Bible, Eucharist, Religion) in the Oxford Companion to Wine could prove to be a tonic. Whatever your spiritual persuasion - Christian, Jewish, pagan - here you will find succinct reminders of the central role that wine has played in myriad aspects of Western spiritual and psychic development ever since Noah planted the first vine in Genesis.
Read more...France Under One Roof
Wednesday 22 March
The Nursery End Pavilion,
Lord's Cricket Ground, Wellington Road,
London NW8 (North Gate Entrance)
10am-5pm
For more details contact Jane Hunt MW on 01451 831682; janehuntmw@aol.com
