Q&A: ?Lee Potter Cavanagh, executive bartender for Corrett Restaurants

Formerly group bars manager of HIX restaurants, Cavanagh brings 13 years of experience to the Big Easy, Covent Garden, which opens in March and sits down to talk with Douglas Byde.

Douglas Blyde takes a gastronomic tour through Cognac with Eaux de Vie

An outdoor sculpture depicts what looks like tortured Ribena currants at Domaines Francis Abécassis. Apparently the mass of goggling eyes on stalks and bared teeth does not perturb the neighbours (not that there are a great many to perturb). Perhaps because what goes in the bottle is so governed by doctrine in the world of drinks, the 'art' outside it becomes ever more overstated...

Douglas Blyde talks to Benoît Liébus about life as sommelier at Crillon le Brave, Provence

Beno&icirct Liébus, chess fan and fast driver, is sommelier at Crillon le Brave, Provence. Crouching at the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail mountains among the Ventoux's vineyards, the Relais & Châteaux property opened 25 years ago, a cluster of derelict buildings converted into bedrooms.

Douglas Blyde goes on a mission to discover the Médoc

A bottle bigger than a very big man towers over revolving baggage at Bordeaux airport. Around it, sommeliers gather. Bacchanalian worship. They are set to explore the Médoc. Between the Atlantic and river Gironde, 12,000 acres of tropical sea then marsh drained by merchant Dutch in the seventeenth century support tenacious vines. The châteaux with the best hand of land gained lasting recognition from the 1855 classification ordered for Napoleon III's Universal Exposition. It emerged all reds bar one (Haut-Brion, Graves) were reaped from the Médoc. However, in addition to those hallowed bottles (the Grand Cru Classé accounts for 20% of production) this is a land of diversity.

Q&A: Sandro Saadé, co-founder of Bekaa Valley's Château Marsyas and Syria's Domaine de Bargylus

The co-founder with brother Karim, of Bekaa Valley Château Marsyas and Syria's Domaine de Bargylus - described as "the finest wine produced in the Eastern Mediterranean" by Hugh Johnson - talks to Douglas Blyde about realising an ancient dream...

Douglas Blyde loses himself in the unique splendour of Les Trois Garcons

Les Trois Garçons unravels in an 133 year-old pub. Once a squat "cared for" by its' 30 residents, "Garçons", Hassan, Michel and Stefan (from Malaysia, France and Sweden) lavishly restored the building in 1996, making the upstairs floors exclusively their home. Four years on, they opened the ground floor restaurant, unleashing on the public design tastes which have since become sought after by a celebrity clientele.

Douglas Blyde on rediscovering Muscadet with the Choblets

"Sowing the future in a middle of a crisis," I remark, gazing deep into the monochrome photo.  Sturdy ox gently tug primitive-looking planting equipment. Beyond, hare guards encircle just transplanted, sappy vines. The effect is not unlike pets wrapped in anti-itch collars. In the foreground, a photographer's shadow looms large. The sunny year, according to the Choblet brothers, is 1944, and the shadow is their grandfather.

Q&A with Sandro Saadé, one of Syria's leading winemakers

Douglas Blyde explores Alsace wine with Etienne and Kaoru Hugel on their "working honeymoon"

I reflect, an hour afterwards, on the lightening that threatened to lash my City Jet's slim belly as it was hassled by turbulence heading back to London. Now, with every sip of soothing Alsace wine savoured in Hakkasan's dining room of ebony and Chinoiserie, tension steadily slips away.

Douglas Blyde on all there is to know about Digby Fine English sparkling wine

"England has quite a lot of quite good wines, but few have thought through what their mojo is," says Trevor Clough, co-founder with husband, business partner, and "breadwinner" (a computer speech recognition specialist), Jason Humphries, of Digby Fine English sparkling wines. A former corporate strategist advising Fortune 500 firms, the American/Englishman, born north of Boston and raised in Germany, cites California as inspiration to quit his job to invest time in wine. "I want a tiny part of Napa's fairy dust to rub-off on England," he says.

Q&A: Thierry Budin, general director of Crédit Agricole

Over a tasting at seminal London restaurant, Le Gavroche, due to close for a month-long refurbishment in January, Douglas Blyde talks to Thierry Budin, general director of Crédit Agricole. The châteaux collection incorporates Bordeaux properties: Château de Rayne Vigneau (first growth Sauternes), Château Grand-Puy Ducasse (fifth growth Pauillac) and Château Blaignan (Médoc, Bourgeois). Also in the portfolio: Château de Santenay (which includes Mercurey, Aloxe-Corton, Beaune 1er Cru and Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy), and Château Saint Louis La Perdrix (Rhône).

Douglas Blyde gets his hands dirty in a "cook off" competition with Cloudy Bay

Game on: Douglas Blyde samples the menu at the Jugged Hare

Judging by the tall wall of taxidermy behind the bar, mobile of hares strung over the stairs, and glass meat locker where a cleaver artfully bisects a pig's head, the Jugged Hare clearly caters to a carnivorous clientele.

Restaurant review: One Leicester Street

Key members of St John's staff remain at cosier incarnation One Leicester Street. Formerly the first hotel from Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver, who described it as "a mini grand urban hut", and before that, Italian restaurant Manzi's, the sheer, slim...

Douglas Blyde discovers Hampshire wine at Hattingley Valley

A minibus ordinarily reserved for the school run chugs restaurateurs, sommeliers and writers of various generations from Basingstoke station to Hampshire's Hattingley Valley. There, chicken sheds have made way for a winery which, beyond cobbled walls, is cutting edge, complete with Coquard press from Epernay run by solar power.

Restaurant review: Red House

London's fascination with American food, at every price point, appears relentless. A five week-long refurbishment by New York designer Meg Sharpe has seen Chelsea Green's urbane Markham Inn reopen as the rather shinier Red House. John DeLucie, chef/owner of Manhattan restaurants Crown and The Lion, and founding chef of The Waverly Inn (co-owned by Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter) has authored menus.

Douglas Blyde delights in three new releases from Glenfiddich

The minds behind Glenfiddich, the most awarded and potentially most exported single malt whisky, gathered in Piccadily at the HQ of the Royal Society of Chemistry to launch three newcomers to the range.

Douglas Blyde enjoys fine dining courtesy of First Great Western's Pullman service

Douglas Blyde samples First Great Western's Pullman Service, the last train service in Europe to offer freshly prepared food paired with the finest wines.

Douglas Blyde heads up to Aqua Shard

The Shard - tallest skyscraper in the EU, nine years in the planning, and three-and-a-half years in the building - is the vision of Renzo Piano. The "best buildings" of the Genoese architect evoke such"serenity" claims former New York Times critic, Nicolai Ouroussoff, as to "almost make you believe that we live in a civilized world."

Douglas Blyde: Up the Shard