September 2015

Aldi picks up prestigious drinks retailer of the year gong

Aldi has been named Best Multiple Drinks Retailer of the Year in the Harpers Awards. It beat off competition from 2014’s winner Co-op and Waitrose, which was also in the running for the gong. The Harpers Awards are designed to celebrate the crème de la crème of the wine and spirits world. This is the second […]

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Grapes arrive freshly picked at Taylor's Port Nogueira winery

Treading grapes to the Birdie Song beat puts the soul into Taylor’s port

Forget jazz, classical music or even opera. It’s the Birdie Song played on a little electrical organ which might be putting the soul into Taylor’s port wine. Or should that be sole. For one night only at Quinta de Vargellas in the Douro Valley in Portugal, the heart of port country, I stomped, wiggled and jiggled. I

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Wines to go with British Food Fortnight

British Food Fortnight is great excuse to eat (and drink wine!)

BRITISH Food Fortnight 2015 is well underway …  I enjoy British food the rest of the year too, but when these things come along it’s an excuse for one of my foodie Scientific Experiments. For your benefit I’ve roasted a chicken, plated up a Ploughman’s and coaxed a crispy topping onto a cottage pie. Chicken and

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Dine with Bordeaux 2015

Dine with Bordeaux and enjoy great food and wine pairings

I had a lovely bottle of Bordeaux at French restaurant Caveau in Liverpool the other night. Château Cru Cantemerle, Bordeaux Supérieur 2012 was ruddy with redcurrants, pecked with pepper and tickled with a touch a tobacco. It was a very moreish glass of something to sit alongside my plate of grilled lamb cutlets served with

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bordeaux wine styles explained

Six styles of Bordeaux wine explained in simple steps

Bordeaux wine might be a bit daunting; ooooh all those different tastes, styles, let alone names we can’t pronounce properly. I went along to a Bordeaux tasting run by Dan Harwood at Vinea, Liverpool, on behalf of the Bordeaux Wine Council. (Bordeaux.com/uk)  Dan has some wise words to share and some simple little word clouds too, which help

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International Grenache Day, La Garnacha Salvaje del Moncayo 2014, Majestic

Five wine picks for International Grenache Day. Don’t forget the bunting.

WE ALL love a reason to celebrate, so here’s advance warning of International Grenache Day. Buy the bunting, invite your friends round, bake a cake as it’s next Friday (September 18 2015). Grenache Day is a global event organised by the Grenache Symposium Association. I bobbed onto their website which waxes lyrical about the grape.

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