“Some of the wines are available in the UK; others are so rare it is unlikely that you will be able to find much literature on them,” said the email from an MW. I’d have gone a long way and spent hours in a cold, damp cellar to taste the wines made from these grape varieties, but I didn’t have to. They were going to be served at a six-course dinner in the private dining room of Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill. It was not an invitation to turn down. So I didn’t. Nor did the Presid

New year, new grape varieties: ten grapes and wines for 2016 Remember Grü-V? Yes, the American moniker for Grüner Veltliner. The trouble was that by the time sommeliers and their customers were saying Grü-V it was anything but, er, groovy. Fashions come and go in wine as in all things and there’s always somebody out there trying to outdo everyone else by requesting the most recherché lesser-spotted grape variety, To help you keep ahead of the game, here are ten cool grapes an

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with some material for Christmas quizzes, longueurs in the conversation, one-upmanship with the family wine bore, charades (not the sort of charades I play –ed) and so on and so forth, perhaps leaving some leftover material for a pub wine quiz or two in 2016. Let’s do it with grape varieties – always rich pickings (sorry, terrible pun – just thinking of the Christmas crackers) and let’s focus on crossings and synonyms. · Cabest