We had a very busy sales period over Christmas, and as a result, now in the relative calm of January we are having to increase our storage capacity. This means making more storage space upwards as we can’t expand outwards. So here’s Charles doing a spot of angle grinding as we install some pallet racking [...]

Well, we’ve been to check what’s happened since we spotted the obvious contenders for “half price” Champagne. Who had the most bare-faced cheek this year? (so far);
Adsa - Pierre Darcys £23.98, and Francois Rozay £23.98. The Pierre Darcys is down 60% to £10.00
Waitrose - Bredon £20.99 Down 33% to £14.00
Tesco - G.H.Martel & Co £26.97, [...]

We are about to enter the Christmas promotional period in the supermarkets so I have been round to see if I can spot the Champagnes intended to be “half-priced”; you know - bring in a product, pretend it’s on sale at a high price for a month, then surprise, surprise, it’s at a massive discount for [...]

As I was sitting down to my first glass of the evening just now (Les Cimels Blanc, as it happens -great wine. If you like Gavi di Gavi try this) to watch Eggheads (6p.m. start)  I realised that three years ago when we had just started up the business I was sitting down to watch Countdown [...]

If I drink three pints of Real Ale over the course of an evening in the pub, or enjoy and savour three and a half glasses of quality wine during a dinner party, that officially makes me a Binge Drinker. So both pictures above are accurately depicting Binge Drinkers, yet I really do not consider [...]

I first met Miguel Merino back in the ‘80s when we both had more hair and I was buying Rioja for Grants of St James’s. Miguel left Bodegas Berberana to develop Navarra wines just north of the River Ebro where his force of personality was instrumental in putting Navarran wines on the international wine map. [...]

Evidence of a good night’s eating and drinking is always a fine sight on a Sunday morning.
 

We drank the new Lovre Prosecco Spumante which was recommended recently in The Sunday Express, followed bu Verus whites and Queulat Merlot, with Verus late harvest for the Lemon Meringue Pie.
The point of this is not to gloat about [...]

With Chilean wines being so much in my mind thses days I was lucky enough to have a chat with Alejandro Galaz, Chief Winemaker at Ventisquero. He not only oversees the entire Ventisquero range, but also works closely with John Duval on Pangea.
In my opinion Ventisquero have achieved that most remarkable of feats; to make [...]

The sky’s a flawless blue and we’ve lost count of how many people are telling us that it’s usually cold and wet. So our visit to Lerwick’s swanky new museum is kicked into touch again as we opt for another day outdoors and head for the west side of the island
 
Our destination is Sandness, at [...]

Carrot Cakes come in many guises and they seem to me often to go strong on other ingredients. Leafing through our recipe books I’ve seen cinnamon, oranges, lemons, desiccated coconut, ground almonds, bananas, pineapple chunks, nutmeg, vanilla essence, ground cardamom. This seems to be in order to disguise the taste of the carrot, which defeats [...]