Guy Woodward: My 10 New Year’s resolutions
1. DRINK WHEN I WANT
Read more...1. DRINK WHEN I WANT
Read more...In case you missed some of the headlines this week on harpers.co.uk, we have put together a review of the top online news, Q&As, and opinion stories.
Twenty years ago it may have been, but I can safely say that my membership of Manchester University Wine Society was a successful one. Not in terms of laying the foundations for a career as editor of a well-respected consumer wine magazine, a notion that would have been laughable to both me and my fellow members at the time. No, its main, possibly only, benefit was in meeting girls – and accumulating the brazen gall to actually speak to them.
Read more...Being a passive observer, rather than an active member, of the wine trade can bring into focus how slow it is to change
Read more...As a middle-aged, middle-class man, my weekly highlight is Saturday morning, illuminated by a warm croissant (180ºC for eight minutes, served with passion fruit curd), a Nespresso coffee (medium froth, Ristretto pod) plus the weekend papers - and here's the most indulgent part - delivered to the door.
Read more...There was a degree of sniping when environment secretary Andrea Leadsom claimed recently that England was taking its place "among the world's most renowned wine producers".
Read more...It's the impossible question. And also, of course, the one that members of the trade are most frequently asked. "What's your favourite wine?" In the past, I always used to trot out the standard answer: "It depends" - on the occasion, the weather, the company, the mood and, of course, who's paying.
Read more...My former colleague Adam Lechmere came out with a great line the other day.
Read more...I'm in the market for a new car. Such a substantial purchase demands extensive research. Doubtless petrolheads would be in heaven at the prospect of debating fuel economy stats with like-minded car bores. For me, though, with my pitiful automotive knowledge, it is my worst nightmare.
Read more...Guy Woodward challenges- is it too much to expect that leading British restaurants carry an English wine by the glass?
Read more...If there are two things that Brexit has taught us about the mindset of the consumer right now, it's that the prevailing mood is anti-establishment, and that, partly as a consequence, when it comes to communicating a message the detail is not as integral as the tone.
Read more...Guy Woodward this month asks why women still under-represented in the wine trade when haveing women in all aspects of the business is so benefical.
Read more...For David Bowie, Terry Wogan and Ronnie Corbett, read Louis Latour, Paul Pontallier and Etienne Hugel. Maybe not in that order. But either way, 2016 has been as cruel a year in the wine community as it has in the wider world.
Read more...Guy Woodward reflects on how any wine "advice" may be viewed through the prism of wine being the preserve of patronising snobs.
Read more..."Condensation and distillation." No, not the method for a new hipster gin being made in a Shoreditch loft - rather Hugh Johnson's description of his own writing style.
Read more...I spent a few days in Qatar last month. Not a place that I expected to inform this column, but then travel is full of surprises.
Read more...When my name first started appearing at the top of this page each month, I promised myself there was one topic that I would strenuously avoid. Eighteen months in, I'm about to break that promise...
Read more...Along, it seemed, with half the UK's wine press, I was at the launch of Les 110 de Taillevent in London's Cavendish Square last week. My verdict? Go - and be sure to order the crab ravioli. What was most notable about the night, though, was not the guest list or the menu, but that here was a major restaurant being launched off the back of its wine offering.
Read more...In recent years, Chile's winemakers have started to show greater ingenuity and initiative in the vineyard and the winery. That sense of risk and personality needs to carry over to the way the wines are promoted.
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