My jottings this month are decidedly UK supermarket-centric and while the big chains have taken a battering in recent times – mostly due to changing shopping habits and the dizzying rise of discount stores such as Aldi and Lidl – for once I am in praise of the multinationals. The reasons for this about-turn I hope will become apparent. I think I’ve…
It would seem that the single most important and potent word in the marketing-speak vocabulary at the moment is ‘handcrafted’. For some extraordinary reason it makes the product or brand more worthy than its mass-produced counterpart and if you are able to add two more words, ‘locally produced’, the whole statement practically guarantees instant fame and fortune. So what does it mean?…
So time has been called on Vinopolis. Indeed, London’s wine and spirit part education, part tourist, and latterly (it has to be said) part naff attraction is to close its doors at the end of the year. If the green light is given on various planning applications a massive £300m retail park will be up and running by 2017. Oh what deep joy!…
Billed as “a delicious aperitif cocktail to tantalise your taste buds”, I can report that the Sunset Boulevardier does not disappoint. In truth, to aid and abet the muse and to celebrate the fact this column kicks off the new year, I have one on the go right now! It’s di-i-i-vine! “But, what,” I hear you cry, “is a Sunset Boulevardier?” …
In terms of foreign ownership it would seem Mexico’s tequila industry is all but done and dusted. The American companies Beam-Suntory, Brown-Forman and Bacardi are in the thick of the action with their respective brands Sauza, El Jimador and Cazadores, while the French might Pernod Ricard owns the duo Avion and Olmeca – and that’s just for starters. So it’s something of…
Until recently the one enduring highlight of what seems like a lifetime in the drinks industry (such hyperbole) was being on the spot when The Macallan was launched as a single malt scotch whisky in its own right. This was back in the early ’80s, when the single malt brand-wagon had yet to really get going. It was a bold…
My Martini kit has been much in use these past few days and it’s all the fault of the magnificent sounding Kay Plunkett-Hogge, whose book, Make Mine a Martini, has just been published. Full marks for the mouth-watering title – I instantly did make me a Martini and settled down for a read. A rattling good read as it transpires. Here’s a woman…
On the moving home front I have been quite lucky in that moves both in childhood and relative adulthood have not been that many. I bought my first house back in 1987 then, just after the noughties it was to a house closer to London and most recently I’ve moved into a new home in East Sussex. I mention this only because these three moves…
If you look at the classic cocktails on the scene at the turn of the 20th century it is somewhat surprising that few liqueurs feature in these different mixes – but that was much more to do with availability than a simple case of not using them. The classic cocktails that came into being just prior to Prohibition in the US, which…
THE BITTERS MARKET boasts one extraordinary anomaly and that is despite the taste of these bitter brews, it is big business and, more importantly, a growing one. Indeed, these herbal concoctions are a reminder of the close links alcohol used to have with the world of medicine – and that’s a nice way of putting it. Nevertheless the sector continues to grow.
