Grape&Grain
Bubbles and beyond: a turning point for English wine
Peter Ranscombe ventures south of the Border to assess wines from the 2018 vintage and discovers a surprise or two along the way. THERE aren’t many wine trade tastings at which you can feel the excitement that permeated through yesterday’s Wine GB event in London. Winemakers from across England and Wales gathered to present their…
Read MoreEight servings from Eight Lands
Speyside’s newest distillery has chosen to make white spirits instead of whisky, as Peter Ranscombe reports. STAND at the top of Ben Rinnes on a clear day and you can look down from Moray’s most famous Corbett to see eight counties – Aberdeenshire, Banff, Moray, Nairn (the best one, obvs), Inverness-shire, Ross & Cromarty, Sutherland,…
Read MoreFhior and Blackbook are a match made in vinous heaven
The food-and-wine matching potential of English bottles was highlighted to Peter Ranscombe over Sunday lunch. IT’S hard to miss the impact made by Fhior since Scott and Laura Smith opened their restaurant in Edinburgh back in June 2018. Taking its name from “True” in Gaelic, the eatery lavishes attention on its ingredients – which is…
Read MoreSix of the best from Cork & Cask
Peter Ranscombe spends an afternoon exploring Cork & Cask’s range at the bottle shop’s summer tasting in Edinburgh. SOCIAL media made me do it – the Instagram stories and posts uploaded by the team at Cork & Cask, one of Edinburgh’s most exciting wine shops, convinced me that I had to pop along to Saturday’s…
Read MoreBasking in Basque poetry, music and wine at the book festival
Peter Ranscombe shares the wines served during an evening of Basque culture at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. FEW cultures have such strong links between their poetry and music and their food and drink as the Basque Country. As I discovered when I visited San Sebastian back in April, music is taken almost as seriously…
Read MoreIn the army now: Fringe food and wine pairing
The army is fast establishing itself as a cornerstone of Edinburgh’s festivals – especially when it comes to serving some of the best-value grub and booze at the Fringe. Peter Ranscombe reports for duty for a spot of military food and wine matching. WHEN I’m not sipping Champagne, nosing nebbiolo or pairing pinot noir with…
Read MoreWINE TO DINE – SEPTEMBER 2019 – PIGEON
Scottish Field wine columnist and drinks blogger Peter Ranscombe spreads his wings to find five bottles to pair with pigeon. LOVE them or hate them, pigeons are an inescapable part of Scottish life. Whether it’s the slightly scabby feral examples that crowd our city streets or the slightly more elegant deep-throated coo of a wood…
Read MoreFour of the best for the 4th of July
Independence day is the ideal time to highlight the breadth of America’s vinous offerings, writes Peter Ranscombe. HAPPY fourth of July! While the United States’ independence from Great Britain may have begun with tea in Boston there will certainly be millions of Americans raising a glass of wine to celebrate their country’s birthday. I love…
Read MoreDekantā celebrates Japanese whisky’s 100th birthday
Scottish Field drinks blogger Peter Ranscombe raises a glass to the centenary of Japan’s whisky with some unique bottles. ONLINE retailer Dekantā last night toasted the Japanese whisky industry’s 100th birthday with the launch of its second single-cask bottling. In 1919, Eigashima became the first distillery in Japan to be granted a licence to make…
Read MoreWINE TO DINE – AUGUST 2019 – TOMATO
Scottish Field wine columnist and drinks blogger Peter Ranscombe plucks five bottles from the vine to pair with tomatoes. ONE of the most exciting elements of featuring a “star ingredient” each month on the food pages of Scottish Field magazine is that some very humble cookery components get to shine in the spotlight – like…
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