James Wine & Spirits
WINE TO DINE – FEBRUARY 2020 – TATTIES
Scottish Field wine columnist and drinks blogger Peter Ranscombe digs up five wines to pair with potatoes. WHETHER you call them tatties, spuds or potatoes, there’s no arguing with the versatility of what could be dubbed Scotland’s national vegetable. After a break for the Christmas food feature in December’s issue and last month’s festive fizz…
Read MoreWinds of change blow at Journey’s End
Rollo Gabb tells Peter Ranscombe why it’s not just the Cape Doctor breeze that’s blowing changes through his South African vineyards. THE world of wine is also the world of wind: from the Mistral and the Levant that blow through Provence to the Sirocco of Sicily and the breezes that flow through the Petaluma Gap…
Read MoreAuction update: Cape Fine & Rare and Cask Trade
Peter Ranscombe provides an update on the Cape Fine & Rare wine auction and the new date for the Cask Trade whisky sale. REGULAR readers of The Grape & The Grain drinks blog will remember that two auctions caught my eye over the autumn – and so it’s time for an update on the results…
Read MoreOver A Barrel: Lager with a heart
Peter Ranscombe explores how beer can be used as a force for good in his latest column for Cask & Still. IN MY second beer column for Cask & Still magazine – Scottish Field‘s wee whisky-focused sister publication – I shine a light on Brewgooder, which makes lager to fund clean water projects in Africa.…
Read MoreSherry is just the tip of the iceberg at The Macallan
Peter Ranscombe probes the use of sherry casks by one of Speyside’s best known distilleries. ONE word more than any other characterises our national drink – sherry. You spot it on labels, you see it on adverts, you even read it in tasting notes. Yet “sherry” covers a multitude of bases when it comes to…
Read MoreIt’s only natural: first look at Vin Cru, Glasgow’s new wine bar
Peter Ranscombe gets excited about the list at the first natural wine bar in Glasgow – and about its tacos too. GLASGOW’S food scene has developed dramatically since I lived in the city in the mid-noughties, when I was training to become a journalist. Just take a walk through the Finnieston district between the city…
Read MoreSix of the best budget beating festive bottles
Peter Ranscombe picks wines to toast Christmas and Hogmanay without breaking the bank. CHRISTMAS is expensive enough without feeling the pressure to spend a fortune on bottles that – let’s face it – may be quickly forgotten in amongst the feasting and family and friends. If you’re going to sit down and enjoy a bottle…
Read MoreGlasgow has itself a Moët little Christmas
A new Moët & Chandon cocktail tastes just peachy in the Dear Green Place, as Peter Ranscombe discovers. IT MIGHT not be fashionable among wine writers to say it, but I do enjoy a glass of Moët. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of grower Champagnes, the sparkling wines made by farmers…
Read MoreFive of the best beers from Flavourly
Peter Ranscombe picks some of his favourites from craft beer specialist Flavourly. TRYING to choose a pint has become complicated. Wind the clock back 20 years and the choice was simple. If you were standing at a bar then you could have a watery lager, an over-sweet 80 shillings, or that ubiquitous stout from Ireland.…
Read MoreQuintus emerges from the shadow of Haut-Brion
It may have a more famous sibling on the left bank, but Saint-Emilion’s Chateau Quintus deserves some limelight, writes Peter Ranscombe. “I NEVER worry about showing Quintus after Haut-Brion,” shrugged Guillaume-Alexandre Marx, Domaine Clarence Dillon’s sales manager, over lunch at wine-focused private members’ club 67 Pall Mall in London. There’s a perceptible raising of eyebrows…
Read More