Gibraltar
Debbie Bartlett
...shows, Santa's Grotto, meeting Disney characters, mulled wine, mince pies, face painting and a host of other activities, all in an excellent cause.
Opinion
ANDREW J. LINN
...and hardly a day passes without a conversation about food and wine. Many programmes feature listeners calling in with anecdotes and recipes. Conversely the Today programme on Britain's BBC, or its equivalent in any country, including local radio,
Opinion
ANDREW J. LINN
...be enjoyed at home, in restaurants, and exported. Instead the general drop in wine sales will almost certainly cause an unusable surplus. In greater sums than ever before 90 million euros will be 'wasted' on distilling grapes to make industrial ... alcohol or leaving them on the vine to rot. Potentially the 2020 harvest would have resulted in a fifth more wine than previous years, but restaurant sales have fallen by 65% and exports by half since the start of the pandemic. In many regions, such as
Opinion
A. J. LINN
...studying for the Master of Wine exam when the pass rate across the board is a mere ten per cent? This year's exam saw 14 successful candidates, making a total of 369 in 29 countries. It is a very tough exam and many people whose everyday occupation is ... wine shrink from taking it in case they are forever after labelled as MW failures. Nor is there a tangible benefit to being able to use the initials MW after your name, though it may get you a job in one of the great London wine merchants established ... centuries ago. At the beginning the London-based Institute of Masters of Wine limited candidates to British wine trade professionals. Now it is open to all-comers, starting with two years of preparatory work, and only after that does the real journey
Opinion
ANDREW J. LINN
...best incentives ever. There were thousands of people eating out every night for the cost of a (unsubsidised) bottle of wine. The USA has thrown billions at the industry in an attempt to save jobs, although the results have been unimpressive. To
Opinion
ANDREW J. LINN
The losers in the coronavirus epidemic are those unfortunate enough not to be politicians, civil servants or the comfortably-off. The wine trade, in all its shapes and sizes, regrettably will come out as a big loser. WINE OF THE WEEK Mirabrás ... This wine from the famous Barbadillo winery in Sanlúcar de Barrameda is not technically a sherry, in spite of being made of the usual Palomino grapes and grown on the white albariza soil of the región. It is a white table wine fermented in old sherry ... barrels, then matured in tanks, all very unusual and, I suspect, something of an experiment. However the only complaint I have about this really delicious wine is the price of 18 euros. Starting at the bottom - or the top, depending how you rate such
LifeStyle
A. J. LINN
Scams of all kinds are becoming more common in the wine business, and there are rich pickings for the fraudster. The most famous of them all, Rudy Kurniawan, is serving a 10-year prison term in a US penitentiary for selling fake wines to super-rich ... a veritable 'old' wine factory. It may be hard to feel much sympathy for victims who could easily afford the money they lost, while for Ginafranco Soldera, the day he opened his winery doors and found five entire vintages, 62,000 litres, swilling ... about on the floor, was bitter indeed. Whoever committed this vandalism had waited four years to get his revenge for Gianfranco's public revelation that his fellow Brunello-makers were illegally mixing wine from other regions with what should have been
LifeStyle
JAVIER ALMELLONES
Malaga has seen a big increase in the number of gastronomic festivals over the last few years, with local and regional dishes and produce being promoted. Everything from extra virgin olive oil to wine and seasonal fruit is available at these ... to the famous morcilla (black pudding). Every year, hundreds of kilos of the sausage are shared out washed down with the local wine or a glass of beer. Frigiliana 29 April Día de la Miel de Caña This festival celebrates the black treacle which ... August Día de la Uva Moscatel The first grapes of the season are the highlight of this festival which also offers tastings of other local products and produce. Cómpeta 15 August Noche del Vino Cómpeta has been associated with sweet wine for
LifeStyle
CARMEN PARRA
Nowadays, any sort of celebration involves drinking. During the festive period it is all too easy to end up drinking copious amounts of alcohol. It could be a spirit and mixer, a glass of wine, a beer or a cocktail. Social events, dinners, and ... kcal. A can of lager (330ml). 105 kcal. A small glass of wine (100ml). 70 kcal. A glass of vermouth (100ml). 140 kcal. Spirits (50ml). 140 kcal (not including mixer). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a woman should not consume ... it can add up to a lot of calories. Here, the sandwich analogy comes in, given that a 30 ml drink will not have the same number of calories as a 200 ml glass or a 330 ml can. Taking the example of a bottle of wine, on the label the bottle says that
Opinion
ANDREW J. LINN
The world of gastronomy is not short of competitions and accolades. Practically any organisation even tentatively linked to what we eat or drink has its own way of handing out rewards, from The World's Top 50 Restaurants to the International Wine ... distillers, competition is so fierce that the judges have to leave the hall before the prizes are announced - for their own safety. WINE OF THE WEEK Marqués de Cáceres Rosado This rosé wine from one of Rioja's best-known bodegas is always a hot-weather ... hit - or will be if any hot weather ever arrives. Made from the usual blend of Tempranillo and Garnacha grape varieties, it quite simply pleases everybody all of the time. In almost any wine for five euros plus. Participants distil orujo in public