www.andrewstevenson.com
 

Welcome to www.andrewstevenson.com.  My name is, unsurprisingly, Andrew Stevenson and here are some of the things I can offer you:
Andrew Stevenson: the blog Restaurant reviews Wine 
Restaurant reviews, producer/product recommendations, etc.

Click here		 For my thoughts on, and photographs from restaurants as they happen, please follow me on twitter.
Some more recent reviews are now being published on my blog site, but there is a large stock of older reviews here, and longer, fuller articles will also appear on this site.

Please bear in mind that many restaurants and chefs are liable to change.  I have moved a number of closed restaurants to a history section, but times are tough for restaurants at the moment, so please check with restaurants before making special journeys.

Click here		 I present brief portraits of particular wine estates, tasting notes on wines, and other brief notes on wine related matters.  Be aware that some notes may derive from a single taste of a wine: as with restaurants, so wines too change all the time and one's experience can be affected by numerous factors.  Basically, as they say in internet circles, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

This section of my website centres around tasting notes, both from organised tastings and wines tasted at home and in restaurants.
But there are also some longer pieces on individual producers or  particular areas.

Click here
Proof-reading, copywriting and related services Food Genealogy
In line with many years experience in both higher education and in supporting the hospitality industry, I specialise in the following two areas:

1) Academic essays, projects, theses etc. You want your tutor to judge your ideas, not your punctuation, grammar and spelling.

2) Brochures, websites, menus etc for the hospitality industry. These are an important interface with guests and you need to be sure there are no mistakes, particularly in the age of tripadvisor, when guests are actively looking for errors. Does anyone check your chef's menus? Is it really a balantine of chicken? (I can assure you, it isn't.)

Website currently under construction: in the meantime, contact me to discuss your requirements.		 Miscellaneous food writing and recipes (see also my blog).


Click here		 I have been researching my family tree since the 1980s, before internet resources became available and, combined with my training as a historian, have developed considerable expertise.

I visit the Lancashire Archives regularly for my own research and to carry out research on behalf of others.  Please get in touch if you think I might be able to help you with your Lancashire ancestry.

On this site, I've put a few transcriptions of the parish registers of St Michael, Whitewell in the Forest of Bowland and transcriptions of marriages I'd looked up at both the Lancashire and Huntingdonshire Records Offices, but proved not to be my families.  Maybe you'll find something here relating to your families.

 

My approach is, like this website, to try to keep things as simple as possible, with as few bells and whistles as possible.  

You can search this site by using this lovely little custom Google search box:
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Wine

I got a fridge magnet for Christmas 1999. It has the motto "Life is too short to drink bad wine".

Amen.

Here you will find:

Consume alcohol in moderation. For more information about alcohol and health, visit www.drinkaware.co.uk

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Tasting Notes

Miscellaneous notes Tasting notes from wines drunk at home, in restaurants etc. (regularly updated).  
This page is now split over several pages to improve the speed it loads in your browser:
Current notes
Miscellaneous notes from 2009 to 2011
Miscellaneous notes from 2005 to 2008
Miscellaneous notes from 2001 to 2004
Miscellaneous notes from 1987 to 2000
   
3 May 2019 Boschendal and other South African wines with DGB
29 April 2019 Some vegan and organic wines with North South Wines
25 February 2019 Quinta do Soalheiro: the many flavours of alvarinho
25 February 2019 Bouchard Finlayson of South Africa and their Galpin Peak and Hannibal wines
19 September 2016 Soul Tree - wine from India
19 September 2016 My first taste of Japanese koshu wines
13 September 2016 Celebrating 300 years of Chianti Classico with Castello di Albola
22 June 2016 An evening of Col d'Orcia wines with Count Francesco Marone Cinzano
11 June 2016 Some exceptional wines at the grand dinner of the wine-pages.com Gasgow Festival of Wine
11 June 2016 A quick tour round off-beat Italy with Zubair Mohamed of Raeburn Wines
11 June 2016 Riverby Estate: A Decade of Marlborough Riesling
10 June 2016 Wine-pages.com Glasgow Festival of Wine pre-dinner at Cail Bruich
14 October 2015 Sud de France Languedoc-Roussillon Annual Trade Tasting
4 August 2015 Decugnano dei Barbi tasting and dinner with Enzo Barbi
15 October 2014 Sud de France Languedoc-Roussillon Annual Trade Tasting
24 February 2014 Legendary Kopke Masterclass
6 October 2011 The wines of McHenry Hohnen, Margaret River, Australia
8 June 2011 The Pequeñas Chile Tasting: the Boutique Wineries of Chile
30 May 2011 D Byrne & Co of Clitheroe: Summer Wine Tasting
21 February 2011 SITT 2011: the Specialist Importers Trade Tasting
1 December 2010 The wines of Poggio Argentiera, Tuscany
11 February 2010 Grosser Ring Rheingau tasting at the German House, London, including the best half bottle of German 1938 pinot noir I've ever had
1 January 2010 Four wines from the Georgian Wine Society
29 December 2009 A leisurely post-Christmas lunch at the Ox Bar & Inn, Manchester, featuring something of a Gewürztraminer fest
4 December 2009 Wine dinner at Harts restaurant in Nottingham
28 November 2009 Some wines (mainly half bottles) with Thai food at Siam Thai Restaurant, King's Heath
6 November 2009 Semillon & Syrah - a wine dinner at Choice Bar & Restaurant, Manchester
16 October 2009 1989 revisited: a selection of wines from 1989 drunk over a very fine dinner at Hambleton Hall, Rutland
4 September 2009 New Zealand Wine dinner in Manchester to welcome Mark Henderson
5 June 2009 Wines for a barbecue party
14 May 2009 A selection of Champagnes and other sparkling wines tasted at the London International Wine Fair
13 May 2009 A fun blind tasting evening at Rôtisserie Jules, London
12 May 2009 Kiwicru - wines made from kiwi fruit juice
1 May 2009 Beauty and the Beast: an evening of Riesling and Priorato at Anthony's at the Piazza in Leeds
28 April 2009 Jamie Goode's 50 Great Portuguese Wines 2009
7 March 2009 Mullineux Family Wines, Swartland, South Africa
7 March 2009 Pinot Noir from Oregon
7 March 2009 The wines of the northern Rhône domaine of Michel & Stéphane Ogier
7 March 2009 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2009, on 7th March 2009 are available by following this link.
7 March 2009 Super Wines and Super Food at Braidwoods, Dalry
24 January 2009 A miscellaneous selection of Lebanese wines at Aladdin Restaurant, Withington, Manchester
22 January 2009 French Wine Growers in Manchester
5 December 2008 Fine wines at a Nottingham tasting and dinner
21 November 2008 A tasting of Bordeaux wines over dinner at the Market Restaurant, Manchester
5 September 2008 Wines for pan-Asian food
15 August 2008 An eclectic selection of South African wines over dinner
13 June 2008 Italian Wines over dinner in Nottingham
11 June 2008 The 2007 vintage in Germany: 140 wines from the Nahe, Mosel, Saar and Ruwer tasted at the London Grosser Ring tasting
10 June 2008 Dinner with the Fine Wine Experience:  some noble old wines and cask samples of 2007 rieslings from Weingut Keller
10 June 2008 A vertical tasting of Château Batailley from 2005 to 1937
22 May 2008 I get a pleasant surprise from Fall Creek Vineyards, Texas
22 May 2008 A selection of wines from Turkey
21 May 2008 A broad tasting of wines from Friuli made from the grape formerly known as tocai friulano
21 May 2008 I taste a small sample of Canadian Ice Ciders from Quebec
21 May 2008 The great sweet PX wines of Montilla Moriles in Spain
21 May 2008 Wines of Slovenia - I taste a selection from a couple of wineries 
21 May 2008 Alexander Valley Vineyards, California
21 May 2008 The Wines of New York State  (notes from a similar tasting in 2007 are here)
20 May 2008 The Wines of Tikveš Winery, Republic of Macedonia
20 May 2008 The Wines of Bou Argoub, Tunisia
20 May 2008 The Wines of Mikrosvin Mikulov, Czech Republic
20 May 2008 The Wines of Malta
20 May 2008 Fine Wines from Thailand?  Monsoon Valley Wines
20 May 2008 A selection of grower champagnes
4 April 2008 1998 Re-visited: wines from the 1998 vintage tasted at Bistro Mistral in Nottingham
25 February 2008 SITT: The Specialist Importers Trade Tastings, Manchester
8 December 2007 Lancaster Wine Fair
14 December 2007 A 'Wines for Winter' dinner in Nottingham
23 November 2007 A Burgundy tasting and dinner in Manchester
20 October 2007 Seven Decades of Wine: lunch at Simpson's restaurant in Birmingham
19 October 2007 Wines from a year ending in 7 to go with Thai food: a dinner at Siam Thai in King's Heath
30 September 2007 French Regional Wines Portfolio tasting
15 June 2007 A 'Wines for Summer' dinner in Nottingham
9 June 2007 Meerlust Rubicon Vertical Tasting: a tasting of most of the first 21 vintages of this iconic wine from South Africa
5 June 2007 Bodegas Ca N’Estella: a small tasting of their wines in Blackpool
1 June 2007 A remarkable tasting of the 1961 vintage in Bordeaux
24 May 2007 The Wines of Sevilen, Turkey
24 May 2007 Two High Street Brands: Mateus, a 1970s classic revisited and the new Three Vines range from Jacob's Creek
24 May 2007 The Wines of New York State
23 May 2007 Extremes of Chile: the Bío Bío and Elqui Valleys
23 May 2007 The Wines of Georgia (the country, not the US state.  Oh go on, I'll  include a couple from the US state too)
23 May 2007 A brief tasting of some Romanian wines - from Oenoterra Tohani and Caramele Halewood
23 May 2007 Vertical tasting of Rustenberg's John X Merriman, with the winemaker, Adi Badenhorst
22-24 May 2007 Friuli Venezia Giulia: Land of Great White Wines: two seminars, one tasting Tocai Friulano, the second tasting Pinot Grigio and Ramandolo
22 May 2007 Portugal's G7 group: a tasting at the Portuguese Ambassador's residence, London
22 May 2007 Moldovan Wine Tasting, London
22 May 2007 The Wines of Sandra Tavares
22 May 2007 Domaine Horcher, Alsace
22 May 2007 Broadbent Wines: a selection of ports and madeiras, plus two Chinese wines
22 May 2007 A Cognac and Armagnac Masterclass
30 March 2007 A Northern Rhône dinner in Manchester
19 March 2007 The New Face of Hungary
27 February 2007 The wines of Trentino: around 30 of the top producers present their wines at a London tasting
21 February 2007 California's Lodi region: the wines of Berghold and Old Lockeford
20 February 2007 Château Montelena, Napa Valley, California
20 February 2007 A miscellany of Napa Valley wines tasted at The Vintner's Collective, Napa, Napa Valley,  California
19 February 2007 Ridge's Lytton Springs Winery
19 February 2007 The wines of Gary Farrell in California's Russian River Valley
18 February 2007 A taste of Alsace in California: Navarro Vineyards in the Anderson Valley
17 February 2007 Chateau Christina: the wines of Joyce Vineyards
16 February 2007 The wines of Morgan, Salinas, California
16 February 2007 Marilyn Remark Wines, Salinas, California
16 February 2007 Biodynamics on California's central coast: the wines of Beckmen Vineyards
15 February 2007 Epiphany Cellars,  Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County, California
15 February 2007 Kings of the wild frontier: the wines of Fess Parker, Central Coast, California
15 February 2007 The wines of Melville in Santa Barbara wine country
14 February 2007 Mr Vee-on-yea: the wines of the Garretson Wine Company, Paso Robles, California 
13 February 2007 An exciting romp through the multifarious wines of Tobin James with Claire and Lance Silver
13 February 2007 The wines of Linne Calodo, Paso Robles, California
13 February 2007 The wines of Justin, Paso Robles, California
13 February 2007 California's answer to Beaucastel: Tablas Creek Vineyard, Paso Robles
11 February 2007 Soquel Vineyards, Santa Cruz, California
24 November 2006 A pre-Christmas wine dinner that saw some remarkable bottles, including my first Domaine de la Romanée Conti (1959 Grands Echézeaux, no less!)
22 October 2006 A Vintage Port Archaeology session: a tasting of mystery ports possibly dating back to 1851
2 October 2006 The Wines of Portugal Tasting, Leeds
2 October 2006 Fields, Morris & Verdin tasting
2 October 2006 Moreno Wines tasting
25 September 2006 The 2006 PIG tasting - a selection of wines from Portugal, Italy and Greece imported by Raymond Reynolds, Winetraders (UK) and Eclectic Wines respectively.
14 September 2006 Wines of Chile: 115 Chilean wines tasted and rated, including my first wines of the 2006 vintage.
28 July 2006 The third annual Prothero blind tasting challenge
19 July 2006 Pinots of the World: a wine tasting and dinner at Restaurant Rococo, Glasgow
15 July 2006 A "vintage pairs" tasting (different wines, each wine in two different vintages)
7 July 2006 A vertical tasting of Australian icon, Penfolds Grange
7 July 2006 The Super Whites of Friuli, a tasting and workshop organised by Slowfood
9 June 2006 An International Wine Challenge: South Africa vs the Languedoc
18 May 2006 The Wines of Sevilen, Turkey
17 May 2006 Champagne and French Sparkling Wines from Antech, Ariston, Aspasie and Legras & Haas
17 May 2006 Krone: The sparkling wines of Twee Jonge Gezellen
17 May 2006 The Wines of Mexico: LA Cetto (and a few older notes on Santo Tomas wines)
17 May 2006 Madeira: Ancient & Modern
17 May 2006 "Awesome Aromatics" - a seminar on New Zealand wines from the aromatic varieties riesling, pinot gris and gewurztraminer
16 May 2006 Argentina: More than Malbec - a seminar with José Zuccardi
16 May 2006 Greece: a selection of Greek (mainly white) wines tasted
16 May 2006 Wines of Slovenia: Jeruzalem Ormoz
16 May 2006 Wines of Peru: Tacama
16 May 2006 Wines of Germany: The Riesling Room 2006
16 May 2006 Rare German Treasures - several bottles from the much lauded 1921 vintage, one from 1911 and my first 19th Century wine from the great 1893 vintage
11 May 2006 Food and wine notes from a dinner in Manchester to celebrate Establishment Restaurant's second birthday
14 March 2006 Wines of Portugal Annual Tasting
27 February 2006 The Specialist Importers Trade Tastings, Manchester
24 February 2006 Antinori's Super-Tuscan Tignanello: a Vertical Tasting and Dinner in Manchester
27 January 2006 Southern Rhônes and Southern French wines Dinner in Manchester
19 January 2006 Hallgarten Wines portfolio tasting
16 January 2006 Winebarn tasting: some high quality, more unusual German wines that aren't riesling
7 January 2006 Northern Rhône tasting
26 November 2005 Château Cheval Blanc with Pierre Lurton
25 November 2005 Château de Beaucastel with Thomas Perrin
26-27 November 2005 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event. 
29 October 2005 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2005, on 29th October 2005 are available by following this link.
29 October 2005 The Wines of Josko Gravner (Friuli, Italy)
29 October 2005 The Prosecco Wines of Bisol
28 October 2005 A meal with very fine wines at the Restaurant Rococo in Glasgow.
24-25 October 2005 Speed tasting in Bordeaux
12 October 2005 An evening of fine wine at the Restaurant Chardon d'Or, Glasgow
17 September 2005 An evening of food and wine with wine-loving friends in Coniston
14 September 2005 A tasting and lunch with the Coonawarra Vignerons Association
12 September 2005 Alliance Wines - a tasting through the portfolio of this interesting Scottish company's wines.
12 September 2005 Wines of Roussillon: the 2005 St Bacchus winners tasted and assessed
12 September 2005 The vins doux naturels of Roussillon
20 & 27 July 2005 My wine tasting for the Lancaster University Summer Programme 2005
10 June 2005 French Regional Wines tasting at Lancaster Town Hall
31 May 2005 Peter Howland Wines Dinner, Establishment Restaurant, Manchester
23rd May 2005 Notes from a Wine Society tasting of clarets are available by following this link.
19th May 2005 A tutored tasting of Royal Tokaji Company wines; plus other Hungarian and Tokaji notes.
17-19 May 2005 The London International Wine and Spirits Fair
  Wines for spicy foods: The Wines of Rousillon
  The International Riesling Review
  Wines from China: Grace Vineyard's Tasya
  Wines from India: Grover Vineyards, Bangalore
  Sparkling wines from Brazil
  The wines of Josef Friederich, Zell, Mosel
  Wines of Germany: Sommeliers' Choice
  Miscellaneous Portuguese reds
  Vinho Verde: the wines of Portugal's Costa Verde
  Champagne Taittinger
  Champagne Charles Heidsieck
  Sparkling wines from Michigan, USA: the wines of L.Mawby
  New England Wines from Massachussetts: Westport Rivers Winery
  Small Growers in Alsace: Scharsch; Fleith; Schoenheitz; Neumeyer; Haag
  A blind tasting of United Wineries/Haciendas de Espana wines pitted against their competitors
  A miscellany of Austrian wines
7 May 2005 The annual dinner of the Preston Wine Club starring 1964 Rioja Alta and Diebolt-Vallois 1985.
11 March 2005 A champagne tasting and dinner at Alba Restaurant in the City of London
1 March 2005 A wine dinner, organised and hosted by Ray Abercromby at the Establishment Restaurant, Manchester
24 November 2004 Vertical tastings led by Ray Abercromby of Ch. Maucaillou, Ch. Musar, and Jaboulet's Thalabert
20-21 November 2004 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event.  Where else do you get Cockburn's 1970 and Cockburn's 1955 vintage port at a public walkround tasting?
21 November 2004 Stars of Italy: a tutored tasting led by David Gleave MW
21 November 2004 A masterclass on Barossa Shiraz with Bob Mclean of St Hallett (and now McLean's Farm) fame
20 November 2004 A vertical tasting of Chateau D'Yquem with Decanter magazine
19 November 2004 Neal Martin's Bordeaux Olympics
23 October 2004 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2004, on 23rd October 2004 are available by following this link.
22 October 2004 An off-line at the Restaurant Rococo in Glasgow, including 1949 Loires and a 61 Ducru Beaucaillou.
October 2004 A selection of wines from french-regional-wines-co.uk
4 October 2004 Laurent-Perrier champagnes and dinner, hosted by the Vicomte de la Giraudière, at the Connaught Hotel, London.
3 September 2004 A blind tasting challenge of 24 wines costing around £20 including seventeen cabernet sauvignon based wines from around the world and Ch. Mouton Rothschild 1994.
28 August 2004 A brace of grouse and a remarkable survivor
July/August 2004 Summer Programme wine tasting
French & Logan Some excellent rieslings from Glasgow-based riesling specialist French and Logan.
29 November 2003 The annual dinner of the Preston Wine Club, featuring some amazing old claret back to 1952, and an excellent Offley 1963 port.
22-23 November 2003 The Decanter Fine Wine Encounter, Landmark Hotel, Marylebone.  Tasting Notes from Decanter Magazine's annual mega tasting event.  Overall, a very high standard this year, with some truly exceptional wines.
27 October 2003 A fabulous tasting of ports from Quinta do Noval, including 4 vintages of the famous Nacional, and the 1955.
23 October 2003 Lancashire Life Newcomer Restaurant of the Year celebration lunch
10 October 2003 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2003, on 10th October 2003 are available by following this link.
9 October 2003 An off-line at the Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow
Liverpool Offlines 12 August 2003; 3rd September 2003; 13 February 2004; 22nd August 2004
August 2003 This week I have been mainly drinking Pinot Gris
29 July and 5 August 2003 Summer Programme wine tasting - notes available by following this link.
28 May 2003 Vega Sicilia: Myth and Reality.  Andrew Stevenson visits Vega Sicilia and experiences a unique (unico, indeed!) vertical tasting of six decades of Vega Sicilia.
27 May - 3 June 2003 Duero to Douro: a wine-filled journey along the Duero to the Portuguese border where it becomes the Douro, and then along the Douro to the sea.  Includes tastings at:
19 October 2002 Oyster Feast with various wines from Lay & Wheeler - notes available by following this link.
18 October 2002 Alsace Dinner at Lay & Wheeler in Colchester: the wines of Albert Mann and Meyer-Fonné - notes available by following this link.
5th October 2002 Notes from the wine-pages.com SuperBOWL 2002, on 5th October 2002 are available by following this link.
(September 2002)  Tasting notes of various ports and a couple of vinhos verdes (September 2002) are available by following this link.
22 February 2002 An off-line at Peter's Cellars in Edinburgh
New Year 2001/02 Austrian wines from Schloss Gobelsburg, Bründlmayer , Willi Opitz, Weingut Christ
19th May 2001 Notes from a tasting of German Rieslings organised by Decanter magazine and held on 19th May 2001 are available by following this link.
19th May 2001 Decanter Magazine's Rising Stars Fine Wine Encounter
15th May 2001 Notes from a Wine Society tasting of Penfolds wines, held on 15th May 2001 are available by following this link.
Oddbins 1995 A grand tasting of nearly 100 wines from Oddbins range in 1995.
31st December 1999 On the evening of 31st December 1999, I held a small wine-tasting, both as a bit of fun and in order to choose a couple of the wines to go with the New Year's Eve Dinner. I am pleased to record that those wines which were not already drunk up before midnight, all proved to be Y2K compliant. 
To keep things simple, we stuck to just one grape: the Riesling, and the tasting went something like this (follow the link for the gory details).
In case you were wondering, the overall "winner" was a 1983 Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese from Dr Loosen.
1st October 1998 The wines of Marcel Deiss, Alsace
30th September 1998 The wines of Rolly Gassmann in Rohrschwihr, Alsace
16-17 May 1992 Oddbins Wine Fair 1992
14-16 May 1992 Spanish Wine tastings at Selfridges
4 April 1990 Sunday Times Wine Club Trafalgar House Tasting
March 1989 Sunday Times Wine Club: Vintage Festival
3 November 1988 Sunday Times Wine Club: Chardonnay & Wines for Christmas
25-26 March 1988 Sunday Times Wine Club: Vintage Festival
   

Coming soon!

Text of reviews, tasting notes and photographs (unless otherwise attributed) is  © Copyright Andrew Stevenson, 1983-2009.  Please contact me before reproducing or quoting (permission will normally be granted).

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Vintage charts

There are numerous vintage charts available, but Jordan & Jordan have compiled the only one I've ever seen that goes back to 121 B.C. !! Here's the link.  

More useful is the vintage chart on the excellent website of long-established London merchant, Berry Brothers & Rudd.

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Restaurants

For restaurant reviews click here. 

New additions July 2011:

New additions May 2011:

New additions April 2011:


New additions March 2011:

New additions December 2010:

New addition October 2010:

New additions August 2010:

New addition June 2010:

New additions May 2010:

Other less recent additions: 

More are in the process of being added

London restaurants of the past
I recently came across a web page, apparently written in the mid 1980s, listing a selection of "upscale restaurants" in London.  This prompted some reminiscences from me.  Click here to read on.

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Wine links

There are thousands of wine-related sites on the internet, and I'm certainly not going to try to compete here.

Here is a list of other sites that I find myself looking at regularly:

Tom Cannavan's Wine-Pages (a UK-based site, with lots of tasting notes, a lively forum and lots more. Well worth a visit!)

The Wine Doctor (Chris Kissack's excellent site)

The Wine Anorak (Jamie Goode's equally excellent site)

The Fine Wine Experience (Linden Wilkie's company puts on some very prestigious tastings in London, often very deep vertical tastings with wines going back over two centuries)

The Bailey Brothers' Fine Wine Diary

German Wines Online

The Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Wein e.V. (in German: an interesting site, though it's a little difficult to get the information you're looking for sometimes. A few good recipes too!)

Decanter magazine 

The World of Fine Wine magazine (a remarkable quarterly publication for which the term magazine is a bit demeaning - highly recommended for serious wine-lovers)

English Wine Producers English wine seems to get better every year, and vineyards are being planted/coming into production across the country, even as far north as Lancashire and Yorkshire.  I like English wine, I want to buy English wine, I want to promote English wine - but, boy!, do the English vineyards make it hard work! Welsh wines are also available, but I've not discovered a generic website for them.

Arblaster & Clarke (excellent wine tours - see my hols in Austria and Portugal)

Food
     

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Epicurious.com contains the recipe archives of the American magazines Gourmet and Bon Appetit, though unfortunately the site is now filled with adverts.

This link should take you to  what is probably the most sumptuous food magazine currently published, the Thuriès magazine, a magazine which aims itself "aux professionnels des Métiers de Bouche et aux amateurs qui désirent approfondir leurs connaissances en art culinaire et saisir toutes les tendances de la gastronomie française." (You can only really say that in French!)

If you find yourself recognising rather a lot of the dishes people cook on Masterchef, then the Thuriès magazine is for you!

If you're French isn't up to it (it's remarkably easy actually) then Caterer & Hotelkeeper (the trade magazine for the hospitality industry) is actually one of the best ways to get recipes from the top chefs and new ideas. This is the trade magazine, so there is a lot in it that won't interest a general reader. But there is a recipe archive, which you can access by following this link. If you want to find out how little cooking goes on in your local pub, café etc, pick up a copy of Caterer and read the adverts for various food products: the mind boggles at just what kitchens can buy pre-prepared or ready made.

And follow this link for some recipes that I've made my own.

 

Cheese

  
     

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If you need some cheese, I've found this lot very efficient as well as selling cheese in tip-top condition: The Cheese Society  But in the North of England, Carron Lodge are great for the trade and for an excellent cheesemonger, complete with live piano accompaniment, Churchmouse Cheeses in Kirkby Lonsdale is hard to beat (well, unbeatable, as I know of no other cheesemonger with a resident pianist!).  In Cartmel, Martin Gott runs the excellent Cartmel Cheeses and in Clitheroe there is the very naffly named, but excellent Cheesie Tchaikovsky. Both the latter two have climate control to keep cheeses in tiptop condition, and does away with much of the need for clingfilm.  Also excellent is the rather wonderful Courtyard Dairy near Settle in Yorkshire.

Random Tasting notes on Cheese: for miscellaneous (and now largely rather old) notes on cheeses tasted and or eaten click here

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andrew [at] andrewstevenson.com

Last updated: 3 October 2016