Restaurants

We recently hosted a Trade tasting to launch our release of 'archive' vintage wines. Held at the Zetter Hotel, one of our long-standing on-trade accounts in Clerkenwell, London; this event provided our trade customers the opportunity to get together to sample some terrific older vintages as well as a selection from our current wine portfolio. […]

Last week, I co-hosted a Provencal Dinner and wine tasting, ably assisted by Jason Yapp and the genial Chef-Patron of The Ambassador, Clive Greenhalgh. For a nominal £10 fee, guests were free to partake in a 15 wine, tasting tour of Provence. With the bottles spread down The Ambassador’s long bar and Jason and I […]

The Riverside Restaurant in West Bay, Dorset, just east of Bridport has been in the safe hands of the Watson family for 50 years and ought to be subject to a preservation order. This rather anachronistic resort, which retains a certain ‘I’m only here for the beer – kiss me quick’ charm at first seems […]

Living in a village can be strange. Period. It's a microcosm of the bigger outside world and where everything is roughly 10 times more emphasised than it probably should be - everyone knows everyone and everything, is the way it seems to work. My wife had her birthday last Monday and another friend in the […]

For the benefit of anyone who has been off planet or hibernating Bruno Loubet is back in Blighty with a bang after a 10 year self-imposed exile in Brisbane. Now ensconced at the chic but très sympathique Zetter Hotel on Clerkenwell Road, Monsieur Loubet is doing what he does best viz. sensibly-priced bistro classics uplifted […]

Following an extensive and extremely informative morning tasting of J Dumangin Fils Champagnes, some colleagues and I entertained Gilles Dumangin to lunch at the beautiful Howard's House Hotel in the quaint Wiltshire village of Teffont Evias. Neither the village nor the hotel could have looked more stunning on such a glorious Spring day and I felt […]

Bellamy's enjoys an enviably secluded West End location on Bruton Place, isolated from the bustle of 21st Century traffic. There is an aura of calm in the oblong dining room, tastefully decorated with vintage Parisian posters and it looks and feels more like a private members club than a public eating house. This is unsurprising […]

It felt like we were in the land of the lost as we weaved our way up Zig Zag Hill in thick fog last Friday evening. Our goal; The Museum Inn, Dorset, the reason; The legendary Yapp Christmas party, our immediate aim; to get there in one piece and ahead of Charlie, our fear; he […]

I have just had the pleasure of hosting a wine dinner at a gem of a restaurant in Deal. Being the rump end of Kent (and just a stones skip from France), it seemed apt that it was to be an evening of French food, wine and music. Yes, this would be the first time […]

A couple of weeks ago, I was excited to attend our annual lunch at Le Gavroche, Michel Roux Jr's two Michelin star restaurant in Mayfair. Having become an avid fan of Masterchef recently, I was eager to see if Chef Michel himself would be in residence and I was not disappointed, finding him mid-photo shoot, as […]