Ten Wine Scandals – Should Have Gone To Blockchain Since my first Blockchain article, there’s been lots of interest in the potential of using this emerging technology in the wine industry, especially to guarantee wine origins, safety and quality. In this article, I suggest that Blockchain could be the solution to prevent many wine scandals. Rules and regulations There are lots of …
Macdonald Leeming House Hotel, Ullswater
Macdonald Leeming House Hotel, Ullswater As of July 2017, the Lake District national park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In so doing it became the 31st UK site, a “cultural landscape reflecting the combined works of nature and man”. The beauty of the landscape plus thousands of years of agriculture and industry has inspired generations of artists, poets and writers. …
St John Bread and Wine – offal needn’t be awful
St John Bread and Wine – offal needn’t be awful Back in 1994, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver opened the St John restaurant. It’s still around the corner from Smithfield Market in a once dilapidated part of Clerkenwell. The emphasis is on British recipes, simplicity and seasonality. It also includes all the meats now ignored by squeamish Brits. Yes, we’re …
Spike Milligans Tape Recorder – wines that won the war
Spike Milligans Tape Recorder – wines that won the war I have before me a torn-out page from the Independent on Sunday, from 24th November 1991. It’s page 65. There, below an article extolling the culinary charms of the chestnut (chestnut flour available from Valvona & Crolla in Edinburgh, priced at £6.99 per kg), is a weekly guest column called …
Indie Wine Merchants – #1, Wines With Attitude
Indie Wine Merchants – #1, Wines With Attitude I’ve meant to start reviewing Independent Wine Merchants for some time. These specialist wine businesses may be bricks, they may be clicks, or they might be both. The first to feature here is a young company, Wines With Attitude. But first, a preamble. Why Independents are worth your time and money It has long …
Ambrosus – from Farm to Fork with Blockchain
Ambrosus – from Farm to Fork with Blockchain A few weeks ago, I wrote a speculative article on how Blockchain technology will revolutionise the wine industry. You can read about that here. In so doing, this article attracted lots of interest and attention from the Blockchain community. So much so that it ended up going to number one in the Google …
Questions on wine, travel and food that I wish you’d ask
Questions on wine, travel and food that I wish you’d ask I get lots of questions about wine, food and travel. That’s great; it’s part of doing the job I love! Check out my About Me page for the basic info on why I do what I do. Meanwhile, here are some questions that I wish someone would ask me. In …
Zymology, imagine our world without fermentation
Zymology, imagine our world without fermentation Our modern civilisation relies on technology. Who could imagine our world without fire, the wheel, or books? More recently, the internal combustion engine, aeroplanes or mobile internet? All are milestones in human ingenuity, where would we be without them? However, in this article, I’m going to ask you to imagine the world without Zymology. We …
The secrets of Champagne Billecart-Salmon
The secrets of Champagne Billecart-Salmon Billecart-Salmon is in Mareuil-sur-Aÿ in the Montagne de Reims, in the heart of the Champagne region. They make excellent Champagnes down on the rue Carnot and are most famous in the UK for their Rosé. As their labels proudly state, the House dates back to 1818, created by Nicolas-François Billecart. It’s still family owned, one …
The future of the wine industry will be Blockchain
The future of the wine industry will be Blockchain Disruption. A much-overused business word. Every new product, service and start-up we are assured, is disruptive. It’s the game-changer, the holy grail. Yeah, right. Well, the Blockchain probably is. A couple of years ago I studied a new technology called the Blockchain, on behalf of the Financial Services Industry. I was …