The Oxford Times | Wine

Royal red is good crowd pleaser

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:25:07 +0000

When you buy wine for an event, your main consideration is cost. Generally this means the wine is cheap. But what do you do if you are the Queen?

The Oxford Blue- Wine bar and local pub

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:31:52 +0000

Just as Bottega on Walton St. closed to make room for a grocery store and student housing, Chris Murray, the proprietor, started work on his next project, The Oxford Blue in Iffley.

Wines to add kick to your 2012 resolutions

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

It’s almost the middle of January and your determination to detox is beginning to dwindle. You don’t want to ruin the weeks of healthy living, but you are longing for a bit of zest to energize your life.

Wines add to Christmas spirit

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:40:00 +0000

As families come together over Christmas lunch, a flight of wine and champagne that chimes with a traditional turkey feast is a successful recipe to capture the holiday spirit.

Gift selections can ease present problems

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:52:11 +0000

Eat, drink and be merry . . . with the big Christmas rush upon us, shopping for wine or spirits can be the best recipe for spreading some festive cheer.

Sunshine valley offers highly-prized crop

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:23:49 +0000

Shiraz and spice and all things nice . . . the sun has shone on vines in South Australia’s Barossa Valley since the 1840s, when settlers first planted their highly-prized crop. The most famous and largest wine region of the “big four”, the Barossa’s flat valley floor is blanketed with vineyards and has never been plagued by phylloxera.

Top tips to stack racks for Christmas

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:30:00 +0000

Resistance is futile . . . Christmas and all its associated pleasures (and occasional frustrations) are just around the corner.

Nervous moments over carbon neutrality

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:50:00 +0000

It seems to be the season for wine tastings — not (for me anyway) the imbibing sort, but the leading and showing of wines to all sorts of groups. The other night I returned to a society I first spoke to some 12 years ago.

Grapes are a smashing asset to Greece

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:20:00 +0000

As a family we went to Greece a lot when my sister and I were children. It satisfied my mum’s love of the heat and my dad’s fascination for Ancient Greece. I am not sure that we were sufficiently appreciative. I spent the entire two weeks lurking in the shade, desperate for the damp shroud of a Scots mist whilst my sister, later an architecture student at Cambridge, once famously denounced Knossos by saying “not another heap of stones…”

Eurozone wines to wake the palate

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

I fear we are turning into a family of slouches. I returned home the other day to find my dog curled up in front of the telly that he had (inadvertently) switched on and that was showing some hideously trashy programme which, most alarmingly of all, appeared to have captured his interest.