Best Restaurants|Restaurant Reviews|Fine Wines|Spirits|Liquor
The Glenlivet has unveiled the Second Edition in its Eternal Collection, a 56 Year Old single malt, accompanied by a bespoke artwork from the acclaimed design studio Fredrikson Stallard. Only sixty bottles have been released worldwide. I had an opportunity to taste it at an exceptional dinner at Somerset House.
The hottest summer residency on London's dining scene – Cape Town’s celebrated restaurant Pot Luck Club in pop-up form at The Waldorf Hilton on Aldwych – has been extended until the end of June 2026 due to popular demand.
And Londoners should be feeling even luckier this Christmas and new year period as its head chef, Luke Dale-Roberts, has put together an exclusive new festive menu to celebrate the news.
One of the pleasures of tasting at this time of year is discovering how deeply place shapes a wine’s character. Winter slows everything down, giving you time to notice the things you might have missed: the origins of a grape, the temperament of a region, or the decisions of a winemaker. This collection shows just how varied those stories can be.
My whisky (and rum) selections below move across styles, regions and ideas, beginning with Mosswood’s Jamaican rum shaped by the life, and mythology, of William Kidd, before returning to Scotland for three very different views of Highland distilling: the quiet composure of Tomatin’s 18 Year Old Oloroso Sherry, the seasonal experimentation behind Cù Bòcan’s Creation #7, and Tamdhu’s sherry-led Year of the Horse release with its distinctive artwork by Page Tsou.
Jones Family Kitchen is a London find that feels as though it has been waiting for you all along. Nestled quietly within Eccleston Yards, a large interior courtyard resembling a maze or labyrinth with hidden entrances and exits, and surrounded by a cluster of eclectic restaurants, it radiates the kind of charm that can turn an ordinary evening into a small adventure.
For those of us who spend our working lives around whisky, tasting the annually released Buffalo Trace Antique Collection remains a rarity. It is cited regularly, chased relentlessly and yet rarely seen. Bottles appear in specialist shops on release and disappear almost instantly, later reappearing at auction with price tags that bear little resemblance to their intended purpose (to be drunk). Tasting even one of them is unusual. I have never managed to. Tasting all six in a single sitting is almost unheard of.
The World’s 50 Best Vineyards for 2025 have been announced, following an international awards ceremony in Margaret River, Western Australia, where the world of wine converged to recognise and celebrate this year’s winners.
As ever, there are a few surprises in there, with a picture emerging that the top tier no longer belongs exclusively to the ‘old world triangle’ of France, Italy and Spain, with the Americas, South Africa, New Zealand, Japan and Lebanon continuing to make gains in this higher end of the market.
If you’re a food lover looking to elevate your dining experience, look no further than D.O. Cava—Spain’s iconic sparkling wine crafted using the traditional method. Born under the Mediterranean sun, Cava combines freshness, complexity, and elegance, making it one of the most versatile wines in the world.
Rifai’s story began in Beirut in 1948, when a small family business started roasting nuts using a dry roasting technique that quickly became a reference point across Lebanon. Over the decades the brand grew steadily, not through marketing, but because families simply adopted it as part of everyday life. For many Lebanese people, Rifai is tied to memory. It appeared on the table during gatherings, visits and celebrations, and it became a quiet marker of quality that carried through generations.
