There is a version of Champagne that exists purely for the party. The pop, the pour, the Instagram moment. And then there is the version Cédric Jacopin makes. It asks you to slow down.

The Art of the Father’s Day Dram: Why Bushmills is the Ultimate Gift for the Discerning Parent

The problem with reviewing electric cars without a home charger is that you very quickly become an unpaid infrastructure correspondent. You stop thinking like a motoring content creator and start thinking like a logistics manager.

This year, Podge went racing. And I, somehow, was waved through onto the grid — a clerical error I have no intention of reporting.

After six Audis of my own over the years, I am either fiercely loyal to the brand or simply institutionalised. Probably both.

So, when Audi handed me the keys to the new Q8 Vorsprung, a £100,000-plus luxury SUV complete with a panoramic roof the size of a Chelsea flat and enough technology to make NASA blush, I felt quietly smug. This, surely, was going to be excellent.

And it was.

Mostly.

Harley-Davidson's Heritage Classic is a light-touring cruiser that offers a direct visual link to 1950s rock-and-roll-era America, while hiding highly capable modern technology beneath its traditional styling.

Nobody at the Cure EB Silver Butterfly Dinner could tell me what I'd arrived in. Damian Lewis was there, the evening was compered with great charm by Dominic Holland — introduced everywhere, to his evident amusement, as Spider-Man's father — and DS had generously donated a week with the N°8 as a lot in the charity auction, which gives you some idea of the company it keeps. Yet the question I fielded most often that night concerned the long, low, faintly menacing machine parked outside. Nobody knew the badge. Everybody wanted one.

Quinze Ans de Grâce

Some evenings stay with you. Not because of the champagne — though the champagne was excellent — and not because of the company, though the company was as distinguished as any room in London. This evening stayed because of one young woman who stood up, sang like an angel, and reminded two hundred of the city's finest that there are more important things in this world than being important.

We were invited specially to the launch of A Taste of The Championships, an exclusive seasonal menu tasting celebrating the very best of Britain’s larder, thoughtfully sourced, sustainably led, and inspired by the diverse restaurant experiences that will define The Championships 2026 at Wimbledon.