Having successfully defended blended whiskies, Henry turns his attention another enemy of certain drink snobs: Aussie wines... A couple of years ago before I was an enormously well-respected wine writer with my own column in a prestigious magazine, I replied to something written by Tim Atkin on which wine region or ... Read More...
About Author Profile: Henry Jeffreys
Single malt fans who turn their noses up at blended whiskies are missing out, argues Henry... When one reads about whisky it is invariably single malts that get all the attention. Whisky writers go into raptures at the latest ultra-peaty monsters from Ardbeg or Laphroaig. Malts like these are drinks that ... Read More...
Wine is the ultimate recession-proof leisure pursuit, argues Henry Jeffreys. Not least because it contains alchohol... A wine merchant opened up near my flat in East London about three years ago just as the recession was taking off and people were losing their jobs. They didn’t offer much below £10 a ... Read More...
Henry provides a very handy catch-all phrase for when discussing wine with people who know more about it than you do... From watching Father Ted, we all know that in a religious discussion you can’t go wrong by saying: ‘that would be an ecumenical matter.’ That way you will always sound like ... Read More...
The Dabbler's drinks correspondent Henry Jeffreys talks to the philosopher and columnist Roger Scruton about all matters wine-related... For many years Roger Scruton wrote a column for the New Statesman. It was ostensibly about wine but in reality it smuggled subversive views about the family, religion and hunting into a left ... Read More...
In which Henry uncovers a hoard of very old wine, and does some impromptu blending... About ten years ago a friend of mine inherited a country pile from a misanthropic great uncle. The place was a bit neglected so he planned to sell off some of the accumulated loot in order ... Read More...
Frasier and Niles were always guzzling some presumably upmarket tipple in the famous sitcom. But what exactly were they drinking? Henry can reveal the shocking truth... The sherry marketing board should have made more of the Crane brothers’ love of sherry. In every episode of the long-running sitcom Frasier there they ... Read More...
Henry combines the typical Dabbler's two main passions: reading and drinking... One simply cannot have too many books about booze. I’ll even read those books about supermarket wine with titles like Easyquaff and Fruity! that were all the rage a few years ago. In particular I like ones from secondhand bookshops ... Read More...
Henry wonders why wine writers have such uniquely one-track minds… There’s an article by Craig Brown (the humourist not the former Scotland football manager) about being present at the one and only meeting between Anthony Burgess and Benny Hill. Apparently it was not a great success. Though the two great artists ... Read More...
Planning on hosting or attending or a wine tasting? For goodness' sake don't even think about it without first reading Henry's golden rules... I have for some time been planning on starting a wine club so that I can drink wine I wouldn’t normally be able to afford. This club, will be in ... Read More...
