Miscellaneous

Christine Austin hits the high road in the Alps as she sets in search of Switzerland’s best wines. Most of the time, when I am travelling overseas, I have to explain where Yorkshire is, but not in Switzerland. Everyone in the Swiss wine business knows about Yorkshire – or at least about the company that is the major importer of their wines. Now based in Bradford, Joelle Nebbe-Mornod is Swiss-born and under her company name of Alpine Wines she has opened up the world of Swiss wines to UK consumers.

In June 2007, following the first Grand Prix du Vin Suisse tasting, organised by Vinum and Vinea in Sierre, I was frustrated. The French Swiss had very different ideas than the German speaking about what a good wine was. I was even wondering if such a Grand Prix made sense. Ten years later...

Created in 1928, and Hong Kong's oldest hotel, the legendary "Grande Dame of the Far East" continues to set hotel standards worldwide, offering a blend of the best Eastern and Western hospitality in an atmosphere of unmatched classical grandeur and timeless elegance. A stay at the hotel allows you to re-live the glamour of travel of a by-gone era and explore the many antiques and historical artifacts on display around the hotel. The hotel also boasts 14 bespoke Rolls-Royce Phantoms. Like all great hotels around the world, the Peninsula offers various cuisines including a Swiss restaurant: the Chesa...

As beach season draws to a close (today, September 23rd, is the Fall Equinox, not Labor Day), I want to address a global wine-related epidemic that hits its zenith in summer. Throughout July and August, I visited several white wine producing regions in Oregon, Germany, and Switzerland (the Swiss not only make wine, but I’d argue it’s better than their chocolate and more affordable than their watches). With each vintner visit, our discussion of their carefully crafted whites and demand for their latest vintages inevitably led to the following conclusion: Consumers are sucking them down long before they should be opened. In other words, we drink white wine too young.