Mushroom gin, Lego houses, and dull men and women, with James May
That bloke off Top Gear joins the Country Life Podcast to talk about making his own gin, how to run a pub, why dull men and women are anything but and why he hates the North Pole and suitcases with...
View ArticleChampagne with fish and chips, and what to drink at Christmas with Oscar Dodd...
Fortnum & Mason's wine and spirits guru joins the Country Life podcast.Wine and spirits buyer Oscar Dodd.‘Anything said with absolute confidence and in absolute terms is normally nonsense,’ says...
View Article10 of the most beautiful corkscrews to make opening a great bottle of wine...
The best corkscrews you can buy today, as selected by Amelia Thorpe.Barley Pattern silver corkscrew, £320, Asprey 020–7493 6767; www.asprey.com Opinel corkscrew and pocketknife, £25 020–7043 1478;...
View ArticleThe beekeeper who became an accidental distiller: 'When I took it to the...
Frustrated by wasted honey in her frames, a beekeeper tried soaking them in whisky. The results are award-winning, discovers Vicky Liddell, as she samples Beeble’s spirits.Nicola Reed: artist,...
View ArticleBest summer gins for sipping on long, hot afternoons (or for drowning your...
Theres nothing wrong at all with a standard London dry gin and tonic in summer — in fact, there's an awful lot right with it. Sometimes, though, you hanker after something more exotic, and Martin Fone...
View ArticleHow to make The Hudson, Country Life's 125th anniversary cocktail
The Hudson is a cocktail created by the team at Claridge's to commemorate Country Life's 125th anniversary. Here's how it's made.On Wednesday May 11, the great and the good of Country Life’s past and...
View Article5 drinks to try if you're bored of Pimm's
Swap your lukewarm party pitcher for one of these Continental aperitifs, says Emma Hughes. Camparino in Galleria, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, Lombardy, ItalyWhisper it: not everyone loves...
View ArticleThe best gins for Mother's Day
What better for Mother's Day than a bottle of 'Mother's Ruin'? We've selected some of the finest gins on the market which are sure to give your long-suffering parent a treat.This is our now-legendary...
View ArticleThe traditional Gloucestershire cider producers keeping a great Cotswolds...
Cider will be forever associated with the Cotswolds thanks to Rosie. Jane Wheatley meets the makers keeping the tradition alive.According to the enchanting 2020 book Orchard: A Year in England’s Eden,...
View ArticleEverything you need to throw the perfect posh picnic, from luxurious wool...
We're not saying that you'll need all these items for a picnic, but we can guarantee you'll want them.Les Jardins De La Comtesse — Saint Germain four person wicker picnic basket Put all your eggs in...
View ArticleBest Father's Day gifts for foodie fathers and thirsty dads
Father's Day is coming up on June 20, and a little treat will always be a winner. Of course, a big treat is even better... Toby Keel and Martin Fone pick out some of their favourite Father's Day food...
View ArticleChateau International Space Station: The $1 million bottle of wine that's...
Sending wine to space, and bringing it back down to earth to sell for a good cause seems like a Herculean effort. But the true admiration must be for the astronauts who managed to resist the temptation...
View ArticleHow to make Ed Brown's Elderflower 'Champagne'
Ed Brown is arguably Britain's top expert on elderflowers — and here's his favourite method for turning them into something rather special...Ed Brown has something of an obsession for elderberry trees:...
View Article11 of the best gins to buy this Christmas
Our Christmas gin special includes some of our favourites available right now.The proliferation of gins in recent years has removed the old conundrum (“Should we go for Gordon’s or Beefeater?”) with a...
View ArticleCurious Questions: Why is gin flavoured with juniper?
The prickly juniper bush has been in decline for decades, a worrying development at a time when gin is soaring in popularity. Vicky Liddell takes a look at the history of this fascinating plant, and...
View ArticleA Drink for All Seasons: Five fine alcohol-free tipples to see you through...
If you haven't already started Sober October... well, you've missed the start, but it's never too late.Macmillan Cancer Support have long run fund-raising campaigns tied in to October, and are...
View ArticleA Drink for All Seasons: Oktoberfest at home, honey beer and the nearest...
This time of year usually sees hundreds of thousands of people descend upon Bavaria to celebrate — er, well, we're not quite sure, but at any rate they drink lots of beer. So what better time to take a...
View ArticleHow to make perfect sloe gin
Make sure you've got the right recipe for your sloe gin batch this year. Ours is tried and tested! Make perfect sloe gin this year with our ultimate recipe. Of course you should really make your sloe...
View ArticleA Drink for All Seasons: The world's prettiest gin bottle, plus four more...
The nights are drawing in, the temperature is plummeting and your finger is hovering over the switch to put the central heating on. So how about a nice gin to pick you up? Where gin meets the...
View ArticleA Drink for All Seasons: One man's mission to create a better non-alcoholic...
Wine writer Matthew Jukes spent years looking for a decent zero-alcohol alternative to wine — and in the end decided to start making his own. He tells the story of how he did it.Matthew Jukes (left)...
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