Hints and tips:
...His father joined Domecq, an important family-run sherry business (now owned by a Filipino brandy producer) in 1974....
...We weren’t sure, so we asked Jancis Robinson, the FT’s wine correspondent, what she thought of the Cellar’s contents....
...(As for my contribution, it’s hard work pulling corks, I can assure you, and I do graciously make the brandy butter.)...
...“There has been a marked increase in celebrity-owned, invested or endorsed brands over the past few years,” says Brandy Rand, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis COO of the Americas....
...La Mancha’s dominant grape is the pale-skinned Airén, long dismissed as fit only for producing grape concentrate and base wine for brandy....
...Jancis Robinson will be appearing at this year’s FT Weekend Digital Festival, March 18-20....
...In 1990 and 2000, the grape that occupied the greatest vineyard area in the world was the little-known brandy grape Airén, which used to dominate the vast, arid plains of La Mancha in Spain....
...Producers have been forced to turn surplus grapes into juice, grape concentrate, brandy and even hand sanitiser. So, what’s the good news about South African wine? The sheer beauty of it, that’s what....
...“If you were on the Titanic it’s where you would have gone for brandy and cigars after dinner,” was Jang’s take. “It’s class....
...Two of the most august names, Harvey and Garvey, are now in the hands of Asian businessmen who have bought them mainly for their brandy assets....
...Little Caesars The reference to the 1931 Edward G Robinson film was lost when I put this on a menu, but they get eaten all the same....
...The light-skinned Airen, much of it used for brandy, was for decades recognised as the world’s most-planted variety, or at least the one planted on the biggest area of vineyard....
...Jancis Robinson is away Follow @FTMag on Twitter to find out about our latest stories first. Subscribe to FT Life on YouTube for the latest FT Weekend videos...
...Food processor plus unsalted butter plus icing sugar plus hooch of some sort magically produces brandy butter (usually on Christmas Eve). My sister-in-law often makes the Christmas pudding....
...The few people involved with wine then felt like true pioneers in a country devoted to beer, brandy and tequila. Today there are about 150 wineries....
...The current owner of the Domecq bodega in Jerez’s beautiful and increasingly valuable old town is Andrew L Tan, Chinese owner of Emperador, the world’s biggest-selling brandy....
...His father, following a career in the army and a flirtation with farming, took over the family liquor business in Dunedin, kept afloat by Beehive brandy imported from France....
...Many wine lovers may be surprised to discover that it was only in this century that the two red Bordeaux grapes overtook Airén, the white wine and brandy grape that was until very recently Spain’s most-planted...
...He discovers that if he wears it while sipping brandy, he can move back and forth from the 1950s to the present day....
...But in most Spanish wine regions, other than sherry country and the plains of La Mancha – long planted with the characterless Airen grape, historically destined for distillation into brandy – pale-skinned...
...It’s the Heath Robinson approach: shove enough stuff in there and enough people will find something attractive....
...Over the inevitable shot of plum brandy, he tells of his family’s brush with death at the hands of a Bosniak band....
...Andrew Jefford’s Wine Course (Ryland, Peters & Small) was judged ‘Best Drink Book 2010’ at the Le Cordon Bleu World Food Media Awards Jancis Robinson is away ………………………………………….....
...www.jancisrobinson.com For more columns visit www.ft.com/robinson...
...Andrew Jefford is the author of ‘The New France: A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine’. www.andrewjefford.com Jancis Robinson returns next week...
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