by Caspar Bowes

I hate running late for a flight. I left home in what I thought was plenty of time and quickly hit a band of sleet, which soon afterwards became snow. Not long after that, I was in a blizzard and traffic had started to move more slowly. On the M3, it stopped.I dumped the car in the long stay and hop…

Isabella's glad to see her dad after a week awayI am sitting at my desk sipping a most unusual wine and one that's a sure fire contender for The Daily Drinker. Victoria's gone out to play tennis, the children are in bed asleep and I have taken the opportunity to open a sample bottle. It's one I've t…

Old vines beneath, moody sky above and in between a very pretty Provencal town, the name of which, sadly, escapes me. This view was captured half a mile down the road from Tempier and the vineyards are those of BandolAt last I have time to sit down and compose the final blog of my week in France. I…

Steam cleaning a tron conique at BeaucastelI had a moment of clarity yesterday morning on the way to Gigondas. We had stopped to snap off a few photographs - the sun's rays breaking through the lowering cloudbank; the morning light falling on a distant church: all very Wordsworthian stuff - when I s…

The view from the top of The Dentelles de Montmirail above GigondasDinner last evening was taken at Le Sommelerie, one of the two best hotels in and around Chateauneuf-du-Pape. On the road to Roquemaure, one can be assured, within its walls, to experience good food and a testing period of rumination…