The Winery Solor Ruelle of Champagne

Last year, there was much mirth on wine Twitter about a particularly excruciating tasting note. You’re right. The wine trade needs to get out more. But still… this one was a beauty. It began well enough – really quite beautiful, in fact. But before long the imaginative descriptions were getting more ornate and strained. It moved from poetic to meaningless before finishing with a reference to Burnt Norton – the first of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets – that put it firmly in Private Eye magazine’s ...

When you have an idea that, in your first flush of inspiration, you think deserves to get beyond the breakfast table, you run straight into the modern dilemma. Is it a Tweet? Is it one for Facebook or Instagram? Should you just try it out on your nearest and dearest, or is there a book in it? A slim volume, or does it need several tomes to expound its profundity? My trade being what it is, and royalties being as modest as they are these days, I’ve rather given up on books. Writing new ones, that ...

The ‘Spinning Around’ singer launched the wines on her birthday in 2020 as part of a collaboration with London-based Benchmark Drinks. The firm, founded by former Accolade Wines chief executive Paul Schaafsma, specialises in celebrity partnerships. It has also launched wines in tandem with Sarah Jessica Parker, Ian Botham and Graham Norton. Yet the Kylie Minogue range has been one of the star performers, selling 3.5 million bottles in the UK and a further 1.5 million bottles in 15 international ...