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Wine & Beer

Tasting tips, brewery adventures, weird wine regions and drinking culture without the snobbery.

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How Not To Tour French Wine Country: A Guide Featuring Gout, Missing Contact Lenses and Angry Winemakers

A leisurely tour of France's most famous wine regions sounds wonderfully sophisticated until you're limping around Burgundy with gout in both feet, crawling under a van seat looking for a missing contact lens and accidentally driving through vineyards while being pursued by furious winemakers. From Champagne to Alsace, via an unexpected detour around Lake Geneva and a failed attempt to climb Mont Blanc, this is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks wine tourism is all elegant tastings and picturesque sunsets. Sometimes it's just pain, panic and a sat nav with a twisted sense of humour.

8 Jun 20267 min read

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America's Most Ridiculous Roadside Bars: A Scientific Study Conducted One Pint At A Time

Some of America's best bars look abandoned, suspicious or one strong gust of wind away from retirement. Inside, however, you'll find cold beer, unforgettable characters and enough stories to fill a library. After years exploring the USA, I've discovered that the best bar is usually the one you weren't planning to visit.

2 Jun 20267 min

Why Wine & Beer Tours Are More Fun Than Therapy (And Usually Cheaper)

After years running boozy tours, I've noticed a pattern. Guests arrive stressed, glued to their phones and talking about work. A few days later they're laughing with strangers in vineyards and breweries wondering why they don't do this more often. Coincidence? Possibly. Wine and beer certainly isn't hurting.

1 Jun 20266 min

The 15 Weirdest Places to Drink a Beer in America (According to a British Man Who Has Made Some Questionable Travel Decisions)

I've enjoyed craft beer in churches, beside giant roadside attractions and in buildings that looked one planning dispute away from demolition. After years exploring America's brewery scene, I've discovered one simple truth: the stranger the location, the better the story.

1 Jun 20266 min

The World's Weirdest Wine Regions: Places That Prove Grapes Have Better Adventures Than Most People

I've tasted wine beside volcanoes, inside underground cities and in countries that most travellers couldn't locate on a map. After twenty-five years in the wine trade, I've discovered that the world's weirdest wine regions often produce the best stories, and occasionally the best wine too.

1 Jun 20266 min

Why Craft Beer Tourists Are More Fun Than Everyone Else

Craft beer tourists will happily fly across a continent for a brewery recommendation, explore industrial estates in search of hidden taprooms and follow local advice into places that don't appear in guidebooks. As it turns out, these are exactly the sort of people you want on an adventure.

1 Jun 20267 min

Ale-ien Encounters: A Completely Rational Guide to UFOs & Beer

There are normal beer tours. Then there are beer tours where at some point in the evening someone says: “Wait…what was that in the sky?” Welcome to Ale-ien Encounters. Where the beers are real and the explanations are optional.

1 May 20266 min

Hops & Homicide: Why This Might Be the Strangest (and Best) Beer Tour in America

There are normal brewery tours. You know the type: “This is how hops work”, “This is our fermentation tank” or “Please enjoy this responsibly sized tasting”. Lovely. Educational. Calm. This tour is not that.

1 May 20266 min

Beer Flights: What They Are (And How Not to Accidentally Ruin Them)

Everything you need to know about craft beer flights from selection strategy to drinking order. Spoiler: there is a wrong way to do it.

15 Mar 20266 min

Wine Snobs vs Wine Lovers: A Completely Unofficial Showdown

One will judge your choices. The other will share their glass. Here's how to spot the difference.

15 Mar 20266 min

How NOT to Swirl Wine (And Why Nobody Cares Anyway)

There's a fine line between 'experienced wine taster' and 'wizard having a moment'. Here's how to stay on the right side.

15 Mar 20266 min

About Wine & Beer

Everything we love about what's in the glass. How to taste without looking daft, the world's weirdest wine regions, America's most ridiculous bars and why beer tourists are more fun than everyone else.

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