For any wine-lover one of the most everlasting memories is a visit to a vineyard during the grape harvest. Few sights epitomise so perfectly what it means to complete an annual cycle of growth than to witness a scene that has not changed since time immemorial. Man has always headed off to the vineyard at this time of year to pick the grapes that will in a very short time become wine.   Personally this magic moment occurred for the first time in Jerez, sitting on the terrace of a vineyard house drinking the mythical Fino Campero and[…]

  When a journalist visited the Shuping region of China to report on the long-lived population, he was amazed to find that these centenarians could not care less about living healthily.  Quite the reverse. They almost never ate fruit and vegetables, and although working hard in the fields, appeared to survive on booze and tobacco. The daughter of Yu Eangyn, 99, told the visitor that her father had little interest in anything apart from his monthly ten litres of rice wine and endless cigarettes. He was typical.   Recently one of the committee members that advised the UK government on[…]