The Sommelier’s Palate – Master Sommelier Nicolas Clerc MS, United Kingdom

“Raspberry soufflé with a NV Bugey-Cerdon from Renardat-Fache.  The pairing of both texture and aromas was incredible.” Master Sommelier Nicolas Clerc

(pronounced suh-mal-‘yAy) Read More >

Fresh Produce Markets in the UK

I came across this excellent website http://loveyourlocalmarket.org.uk when researching fresh food markets in Nottingham, England. Yes the Wandering Palate is going to be in Sherwood Forest – Glamping on a farmstay in Caunton, should be fun! Read More >

Lobster Run – Cornwall – July 13th

Another beautiful day in Cornwall, out at sea by 8am before the low-tide to check our lobsters pots. But no luck again save a young specimen that we threw back. Still, where’s there’s children there has to be adults so we re-baited the pots and hope we are more successful tomorrow.

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A Proper Job at the Fairyboat Inn – Helford Passage, Cornwall – July 12th

A 7am chug around Falmouth Bay, that is the mouth of the Fal River, checking our lobster pots proved fruitless, although I did catch a Mackerel on the way back.

We set off to Helford Passage for lunch at the Ferryboat Inn, now run by the oyster and seafood specialist, Wright Bros, of Borough Market and their Soho restaurant, which we dined a few weeks back and had a most enjoyable experience. More on that later.

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St Antony, Cornwall – 11th July

Having traveled down from Highgate by train to Haslemere in Surrey for a few days to stay with friends, we then drove to their beach house in St Antony, Cornwall, a good 6 hour drive stopping off at their Devon Farm to raid the cellar. He’s a true Wandering palate with a taste for old German Riesling and Southern Rhone reds.

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Spitfire Beer

The Wandering Palate does partake in the occasional beer however not that partial to commercial bilge water that adorns the supermarket shelves and liquor barns. Like wine (grapes), good beer (Ale) starts with good ingredients (hops, malt, yeast, water).

Wine is of course all about a ‘sense of place’ and that all-encompassing aspect the French taught us – ‘terroir’ – which includes man and craftsmanship. Can beer express something as special as a ‘a sense of place’? Well, no if it’s a formulaic brew made under licence all over the planet. However, take a brew like Spitfire – a Kentish Ale – where the hops are from heirloom local varieties, the water drawn from a sole artesian well in Kent and add over 500 years of traditional brewing history, and you have a real story and real beer, or ale as it were.

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Wine Seduction in London
The Sampler - Wine Machine

Our UK Correspondent, Alistair Scott, grapples with tasting protocol, wine-voyeurism and ravaging the credit card at, The Sampler, the dynamic north London wine merchant fast-making a name for itself for seducing palates on and off the premises.

Sip, spit or slurp? Difficult decisions at The Sampler

So does one sip, spit or slurp? The etiquette for wine tastings in usually pretty clear – rows of glasses, big buckets and lots of spit. But The Sampler presents a challenge. You are faced with a possible 80 wines to taste, all looking very appealing and mostly very tasty.

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Favourite Wine Shop

The Wandering Palate’s UK correspondent, Alistair Scott considers the gratifyingly tangible aspects of a good old fashion,, family-run local wine merchant.

So, what makes a great wine shop…or off-licence or bottle shop if you prefer? What is it that works best for you as a wine buyer? When the door bell pings and you look inside the store, what excites you and where are the best examples of the species to be found?

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