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Like mince pies, mulled wine and comedy jumpers, port tends to appear only at Christmas and then is forgotten for the rest of the year. This is a great shame, for port is a wonderful drink, made in many different styles and to suit so many occasions.
What is port wine?
Port is a fortified wine that comes from the Douro region of Portugal, whose main city Oporto (also known as Porto) gives the wine its name. It dates back more than 300 years, when the Brits were at war with France so looked to Portugal – their oldest allies – to quench their thirst for wine. Producers in the Douro valley added a little distilled grape spirit to stabilise and preserve the wines before their long journey aboard sail-powered ships to reach our damp shores. They were an immediate (and lucrative) hit, and close relationships with producers and English shippers endure to this day.
The Drinks Business
15 December 2020 By Lauren Eads
Greece is one of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world, and yet in modern winemaking terms recognition on a global scale has eluded its winemakers.
Its ancient heritage for winemaking is well known, but its viticultural story has more often that not been resigned to history books, rather than the international wine stage. It’s not due to a lack of quality, but perhaps an unfortunate stereotype, combined with a somewhat introverted wine industry, that is to say, domestic rather than internationally-focused.
Writing in his book
The Wines of Greece, Konstantinos Lazarakis MW, explains: “I often see old friends at wine fairs in France, the UK or the US. Even today, when I invite them over to the Greek stands to taste some wine I frequently get the one-line response, ‘I do not like retsina’, as an answer. And it is wine professionals I am talking about here, so this just goes to show the huge a
This has been a year like no other, so I am sure you are looking forward to enjoying Christmas and hoping that next year will be less stressful.
There are several stunning, inexpensive wines among my collection, but this is also a time for splashing out, so there are tempting bottles at all prices for you to reward your palate and those of your friends.
As always, as soon as my list is printed there is a rush to buy the wines, so don’t delay.
While some of the merchants might not be local to you, they all deliver nationwide and if you take advantage of case prices and other deals noted here, you can save plenty of cash.
Build a Family Business That Lasts
Companies that endure do these five things right. by Courtesy of Jorge Mayet and Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York Summary.
Judging from how they’re portrayed in the media, it would be easy to dismiss family businesses as hotbeds of power-playing, backstabbing, and favor-currying, ultimately destined to fail; think of the Murdochs and News Corp, or the Redstones and National Amusements, to name just two. But many family businesses have enjoyed success for decades, even centuries. The authors explore five aspects of ownership that are crucial to whether a family business thrives or perishes: the type of ownership (whether a sole owner, a partnership, or another arrangement); the governance structure; how “success” is defined; what information the owners will (and won’t) communicate to other family members and stakeholders; and how to handle the transition to the next generation.
The best champagne and sparkling wines for Christmas 2020 telegraph.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from telegraph.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.