Sitting in my inbox is an e-mail from Farr Vintners– who claim to be the biggest fine wine dealers in the world – inviting me to buy some 2005 Bordeaux. Apparently it is a vintage of “compelling greatness”.

And what a bargain too! For just £22,000 you can buy a 12-bottle case of Chateau Pétrus. If you are too much of a cheapskate to stump up for the Pétrus, you might consider something a bit more downmarket – like a case of Chateau Margaux for £5,000.

As it happens, I can remember a halcyon age when I used to drink wines like Margaux and Pétrus reasonably regularly – the 1970s. It is true that Britain was in dire trouble back then: strikes were endemic and electricity was intermittent. But there were also some good things about the British economy of the 1970s. One of them was that even a London University academic (my father) could afford occasionally to buy wines like Lafite, Margaux or Pétrus and serve them to his deserving children. It was all pleasantly redolent of the immortal cry from “Withnail and I”: “I want the finest wines known to humanity. I want them here. And I want them now.”

(more…)

The British love to think of the French as irredeemably corrupt. But take a look at recent corruption scandals in Britain and France, and it is hard to avoid the impression that it is the French who are taking a tougher line on sleaze than the supposedly upright Anglo-Saxons.

Last month, both the British and French prime ministers were interviewed by the police within a week of each other. But the handling of Tony Blair was noticeably softer than the treatment meted out to Dominique de Villepin. Mr Blair had a gentlemanly chat about the “cash-for-honours” scandal – which involves allegations that the Labour Party essentially sold peerages in return for loans to the party. His interview took place in Downing Street in the middle of the day, and took less than two hours. By contrast Mr de Villepin was subjected to a 13-hour interrogation, ending at three in the morning. He was apparently being questioned about suggestions that he may have attempted to smear fellow ministers in the “Clearstream affair”. (Warning to readers: Do not attempt to understand the Clearstream affair, that way madness lies).

(more…)