At the very end of January this year we travelled to South Africa to escape the drudgery of another English winter for some much sought for sun!

Paxton & Whitfield and Taylor’s Port recently held an event at Paxton’s headquarters to offer some guidance on those all-important Port and cheese purchases for the festive season.

On the 3rd November Dallaglio RugbyWorks hosted the 9th edition of 8Rocks at Battersea Evolution for an evening of fine dining, fine wine all coupled with some world-class entertainment and all for a fantastic cause.

On the 24th October a small group joined Charles Braastad of Delamain Cognac and Michelle Brachet, a leading Cognac educator who has just published a fantastic new book, The World of Cognac for a workshop exploring cognac and food pairings from a range of British cheese, charcuterie and chocolates.

Following its tradition of declaring on St. George’s Day, The Fladgate Partnership announced that it would bottle 2015 Vintage Ports from Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas and Croft’s Quinta da Roêda as well as a commemorative Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage marking the bicentenary of the company’s foundation in 1815.

At the beginning of March a small group travelled from London to Aÿ to experience the 2016 vins clairs tastings at Champagne Bollinger & Champagne Ayala. The vins clairs is a unique opportunity to discover the first expressions of a harvest and understand the essence of the Ayala and Bollinger style.

Neighbouring the north stands at Twickenham Stadium the Cardinal Vaughan Car Park has seen the warm-up for countless rugby and sporting fixtures. Most recently we have been relishing the atmosphere as England take on some of the top teams in the Northern Hemisphere in the RBS 6 Nations. The latest in this series of mouth-watering contests was the world famous Calcutta Cup, an annual face-off between England & Scotland which was first fought over in 1879.