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The Zonin 1821 portfolio tasting 2026, was this year held at the Haberdashers’ Hall, City of London. Zonin brought together 180 wines from 31 producers including Italy, France, Spain, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Lebanon. Zonin1821 are a renowned Italian vine growing and wine producing family that have been producing wine since 1821.
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N’end sake launched in London at the RAC Club, London, in July 2025. the event was held in collaboration with the British Sake Association and Takara Shuzo UK. Iconic Sake Samurai, Kenishi Ohashi MW was also present at the launch.
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The ever popular international London Book Fair was held on 11th – 13th March 2025, at Olympia London. Some 32,000 professionals including journalists, writers, editors, publishers and copyrights-based industry specialists were amongst the many others that attended this important annual event.
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A disastrous BBC Panorama editing of US President Trump’s speech, has led to resignations of both the BBC director-general Tim Davie and head of BBC News Deborah Turness. President Trump said that the editing of his 6th January 2021 speech was “egregious” and “worse than the Kamala thing” (reference to a CBS dispute over an interview with Kamala Harris). The President also said, “The people of the UK are very angry about what happened, as you can imagine, because it shows the BBC is fake news”.
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The Speciality Fine Food Fair 2024, a trade exhibition of fine foods, wines and spirits, was held on 10-11 September at Olympia Events (formerly Olympia Exhibition Centre), London. Here are some are my favourite scenes from the Fair. Product details are given after the gallery slideshow. Continue reading “Speciality Fine Food Fair 2024”
The 41st London Wine Fair 2023 at Olympia, London, was well attended with over 10,000 visitors and more than 400 exhibitors. In this review, I will be mainly featuring wines from Ukraine.
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Is this China’s fourth aircraft carrier Type 004 under construction at Jiangnan Shipyard, Changxing Island, Shanghai? Well, it appears to be (see addendum). There are numerous online reports that China is planning a fourth aircraft carrier – possibly larger than the Type 003 Fujian, and with nuclear propulsion. To date, there have been no definitive reports of the Type 004 being constructed; although an Australian tabloid newspaper reported that steel plate cutting for the ship began in December 2017. I was therefore surprised to see this recent satellite image on the Google Earth website, showing the advanced construction of an aircraft carrier at Jiangnan Shipyard.
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September 2022, saw the return of The Big Hospitality Expo at London’s Olympia venue along with the Low2NoBev trade show. In this article, I will review a selection of the best non-alcoholic drinks showcased at Low2NoBev. In recent years, technological development of yeast strains and new production techniques have led to many new interesting non/low-alcohol drinks being launched. Here are a few products that I enjoyed:
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A while ago, pre-Covid days, I had the opportunity to visit the Shenfei Aviation Expo Park, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. The park is located at Lingbei Street, in the Huangqu district of Shenyang, located in Northeast China. Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) is an alternative name for the Shenfei manufacturing plant.
The Shenfei Aviation Expo Park covers an area of 25000 sq metres, which includes a museum dedicated to the history and development of Chinese fighter aircraft and aviation science. Outdoors, there is a fighter planes display park area showing important landmark fighter aircraft.
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In my previous article, ‘BBC or BBC PLC?: Government Policy Needs to be Clarified‘, I presented a number of important issues for debate. Of special concern is the answer to the question: would the BBC become a Public Limited Company (PLC) if it were no longer funded through the existing television licence fee model?
In June 2021, I wrote to Oliver Dowden CBE MP, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, to comment on my BBC article. I am publishing the DCMS response for public information purposes and as a matter of record. The DCMS response, dated 7th July 2021, is published below.
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There is much debate about the direction of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and many people have called for the TV licence fee to be scrapped. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been concerned enough to speak about the so-called the ‘woke’ agenda. Mr Johnson has threatened to scrap the TV licence fee if matters do not improve, and turn the BBC into a subscription fee service. If this happened, the BBC would need to be privatised – it would become the BBC PLC (Public Limited Company) – a commercial broadcaster and subscription service.
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In 2017, I sought out the site of the Mukden POW Camp in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Northeast China. Mukden Camp, also known as Hoten Camp, was located on the outskirts of Mukden, present-day Shenyang. The former POW site, at Di Tan Street, in the Dadong district of Shenyang, is now the location of the Shenyang WWII Allied Prisoners Camp Museum. It has one of the best preserved examples of an Allied POW camp. At the time of my visit, the new museum had not been completed.
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