Fiona Sims

Iowa City, London

Food, Wine and Travel Writer at Freelance

Fiona Sims is an Isle of Wight & London based food, drink & travel writer, and editor. Author, The Boat Cookbook, Bloomsbury https://t.co/C3RQA50a3o

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Articles

Nine of the best luxury places to stay in the Douro Valley

Feb 21, 2025 | cluboenologique.com | Jacopo Mazzeo |Fiona Sims |Nina Caplan |Jasmine Aum

It may be the oldest demarcated wine region in the world but the Douro Valley has only welcomed significant numbers of tourists relatively recently. Now visitors to Portugal and its two popular main cities of Lisbon and Porto are becoming aware of the beauty that awaits them should they take a trip from the coast to follow the Douro River inland.
How chocolate went from rough to refined in one Sicilian town

Feb 20, 2025 | yahoo.com | Fiona Sims

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). “I never liked Modica chocolate. I thought it was just a tourist product with many defects,” says Simone Sabaini. “As soon as I started living here, I understood why I didn’t like it and set about trying to make it better.”Modica’s crumbly, grainy chocolate isn’t to everyone’s taste.
How chocolate went from rough to refined in one Sicilian town

Feb 20, 2025 | nationalgeographic.com | Fiona Sims

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). “I never liked Modica chocolate. I thought it was just a tourist product with many defects,” says Simone Sabaini. “As soon as I started living here, I understood why I didn’t like it and set about trying to make it better.”Modica’s crumbly, grainy chocolate isn’t to everyone’s taste.
How manga led me to wine

Feb 19, 2025 | cluboenologique.com | Joel Harrison |Nina Caplan |Fiona Sims |Joel Hart

As part of our partnership with The Institute of Masters of Wine, we asked current candidates to submit to us an article dedicated to a person, place or particular drink discovery that helped first ignite their passion for wine – and we were blown away by the submissions. Here, we publish the first of two personal essays that most impressed the Club Oenologique editorial team. This one is written by California-based student Jasmine Aum.
José Pizarro does Christmas – Spanish style - Decanter

Dec 3, 2024 | decanter.com | Fiona Sims

Celebrity chef José Pizarro carefully places his traditional Christmas centrepiece on the table at the Bermondsey home he shares with his psychotherapist husband Peter. You can forget about turkey, though – it’s a whole roasted sea bass stuffed with lemon and bay leaves sitting on saffron-infused potatoes. And it’s not actually Christmas, of course, but a photoshoot held in October for Decanter’s Christmas food and drink feature.
Wine lover's guide to Etna

Nov 6, 2024 | decanter.com | Fiona Sims

Passengers gasp as Mount Etna comes into view. The world’s most active stratovolcano is puffing merrily as the plane circles near it before landing in Catania on Sicily’s east coast. It dominates the landscape, rising to about 3,350m, with a circumference at the base of about 150km, old lava flows scarring the mountainside in multiple places.
Decanter’s Dream Destination: L'AND Vineyards, Portugal

Jun 18, 2024 | decanter.com | Fiona Sims

Ancient, gnarly, cork oaks stand half-naked in the midday sun. And then come the vineyards, as far as the eye can see. Welcome to the Alentejo region. With its golden plains and rolling hills topped with white-washed villages and majestic medieval cities, the Alentejo grows most of the nation’s rice, wheat, barley and oats, supplies half of the world’s cork, and is the country’s biggest wine producing area. It’s also home to L’AND Vineyards, a wine resort around an hour’s drive from Lisbon.
‘Wine is my connection to a father I barely knew’

Jan 16, 2024 | cluboenologique.com | Ashleigh Arnott |Louella Berryman |Fiona Sims |Adam Lechmere

As part of our partnership with The Institute of Masters of Wine, we asked current candidates to submit to us a love letter to wine – on a person, region, grape variety or other topic that has inspired them on their journey and studies – and we were blown away by the submissions. Here, we publish the first of two personal essays that most impressed the Club Oenologique editorial team. This one is written by Paso Robles-based student Jane Dunkley in dedication to her father.
The hottest new restaurants to visit in November 2023

Nov 6, 2023 | cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Ashleigh Arnott |Tomé Morrissy-Swan |Fiona Sims

It’s a fine time for fine dining around the world this November as some exciting new restaurants open in London, Tokyo, New York, Singapore and more. Chefs Mauro Colagreco, Mads Refslund, Josh Niland and Stuart Ralson take different directions – from wood-fired ovens and foraged ingredients to sustainable seafood – to get to their own vision of luxury.
The Drinking Hour podcast: Turkish wine special

Nov 6, 2023 | cluboenologique.com | Louella Berryman |Ashleigh Arnott |Tomé Morrissy-Swan |Fiona Sims

Episode 134 of The Drinking Hour podcast is a Turkish wine special. Host David Kermode speaks to Sarah Abbott MW and Turkish wine writer and critic, Gözdem Gürbüzatik, about Turkey’s wine industry, the challenges faced by producers, the indigenous grapes, which number more than 1,000, and the country’s appealing wine styles.