Henry Jeffreys

Kent

Journalist and Features Editor, Master of Malt at Freelance

Wine Columnist at The Critic Magazine (UK)

Wine writer for The Critic magazine and author of 'Vines in a Cold Climate' - Fortnum & Mason Drink Book of the Year 2024 & James Beard/ Andre Simon nominated.

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Articles

The last word on natural wine - part two

6 days ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

Part one of my natural wine odyssey looked at the origins of natural wine and my own somewhat sceptical attitude to the wines themselves. Now there’s part two looking at the cultural and sociological forces behind natural wine. There’s also going to be a part three about the legacy of the natural wine movement, both good and bad. Within Alice Feiring’s 2011 book Naked Wine there is a quest to meet Jacques Neauport, one of the godfathers of the natural wine movement in Beaujolais.
The last word on natural wine - part one

1 week ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

It’s traditional in April for crusty old wine columnists to turn their gaze to natural wine with the coming of the Real Wine Fair in London… or so I thought. It turns out that it normally takes place every two years but there won’t be one next year either. Hook be damned, I’ve been thinking about this article for a while so I’m going all out with a two-parter on the subject.
Call my wine bluff

1 week ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

Part of the inspiration of this week’s column came from Douglas Adams (yes, he of Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Fame) and John Lloyd’s Meaning of Liff. In this little book, which was published in 1983, the authors provide amusing, often surreal definitions for towns in Britain. For example:Amersham: The sneeze which tickles but never comes.
Surprising reds from an old empire

2 weeks ago | thecritic.co.uk | Henry Jeffreys

Austria’s reds are rich in flavour, if not always heritage This article is taken from the April 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. The Austro-Hungarian empire had its own internal wine economy. The most famous was Tokaji, the great sweet wine that is still made in Hungary and on a much smaller scale in Slovakia.
European rye whisky producers protest trade agreement - Decanter

2 weeks ago | decanter.com | Henry Jeffreys

Scandinavian rye whisky distillers are up in arms over the decision this year by local authorities to enforce a 2004 European Union trade agreement with Canada. The agreement reserves the term ‘rye whisky’ for Canadian and US produce.
Do wine writers need qualifications?

2 weeks ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

When I’m at a loose end, I like to go on Amazon and look at the customer reviews of my rivals’ books. One in particular that stood out was for Hannah Crosbie’s Corker,which I wrote about last year. The review was from an ‘Emma Sedly’. It seems to be Sedly’s only review so I am treating it as suspicious but anyway here goes:“The author has not achieved the industry minimum educational or training background in wine.
European rye whisky is not allowed to be called rye whisky, says EU

3 weeks ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

“Though the mills of God grind slowly; Yet they grind exceeding small”Substitute the word ‘God’ for the EU and you have an explanation for a row that has broken out over the term rye whisky.
14 best non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers, taste-tested 2025

4 weeks ago | msn.com | Henry Jeffreys

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.
Hits and misses | Henry Jeffreys | The Critic Magazine

1 month ago | thecritic.co.uk | Henry Jeffreys

This article is taken from the March 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10. Cockney rhyming slang can cause problems for Americans looking to launch products in Britain, as Martin Amis noted in an article in the London Review of Books. He was reviewing Iron John, Robert Bly’s 1990 book about masculinity whose title will have East-Enders sniggering into their jellied eels.
Can AI write better poetry than most people?

1 month ago | henryjeffreys.substack.com | Henry Jeffreys

Every year Master of Malt, the online retailer I used to work for, has a poetry competition for Burns Night. All you have to do is submit a poem related to whisky and Burns and the best one wins a bottle of whisky. In my six years at the company, it’s about the only good marketing idea I ever had. Some years we’d have less than 100 entries, sometimes up to 200. As you can imagine, the quality was variable.