Slow wines
Want to know more about Italian wine? The Italian Wine Guide 2003 from the Slow Food Movement is in the shops now, price £17.99. Claiming to be the largest and most comprehensive overview of Italian wine, it profiles producers and their wines region by region.
The vodka drinker's vodka
Flagship vodka has just hit the UK on-trade. The triple-distilled spirit, produced to a Russian recipe, was rated a "vodka drinker's vodka" by top spirit book author Ian Wisniewski. Available from Malcolm Cowen (020 8965 1937), Flagship has been produced for only a few years but has already scooped a handful of awards, and has a 17% share of the Russian domestic market - praise indeed.
Interim bar
All change at Che as Steamroller Restaurants acquires the site in St James's Street. Steamroller (aka Jamie Barber and Geoffrey Moore, the boys behind Hush) are planning an "innovative new restaurant and bar" which will open in October, but in the meantime a temporary bar, called the Interim bar, will run on the site until the end of July. "We want to get to know our local clientele," claim the pair. "And it's a shame that such a fine example of 1960s architecture should be closed for any longer than necessary."
Mine's a Virtual Buddha
Gwyneth Paltrow can't get enough of them, apparently. Neither can Matt Damon, or Naomi Campbell. The "rejuvenating" range of tonics - called Elixir - are imported by the American Beverage Company (020 8449 6699) and based on the herbal tonics so loved by Chinese medicine practitioners. But it's the names that get most people going - Mighty Joe Yang is a sex tonic, while Liquid Yoga is a "chill-at-will" tonic with jujube, Chinese peony and aucklandia, or there's Virtual Buddha (my favourite) - "for balance and creativity". Served hot or cold, with sparkling water or soda, as a tea or a smoothie, Elixir tonics are also used with vodka (though that defeats the object, surely?). Available in 700ml, 266ml or 50ml bottles.
California drinkin'
Californian wine has hit record sales, according to research analyst AC Nielsen. A report, published last month, shows that Californian wines sales in the UK have increased eightfold since 1992 - which makes John McLaren very happy. "Consumers are increasingly drawn to innovative and different wine styles and easy-to-understand labelling," gloats the director of the Wine Institute of California.