Month: May 2015

Most 'Venetian' wines are really from the Veneto, rather than the city itself - after all, you wouldn't reasonably expect vines to flourish on water. But on a recent trip I got to see the few that do, part of the Belmond Hotel Cipriani's tour of Venice's hidden vineyards.

There's nothing like a sweaty back and a pair of aching thighs to remind you that if you haven't ridden a bike in the last ten years, it doesn't get easier just because you're surrounded by vineyards in Languedoc. But on the periphery of Château les Carrasses there is no one around to overtake, point fingers or make you panic.

The one element that hasn't changed since spas were invented is water: water for cleansing, water for purifying, water for consuming. Our bodies are mostly water, which is vital for health and wellbeing, and somewhere along the way the Greeks took this one stage further, into the sea, and began to extol the therapeutic effects of its bounty -- its mud, minerals, plants and environment. (Euripides, no slouch at recognising what was good, wrote that 'the sea cures all human ailments'.)