Wine match
White with fish and red with meat, but what to serve with salads and soup?
Simon Cunliffe
Wine match
Wine match
So the salmon's about to go on the barbie and you discover the wine cupboard is bare.
Wine match
Wine match
I've said it before and I'll say it again: riesling is the unsung champion in waiting of New Zealand wines.
Wine match: Pinot gris
Wine match: Pinot gris
You are never quite sure what you are going to get with pinot gris.
Wine match
Wine match
There is something about lamb that seems to demand pinot noir; just as it does new potatoes and mint jelly.
Wine match: Shiraz
Wine match: Shiraz
If you are cooking Italian style - especially if you are in holiday mode - it is a good idea to have a bottle of wine on the go, partly because most recipes will benefit from a splash or two, but also because a glass in the hand always helps it seem less than a chore.
ACC tinkering leaves culture of nastiness
ACC tinkering leaves culture of nastiness
It's time we went back to first principles on ACC. Because there's been so much politicking over it, the corporation's original intent tends to be lost in the increasingly acrimonious mists of spin and misinformation.
If only the business lobby was more open to green ideas
If only the business lobby was more open to green ideas
Deep down, most New Zealanders are environmentalists. It runs in our blood, is laid down in our bones. But many of us seem to have a deep aversion to it being suggested how certain actions might be having an adverse effect upon the natural world around us.
National finding itself out of step with voters
National finding itself out of step with voters
If rather too much is being made of the Government's supposed current woes, that is probably because, in general, it had such an easy ride for its first three years.
Honours list spurs divided feelings
Honours list spurs divided feelings
The annual Queen's Birthday Honours list induces in your columnist a case of split personality.
Education vision doesn't add up
Education vision doesn't add up
So the Government is going to set up a "working party" to look again at teacher-pupil ratios in schools. I hope it is going to include some educational experts, and not just stack it with "analysts" and economists, because, as we now see, even this supposedly numerate approach to devising educational infrastructure can come up short.
Questions about welfare reform board
Questions about welfare reform board
Paula Rebstock is a well-educated person with an impressive CV. She has worked in Treasury, for the Labour Department, in the Office of the Prime Minister, and headed the Commerce Commission. I wonder if she's ever spent time in a soup kitchen.
Plain packaging risks lawsuits
Plain packaging risks lawsuits
Smoking is bad for our health.
Wine match: Riesling in the summertime
Wine match: Riesling in the summertime
Whatever else you include, don't forget to stock a bottle or two of riesling - any self-respecting summer wine list shouldn't be without one or two.
Death of public service TV
Death of public service TV
Apologies for returning to an old hobbyhorse, but now the Government and TVNZ have conspired definitively to put TVNZ 7 out to grass, and with it the last vestiges of public service television in this country.
Splitting hairs over ethics and legality not a good look for PM
Splitting hairs over ethics and legality not a good look for PM
There is the letter of the law, there is the spirit of the law and there is intent. Like the Prime Minister, I'm no lawyer but it seems to me most ordinary people do not have a high opinion those who behave with questionable intent to flout the spirit of the law, yet whose actions might not contravene the actual letter of it.
Words are no use when the tale defies telling
Words are no use when the tale defies telling
My friend's father had been a prisoner of war. That much I knew and not much else; and I knew it because he had named his only son after the man who, he said, had saved his life, by sharing his...
Anonymity confers power without responsibility
Anonymity confers power without responsibility
I recall some time ago having an animated debate with an acquaintance over a policy of the newspaper for which I then worked. It concerned the letters to the editor column, and the rule that anonymous letters would not be published.
Gambling with the social fabric
Gambling with the social fabric
Roll up, roll up! Anybody out there, corporations or multinationals want a piece of the action in this country, just sing out. Make yourselves known.
No fault but mud sticks
No fault but mud sticks
What has the Accident Compensation Corporation got to do with JRR Tolkien?