Correctly matching wines to food is easy to get wrong.

Silver service? Who the hell does silver service these days? I doubt that one waitress in 100 would know what it is.

Joanna Mathers finds the cosiest spots to eat and drink.

Partly autobiographical novel is a potential winner of awards, predicts Nicky Pellegrino.

I may have mentioned before that I'm not a huge fan of so-called Irish pubs.

They may well have complained when this building on the corner of Tamaki Drive was built, but now it's here the citizens of St Heliers are flocking to their slick new eatery.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that friends and Waiheke neighbours Chris Canning and Bryan Mogridge began their winegrowers’ dream to make the definitive wine.

Sarah Dunant's trio of novels set in Renaissance Italy cemented her reputation as one of the great writers of historical fiction.

Passion for winemaking runs strong in the Delegat family.

It's been quite a project. First they lifted it, then they shifted it, and it was slid back into place and lovingly restored to its former glory, and then some.

A Mexico fan has been hassling me to go for so long that I've taken to scooting around corners when I see her coming. Now it's been 18 months and there are branches in Takapuna and Hamilton.

Some natures are drawn to hazard: to explore the familiar from a vertiginously different perspective.

Abigail Tarttelin has written a dramatic and emotionally authentic story. An unusual sexual secret gives this novel raw power, writes Nicky Pellegrino.

I didn't know this was here, to be honest. Usually, when I come out of Kingsland station, I tend to turn left out of habit, since that is where the bars and restaurants mostly are, but someone suggested we meet here and so we did.

For almost two decades, Hans Herzog has been growing grapes, making wine and, in the process, carving out an enviable reputation for low-yielding, small-volume, high-quality handcrafted wines from Marlborough.

Here are a couple of experiences I never thought I’d embrace — a boeuf bourguignon served at a Japanese restaurant and a macrobiotic dessert. They were delivered at Janken and I enjoyed both.

We came here because we'd been meaning to for ages, having noted its pretty steady popularity with the locals.

One of the more startling observations in a book filled with acute and startling observations is that Africans only really come to consider they are “black” when they go to the United States.

Watch out, world, chenin blanc is poised to take its place in the spotlight.

As one door closes, another opens. A truism for our dynamic dining scene, that's for sure.

I have not been to Prague (the city). People who have tell me that it is fabulous. One woman I know who went years ago, long before it was fashionable, told me she could see half a dozen church clocks from her hotel window. I thought that was very cool.

Nicky Pellegrino is captivated by a 'how-to' with a plot.

A pleasurable experience at Rakino's.

The service is sharp, the food flavoursome but this oldie has something missing.

It's remarkable how many small companies import wines of interest from Europe.

Steven Eldred-Grigg is a well-known and respected popular historian and novelist. Bangs is the fourth book in a series of novels that began with the much loved Oracles and Miracles, published in 1987.

The hippest place to be this summer lives up to its well-earned reputation.

If anyone other than Pic suggested sailing around the world, I'd dismiss it as an idle fancy. But Pic's fancies are never idle.