With a mission to “Bring baijiu from China to the world”, Ming River is crafted at Luzhou Laojiao in Sichuan province. Douglas Blyde talks to one of its creators about the “vast, and vastly rewarding category” that is baijiu.

Douglas Blyde walks through a forest of 70,000 mosaic tiles to the recently reopened Yong Yi Ting restaurant in Shanghai, where he experiences a “Negroni-scented” tea and “the best red wine in China”.

Douglas Blyde takes a trip to the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou, China. During his visit, head sommelier Olive Gao guides him through a list covering everything from lard-washed rice wine to tea.

Douglas Blyde heads to Pied à Terre, the legendary Michelin-starred restaurant that has survived “through fire, the financial crises, and a global pandemic”, and dives into its liquid assets.

The head sommelier of Edinburgh’s Number One at The Balmoral talks to Douglas Blyde about his connection to T.E. Lawrence, the joy of Trimbach, and how trimming the cellar highlighted areas for improvement.

Douglas Blyde stops and smells the roses at restaurant and florist Stem and Stem in the City of London. Fittingly, he finds dishes “accented in chlorophyll hues”, and a “bouquet menu” that “borrows the language of a wine list”.

Douglas Blyde cracks into new Mayfair opening Geode. Will the “globe-trotting” wine list prove to be a hidden gem, or fool’s gold?

Douglas Blyde ambles over to East Anglia to see how siblings Richard and Elizabeth Clark have transformed The Angel Inn pub into a gastronomic hotspot with “carefully contemplated wine matches”.

Douglas Blyde continues his Catalan journey, making time for a visit to Moments. While there, he discovers what head sommelier Alexandre Zaragoza would pair with a “humorously enormous black truffle”.

The co-founder of the Isle of Wight’s most sophisticated boutique wine destination talks to Douglas Blyde about indelicate decanters, why restaurants should stop talking about “local produce”, and the hurt enabled by Tripadvisor.

Douglas Blyde heads to The Barcelona EDITION hotel to give Veraz a visit. Instead of finding a culinary homage to Catalonia, he discovers a series of “challenging” dishes that put him in mind of the works of Picasso.

Douglas Blyde finds a “chic setting and elegant crowd” at newly-opened Italian eatery Pollini, located in Notting Hill arts centre Ladbroke Hall – but is there substance behind the style?