Henry Jeffreys is an award-winning drinks writer -- most recently Fortnum & Mason Drink Writer of the Year 2024 -- who has written for many publications in Britain and America. He was features editor for the Master of Malt whisky blog from 2018 until 2024, and is currently drinks columnist for The Critic magazine and a regular contributor to the Guardian, Spectator and BBC Good Food magazine. He has also appeared on Radio 4, Radio 5, and on BBC 2’s ‘Inside the Factory’. His Substack is Drinking Culture.

At the end of 2024, he launched the ‘Intoxicating History’ podcast with Tom Parker Bowles, produced by Melanie Jappy from ‘The Wine Show.’

Henry has published four books: Empire of Booze: British history through the bottom of a glass (2016), The Home Bar (2018), The Cocktail Dictionary (2020) and Vines in a Cold Climate: the people behind the English wine revolution (2023) which was shortlisted for the James Beard, André Simon and Guild of Food Writers Awards, and won Drink Book of the Year at the 2023 Fortnum & Mason Awards.

Praise for VINES IN A COLD CLIMATE:

'Mr. Jeffreys, an English drinks writer, has done an excellent job of telling the story of the quirky characters and visionaries behind the first wave of modern English wines in the 1980s and '90s' - New York Times

‘Captivating, impeccably researched and endlessly entertaining. Henry Jeffreys embraces his subject like a scholar but with wry humour and a novelist's knack for storytelling. It's the best book on wine I have read.’ -- Russell Norman, owner and author of Polpo

‘This is my favourite type of book. One that tells a story that you knew was happening but had yet to have the pieces put together by a skilful and engaging writer.’ -- Stephen Harris, Michelin-starred chef and writer

‘Jeffreys' entertaining, accessible and skilfully paced book helps us relish the English countryside's delicious new calling.’ -- Andrew Jefford, wine writer and author of Drinking with the Valkyries

‘[Jeffreys has] done a great job of highlighting the peculiar Britishness of the whole endeavour, and it's shot through with the wry humour that makes his writing so enjoyable’ -- Matt Walls, contributing editor of Decanter magazine

‘A fine history of how English wine 'went from joke to world class' in a matter of decades. [...] It's also a masterclass in proper journalism. [...] Witty and erudite.’ -- Adam Lechmere, Club Oenologique

‘Until I read this interesting book, I had no idea that the postcode in which I live in northeast Essex is the finest terroir for wine in the country.’ -- Simon Heffer, Literary Review

‘Prizewinning food and drink writer Henry Jeffreys has made it his mission to meet the people behind the English wine revolution. It's a fascinating and superbly told adventure which at one stage involved him standing in a converted oasthouse in Sussex with a Tibetan singing bowl on his head. His adventures elsewhere are less dramatic but no less entertaining as he charts how England has become the home of truly world-class wine.’ ― Independent

'Henry Jeffreys, who used to work in the wine trade, is an amiable and entertaining guide to “the English wine revolution”' - Daily Mail

‘This unlikely bunch of characters [...] caught up in a kind of grape-fuelled gold rush [...] is what makes Vines in a Cold Climate such a fascinating read.’ -- Bill Knott, The Oldie

‘I read Vines in a Cold Climate quickly, over a few days. I found it rather like a novel you can't put down. That means that it's very well written, not something that can be said of all wine books.’ -- David Crossley, Wide World of Wine