Prosecco may be Italy’s answer to Champagne, but is it a girly drink or a serious business? Ellie O’Byrne raises a flute at a masterclass at Ireland’s first Prosecco festival.

They put the PRO in Prosecco.

A man with serious addiction problems was jailed for six months yesterday for stealing drink from behind the counters of bars and at shops around Cork.

As a nation, we munch almost 2m sandwiches a week, spend €20m a day on snacks, but only €3m on fruit and vegetables.

January is a time to look ahead in hope and my main hope for 2018 is that independent, quality wine shops can stay in business. 

Carol O’Callaghan goes behind the scenes of a new RTÉ Player home interiors programme that transforms a room in just 24 hours.

Vicky Kavanagh finally realised her drinking was a problem after she passed out drunk in a field and was rescued by a friend.

Babies, brides, and pets — not the usual cast of characters for a hospice, but Marymount is not your usual hospice.

Sometimes you don’t need to travel for the perfect getaway. Karen Funnell enjoyed a rare night away at the Castlemartyr Resort, just 20 minutes from the city.

Irish people seem to live in extremes: do the dog over Christmas before wasting a fortune on fancy running shoes and starting another ill-fated diet in January. We need to chill out, writes Vicki Notaro

The Dog Days are over to quote Florence and the Machine (who will be at Electric Picnic this year, as will I - of which more next week).

Heading off to a hot spot? Now is the time to prepare. 

In recent days the vineyards of Champagne and those of the Cote d’Or in Burgundy were both given United Nations World Heritage Status for the continuity and quality of their wines and ancient vineyards.

A special festival for seafood lovers takes place this weekend in Cork.

VALENTINE’S Day is an opportunity to celebrate love with a glass of fizz, says Roz Crowley.

St. Valentine’s Day is a week away and she’s dropping hints, but are you listening, or have you already decided on the sequined nipple tassels from Ann Summers, a bargain you say at €15.50?

It’s that time of year when employees are looking to employers to see how much they are valued and appreciated. 

One of the country’s best known publicans Charlie Chawke said yesterday that frontline staff serving the public at his pub group "have to be Irish".

Carol O’Callaghan proposes an alternative Mother’s Day, which usually just creates more work for hard-pressed mums.

WITH New Year’s Eve just hours away do not delay in buying your favourite Champagne, Cava or Prosecco.

I ONCE saw a gaunt-looking David Guest strutting through a Dublin hotel and as any good media type would do, I followed him.

1826, Adare, Co Limerick; tel: 061-396004, 1826adare.ie

WINE is complicated enough for many consumers to get their head around, given the number of foreign words involved, whether they be obscure wine regions or simply grape varieties. It is not surprising that the simple labelling found on the average bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or Chilean Merlot is so welcome to many of us.

FIZZY DRINKS were a bit of a novelty in Ireland until the arrival of the Sodastream in the late 1970s.

Claire Droney gets a luxury tour of Killarney — the kind Queen Victoria received.

Ireland’s ‘Dr Botox’, Danielle Meagher, is filmed by TV3 cameras getting jabs of the anti-wrinkle injection to iron out her frown lines in her new reality show.

Murano by Angela Hartnett, 20 Queen Street, London W1J 5PP; +44 (0)20 7495 1127; muranolondon.com

ON the eve of my youngest daughter’s wedding the heaven’s opened.

Claire Droney spends the weekend pampering herself at a Connemara getaway

Italy has approved rules for labelling Prosecco, putting the sparkling wine on a growing list of protected delicacies to shield their markets from imitations, officials revealed.