I don’t do favourites. I have no favourite colour, book, song or wine. However, if I have noticed that in recent years I am drawn to fresher brighter red wines — Mencía from Spain, Blaufrankisch from Austria, Pinot Noirs from almost everywhere, and Nebbiolos from Piedmont.

THE lights are on, the music is on the radio and the trees are up — there is no getting away from it: Christmas is imminent.

IRELAND has become a nation of wine drinkers in a very short time but the wines we drink now are quite different to those sampled in the mid-2000s.