Should you find yourself at the Electric Picnic this weekend, do swing by the Theatre of Food (www.electricpicnic.ie/food).

On hearing of a spud-related attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records, The Menu immediately hitched up the wagon and pointed it westwards once more for The Menu truly venerates this most tremendous of all tubers.

YOU have to pinch yourself to recall how recently it was that we didn’t have instant connection.

Some eagle-eyed readers will recall no doubt recall The Menu’s debut column kicking off with an appeal for old china crockery to stock The Tearooms at the heart of the restoration of Fort Camden, in Crosshaven, ‘star’ of Diarmuid Gavin’s RTÉ series Dirty Old Towns.

A few weeks back, I rounded up a few new and interesting rosés for fear we might get a bit of sustained warm sunshine. Just in case, like.

While The Menu has dragged offspring around a few ‘open farms’ in his time, he usually ends up in a staring match with an equally bored animal, both largely marking time.

YOU know that game where you ask friends to guess how much you paid for an excellent new item of clothing you picked up for half nothing? Yeah, that.

IT’S almost a year since SuperValu introduced its exclusive ‘Specially Sourced’ wine collection and, significantly, had enough confidence in it to throw much of the range open to a media tasting.

The Juice — Vinous Veritas

WHAT do you think the word ‘natural’ means?

Yes, we will have a summer.

Unlike independent offies and the big German discounters, the price of wines at most of the big retailers go up and down periodically.

The selection of six wines I have for you from O’Brien’s has turned out by accident to be quite symmetrical: four new world whites — two chardonnays, two sauvignon blancs — and two powerful, fragrant reds from Europe.

It’s a screwtop bottle of plonk costing just €4.99 but its a corker, according to international wine experts.

This week I’m taking a took a look at some wines from the lower end of Bubble Brothers’ price range — mainly new arrivals to their stores in the English Market, and at the Marina Business Park in Cork as well as on www.bubblebrothers.com.

ONE of the many wine myths that can mislead the unwary concerns age.

Recent arrivals in Ireland will by now associate any words starting with “euro-” with high emotions, a mad media frenzy, and the vista of otherwise level-headed folk roaring at the telly.

THE local-and-in-season theme reflected in food foraging is an entirely different philosophy to that behind organics. But the two outlooks can be good companions, not least as much of the organic approach to food and drink is dedicated to minimising human intervention and emphasising the direct line between field and fork.

On BBC1’s reality TV show The Apprentice during the week, the aspiring entrepreneurs were challenged to develop marketing campaigns for English sparkling wines. I’m taking a closer look at how they fared on the blog today (blakecreedon.wordpress.com) but some more immediate questions are raised by the programme.

Today I’m looking at a wine sale in Tesco, but I have to begin with a reminder that can’t be repeated often enough.

THE market for wine is like a pyramid: tiny quantities of rare and expensive stuff on top; rather a lot of widely available inexpensive wines in the middle, and cheapies competing on price at the bottom.

WITH spring lamb coming into season, now’s the time to consider what to put with it.

Late last year multinational drinks giant Diageo sold Gilbey’s, its Irish wine distribution division, to Tipperary-based drinks distributor, Gleeson.

There’s a very special event coming up in Cork, Galway and Waterford over the next few weeks.

Never mind the weather — out here in the Atlantic, there’s no predicting from day to day whether we’ll be basking in the sun or dodging the hail — but the clocks go forward an hour tonight, meaning that from tomorrow it’ll be bright until about 8pm, inspiring us to head towards lighter dishes on the dinner menu and wines that put the emphasis on freshness and light.

With Mother’s Day and St Patrick’s Day falling so close together, many of us will be inspired to tuck into a family feast with an Irish flavour this weekend.

Wine tastings are always a revelation, and none more so than the one hosted by Lidl recently for people in the wine media to taste.

SOMETIMES it would strike you that wine buffery is like some sort of kooky cult religion.

I’VE been catching up with the affordable end of two old-school wine wholesalers who supply independent wine stores.

I once heard one of Chile’s most illustrious winemakers, Aurelio Montes, affectionately refer to the pinot noir grape as being like his teenage offspring: full of potential for a great future — but a royal pain to deal with right now.

THERE was an embarrassment of riches at the annual New Zealand wine fair last week.

POOR ol’ chardonnay.

ALONG with spices such as vanilla, coffee is catnip for humans, a sort of mildly psychoactive cup that cheers.

THE Voice of Ireland talent contest on RTÉ1 seems to have caught the public imagination, with 708,000 viewers tuning in for its debut.

IF you’ve taken on a ‘new you’ programme to counteract the excesses of the festive season, you deserve every credit.

IF you haven’t yet stocked up yet for tonight’s fun, there are still plenty of options for festive fizz and I take a look at some of the best value ones below.

WHETHER you’ve a late change of plan or unexpected extra guests, you can still put together a cracking wine list for Christmas dinner if you get moving early today.

AS the Christmas countdown enters its final week, let’s combine properly festive jollity with sensible shopping: you don’t have to spend crazy money.

TODAY I’m recommending some white wines I encountered at O’Donovan’s recent tasting.

THE Cork Wine Fair hosted by O’Donovans off-licences last week provided some new discoveries and interesting new themes for the attentive wine fan.

THE first rule to matching wine and food is don’t panic, and that’s just as true at Christmas as any time of year.

IT’S that time of year again and, along with other non-perishables, good drink can make a great celebratory Christmas gift — from a simple single bottle costing a tenner or €20, through to a delivery of a case of luxury wines.

AMONG the highlights at a recent tasting held by Lidl, two bottles in particular proved a bit of a surprise.

SOMETIMES you do have to suppress a giggle at the flowery language used to describe wine — the cherries, roses and truffles, let alone the rubber, farmyards and even cat’s pee — which are fairly commonly used to describe wines.