I have banged the drum loudly for Spanish white wines on this page in recent years but I admit I have focused more on the textured fragrant Albariño and Godello wines of Galicia, and rather neglected Spain’s most successful and equally fascinating white grape Verdejo from Rueda.

The Menu is readying himself once more for yet another trip to Cloughjordan, this time for a weekend conference (May 26/27), Feeding Ourselves: Rural Revitalisation through a Cooperative Approach to Farming and Food, an annual gathering of small farmers, community food advocates and anyone with an interest in good food, farming and rural revitalisation.

Welcome to The Menu’s House of Love, a special loveheavy edition of this column.

With summer holidays rapidly approaching I’m focusing on the Loire this week, given that so many of us will find ourselves in France in the coming months. 

Welcome to 2017, the Trump Presidency is only weeks away and we still don’t know what is happening with Brexit but at least we have wine to get us through, writes Leslie Williams.

The autumn is wine fair season in Irish supermarkets. Aldi was first out of the blocks last Sunday with an intriguing selection of wines from around the world at their usual low prices. 

The obituary writers have been busy this year and the case is equally true in the wine world.

For some reason 2016 seems to have had a higher proportion of celebrity deaths than usual, and this month two well-known wine names could be added to the list — Louis Latour (aged 83) and Etienne Hugel (aged just 57).

Ireland was always very brand-conscious up until recently and it took the arrival of the German discounters and the recession to shake us up a little.

O’Haras Notorious Red IPA; 5% ABV, 500ml — €3.39

FEED THE LOVE

The Connemara Mussel Festival (May 1-3) picked up one hell of an accolade last year.

The Foodie Forum incorporating the Gastronomy West Symposium (Tuesday, February 3) at GMIT, in Galway, may be just three years old but already comports itself with a swagger befitting its rapidly-growing status as one of the country’s premier food events.

New Year Resolutions are usually tedious things such as “visit the gym more than once a week”, “pay off the Visa bill every month” etc. This week I am proposing some pleasurable resolutions which will be no hardship.

This time last year, Mystic Menu sat down before his crystal ball and threw out some predictions.

Though it had been some time, at least a couple of Ice Ages, since The Menu had last trod barefoot through the fields to school, several years ago he returned to the groves of Academe.

THE sad news of the death of Paddy Keogh of Wines Direct was announced recently and this column would like to extend sympathies to his family and work colleagues. 

Time once more for A Taste of West Cork Food Festival (September 5 to 14), celebrating the produce and food culture of The Menu’s spiritual hinterland of West Cork, kicking off with a Taste of West Cork Gala Dinner at the Inchydoney Island Lodge and& Spa. 

Before Valhalla Golf Club was morphed into a yacht club and officials at the 96th US PGA Championship were forced to secure more life preservers for competitors, it was safe to say that Tom Watson had the roughest week of anyone.

A hound for knowledge, The Menu is never done learning and always on the lookout for new culinary educational opportunities.

That hidden jewel of East Cork, Ballycotton, will be hopping this weekend as the Seafood & Shanty Ballycotton Festival (May 31-June 1) brings together fine local chefs, splendid seafood straight from the pier and excellent family entertainment.

GIG WISE: The countdown has begun for Live at the Marquee in Cork, with young whippersnapper Cliff Richard kicking it all off on Monday, June 9, followed by the equally youthful Dolly Parton (June 12).

Despite the summer stretch in the day, The Menu feels nothing short of a turbo-booster for the bould Neidín will enable him to attend every last one of an ever-increasing proliferation of food festivals around this glorious island.

Sugar & Spice is a wonderful cooking competition& open to all ages and all levels of experience in aid of the very excellent Cork-based Hope Foundation charity, which works with deprived street children in Kolkata, India.

If The Menu could ever rid himself of the microchip implanted in his neck by Mrs Menu, he’d while away many an afternoon in his beloved L’Atitude 51, (www.latitude51.ie).

PINOT Noir is one of the great misunderstood grapes but one you will be seeing a lot more of in the coming years if Chile has its way.

CORK

Bord Bia has announced the organisation’s latest round of recruitment to select 20 graduates for the Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship.

DON’T FRET, you still have time to get wine for Christmas and perhaps pick up a wine-related present for the wine-enthusiast in your life.

Gamla Stan is a modern build city tower pad, but it’s pure old town. Tommy Barker reports

A man accused of taking part in a plan to steal from a cash-in-transit van has today admitted travelling with a group including the late Eamonn Dunne to the scene of the attempted theft.

DERRY manager John Brennan is hopeful Eoin Bradley will be able to join his brother Paddy Bradley in Allianz League action next year.

THIS game could have been a blowout.

THE talented Bradley brothers, Eoin and Paddy, supplied the main talking points of Derry’s merited three-points defeat of a struggling Sligo at Markievicz Park, a result that puts the Ulster side back in contention for promotion from Division Two.

NO-ONE likes to see a referee dominate the conversation after a game but it was impossible to skirt around the role played by Maurice Deegan during yesterday’s events in Celtic Park.

DONEGAL manager John Joe Doherty says it’s vital that his defence snuffs out the massive attacking threat posed by the two Bradley brothers.

1. YOU CAN’T BEAT A GOOD CONSPIRACY THEORY