Wine dinners — where importer and restaurant collaborate to showcase a particular range of wines — are often great fun and very good value too.

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

WINE fans will be sniffing and sipping their way through fine vintages at events in Cork and Co Dublin tonight.

THERE are absolutely cracking wines out there in all sorts of retailers — in the big supermarkets and wine specialists alike.