The focus is sunny southern France this week following a recent trip I made to the Languedoc courtesy of O’Briens, writes Leslie Williams.

Watching the Euros has got me thinking about French wines so once again this week I’m back in the Languedoc.

Despite all the words this page has expended on a myriad of wines, the reason we are interested is because they all have one thing in common — “the power to banish care”.

SEPTEMBER has become wine sale season it seems. Last week I wrote about the Lidl French wine sale and some of their Bordeaux bargains — this week it is the turn of Dunnes Stores.

THE RETURN of the Wine Geese tastings as part of The Gathering have been the highlight of the wine year and Cork has been particularly lucky as almost all the tastings have been in the real capital.

SEPTEMBER is never a good month money-wise with the summer holidays a distant memory, the children arriving from school with requests for extra books and sports equipment, and the radio programmes beginning their doom-laden countdown to the next austerity Budget.

FOR three weeks from next Wednesday, Dunnes Stores is promoting its ‘Mediterranean food and wine festival’.

IF YOU want one example that shows that us folk are pretty weird even at the best of times, just consider how often our choice of wine is based solely on the grape variety in it. It’s nuts.