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

Easter Saturday is not necessarily the time you would expect me to be writing about spicy foods but my favourite Easter dinner is a rich yoghurt and spice marinated slow-cooked lamb dish called lamb raan, and it was thinking about this that led me to tackle once again the issue of wine and spice.

It is now 40 years since the Judgement of Paris when a blind tasting of Napa Valley cabernets and chardonnays scored higher than many famous names from Bordeaux and Burgundy.

The thing I love most about the Christmas meal is that for once I am not the only one fussing and worrying about what wine to serve. 

Chile has come a long way. If you told a wine merchant in 1990 that in 2015, we would be drinking more wine from Chile than anywhere else in the world, they would simply have laughed at you.

The world of wine has changed a lot in the last 25 years. 

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.

Christmas is coming, but first things first – we are now in Game Season and we should start to see pheasant, partridges and wild ducks appearing in good butchers this month. 

SCHOOL’S out so many families will soon be packing up the car and driving to France to stay at camp-sites or perhaps rented gites.

THERE was good news for the Government this month as it seems their take on wine duty was significantly up over Christmas, despite the criminal increases introduced in November’s budget.

THESE are not good days to be a wine lover, but spare a thought for anyone foolish enough to turn their love of wine into a career.