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.

Recently I gave over my column to the joys of sherry and wrote about how well it goes with food. This week it is the turn of port. Port and sherry are drinks we wrongly associate with Christmas when in fact they work all year round.

Readers of this column may be getting tired of my raising the issue of excise duty on wine but bear with me for just a few sentences. 

SUMMER 2014 seems to be getting better and better to the extent that eating outside seems to have become the norm in our house.

I RETURN to the wines of Spain again this week which I realise is starting to become a bit of a habit.