A tale of two contrasting regions this week — Burgundy and Murcia in Eastern Spain.

Back to southern France again this week, as I find myself enjoying the wines from here more and more.

Does wine have a gender? There was a time when tasting notes would refer to a wine as feminine or masculine — a delicate fragrant chablis might be feminine but a big fruity hermitage from the Rhone would always be masculine.

This week I’m taking a snapshot of the Languedoc-Roussillon, easily the most unwieldy wine region in France and arguably the world.

To get a feel for the world of wine you need to get a feel for geography and do a bit of driving – perhaps from Napa to Sonoma, from Bra to Barbaresco or take a drive up the D2 from Bordeaux through Margaux, St. Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe. 

If you are grilling at home any of the southern Rhones below will work well. I’ve included one white in case you are cooking fish or would like an aperitif.

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

Trade unionists are attempting to cause maximum disruption during Euro 2016, a leading member of the Irish diaspora has said.

Just a few weeks to go to the Kerrygold Ballymaloe Litfest of Food and Wine (to give it the full title) on May 20–22.

April has been declared ‘Natural Wine Month’ by Le Caveau wine merchants in Kilkenny which specialises in organic, bio-dynamic and ‘natural’ wines.

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”.

Film Festival signals return of Lasse Hallstrom’s Chocolat

I have written in the past about the difficulties faced by small wine importers given our draconian wine taxes. We are around 650% higher than the EU average and more expensive for wine than countries such as Sweden and Finland.

According to some Canadian research, men find the scent of grilling meat more arousing than any perfume.

I have bad news.

This column tends to mention French wines quite often but I can be forgiven this week, given the day that is in it — l’amour and all that.

I am often asked where I like to buy my wine and the honest answer is (and should be), everywhere. However I must confess a bit of a bias towards the independent sector.

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. 

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 last week of November was Rhone Wine Week organised by the ever busy Simon and Emma Tyrrell of Tyrrell and Co. who import a range of wines from the region, including one that Simon himself makes called Les Deux Cols which featured here a few weeks ago.

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.

GIVEN the glorious weather of the past few weeks rosé wines don’t need much extra promotion from me as they are selling out everywhere.

WHEN we think of Australian wine we think of Shiraz.

IT’S that time of year again and the calendar is stuffed with delicious events.

TESCO’S autumn wine festival continues until Oct 2 with more than 300 wines on offer and a further 5%off when you buy any six bottles.

WANT a wine tip? Here are two to start with: Château de L’Estagnol white and red.

YOU have to pinch yourself to recall how recently it was that we didn’t have instant connection.

Yes, we will have a summer.

Never mind the weather — out here in the Atlantic, there’s no predicting from day to day whether we’ll be basking in the sun or dodging the hail — but the clocks go forward an hour tonight, meaning that from tomorrow it’ll be bright until about 8pm, inspiring us to head towards lighter dishes on the dinner menu and wines that put the emphasis on freshness and light.

SOMETIMES it would strike you that wine buffery is like some sort of kooky cult religion.

I’VE been catching up with the affordable end of two old-school wine wholesalers who supply independent wine stores.

TORTURED artist Vincent Van Gogh died this month back in 1890.

WERNER Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams celebrates a series of wildlife paintings.

WHAT’s in a word?

THERE’S no evidence that beavers were ever in Ireland.

Richard Collins on the wonders of France’s great untamed river.

Richard Collins explores the idyllic vineyards of the Languedoc.

Surging flood waters killed three men and swept a woman off a bridge in storms that lashed southern France, closing schools, roads and power plants and causing dozens of people to flee their homes.

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.

At least two people have been killed and another is missing after an avalanche hit the French Alps.