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Forget the gloom with a glass or two

ABSTINENCE makes the heart grow fonderRead

Adding sparkle to loving night in

THE candlelit dinner, the bottle chilling in the ice bucket ... it has to have the edge on pizza in front of the telly.Read

Time to get cider flowing

IN THESE straitened times the canny shopper is looking around for cheaper substitutes... lemonade instead of Champagne, perhaps, or squirrel instead of chicken...Read

Australia Day toast to Kylie

IT WAS Australia Day on Monday, but the celebrations may have been a little muted for some winemakers Down Under.Read

Purity is perfect for real ale fans

A MIDLANDS real ale brewery is bucking the economic trend, with sales going through the roof while struggling pubs are closing at a rate of eight a day.Read

Sampling the poetry of scotch and haggis

ROBERT Burns would surely be a little perplexed if he could see how his countrymen celebrate his birthday 250-odd years on – a bunch of tipsy blokes worshipping a haggis, drinking copious amounts of whisky and struggling to remember the words to his finely-crafted poems.Read

This is not a sellers market

The credit crunch is all very well, but when it comes to having to sell off the contents of the wine cellar at a knockdown price you know things are really going badly.Read

Avoiding a festive drinks disaster

IT’S hard enough to turn out a delicious festive bird with all the trimmings without having to agonise over what drinks to serve up with it.Read

End era in style with fizz

CHAMPAGNE sales may well have taken a hit in these tough financial times but the corks are still likely to be popping at Christmas-time.Read

Science answers taste questions

FANS of sherry know already that it goes very well with food – just ask the thousands of tapas enthusiasts who would drink nothing else but fino with their patatas bravas and chorizo.Read

Finest beers and ale at NEC

BIRMINGHAM will be the place to be for food and drink enthusiasts next week.Read

Better drinks to beat binges

JUST when you thought the credit crunch couldn’t get any worse… it looks like it may be the beginning of the end for ‘happy hour’ at the pub and cheap booze at the supermarket.Read

Here’s to you, Mr President

THE dust is now settling on Barack Obama’s historic rise to become the 44th president of the United States.Read

Brewing up a real treat for ale fans

A TRIP to the local is in danger of becoming a thing of the past, with beer sales slumping and an estimated five pubs a day pulling their last pint and closing the doors for good.Read

Credit crunch makes life far from rosé

ALTHOUGH some desperate bankers may well be turning to drink, it’s unlikely they are solely responsible for the soaring rise in sales of cider and rosé wine.Read

Taking care of your liquid asset

WITH the financial world in turmoil and trust in banks and financial institutions at an all-time low, some people may well be looking around at other places to invest their hard-earned cash.Read

There’s no reason to snub Reisling

ALTHOUGH often described as the greatest of all white wine grapes, Riesling wouldn’t be on most people’s ‘must have’ bottles on the weekly supermarket trip.Read

Make mine a pint of the best

MORE than half the beer drunk in this country is cold, characterless lager – which may be fine if you’ve just been for a run or the sun is blazing down on a typical English summer’s day!Read

The Scottish Borders has a landscape steeped in history

AFTER around three hours walking on the rolling southern uplands of the Scottish Borders region, we’d just about become used to a persistent drizzle when the horizon seemed to brighten and the clouds parted to reveal thin strips of blue, tantalisingly close. Then, almost mischievously, just as we neared the end of the route, the sky cleared completely and the sun blazed down.Read

A cider fan to the core

TIME was when autumn signalled the annual trip to Hindlip Agriculture College, near Worcester, to collect a few barrels of fresh apple juice from their press to turn into cider.Read