Liquorous scribblings with glass in hand...

This is where you can read the craic, find out what's trendy and settle back for a quiet snifter.

Look at our FAQs page to find some answers to regular questions or turn to our Making Wine page to discover how a grape turns into nectar.

If you want to know what can go wrong with a wine and how to tell if it is not good, have a glance at Wine Faults.

We have also given you the low down on the major grape varieties to complete the picture.

So, what's it all about?

Wine tastes good and is great fun. It has a positive effect on the system and is a relatively healthy vice. It is a great social jollificator and good for winding down at the end of a long day, or for brightening up a picnic or to wash down Christmas dinner.

There is no need to used hushed tones and marvel at it. Wine should be drunk with pleasure. Essentially wine is an alcoholic drink designed to cheer life up, warm the cockles and give the soul a filip. So drink it and enjoy it!

What is new and trendy in the wine world?

Really very little is ever actually new in the world of wine, except technological innovations, so it is more a matter of what is trendy. And fashion, fickle as ever, moves on fast apace.

Central Otago - This is a new wine producing region in the South Island of New Zealand, the first wines were only commercially produced in 1987. It is considered to be the modern Burgundy, with its ability to produce really fine pinot noirs. It is also making very fine rieslings, chardonnays and pinot gris. A great climate combined with passionate winemakers, lots of modern technology and a real understanding of fine wines. Make a start with Felton Road's pinot noir.

Chardonnay appears to be suffering from the backlash of its popularity in the 1990s, but this isn't entirely fair on this noble grape. There was a brief and frantically popular trend for making fat, heavy chardonnays and then smothering them in too much oak. Thankfully this is mostly a thing of the past and now more finesse is being used with less oak to make interesting and elegant wines from cooler climates. So it is well worth revisiting chardonnay. Think Chablis, think Shaw & Smith Unoaked Chardonnay from the Adelaide Hills of Australia.

Viognier. the great grape of Condrieu and Château Grillet. Aromatic and powerfully perfumed, Viognier is becoming increasingly trendy. Great examples come from northern Rhône, Languedoc and Cooler regions of Australia. It is also blended with chardonnay to make rounded aromatic wines - look out for Chile for these.

Gruner-Veltliner from Austria is thought to be the new Riesling, even though riesling still has not yet reached its potential and is the most undervalued grape variety on the market. Gru-V as it is fashionably known is bright and racy aromatic and floral with a keen edge that makes it great with food. Well worth discovering.

What's the craic in the wine world??

John Firth, 76, from Disbury near Manchester has just had approval from his Allotment Committee to plant just over an acre of vines on his allotment site. This will make it one of the northernmost vineyards in the country. Another good excuse to get out of the house and check the veg.....

South Africa's "Sauvignon-gate" is now well and truly behind us and lessons have been learned .

The essence of the story is that last autumn a prominent journalist blew the whistle on several producers who were adding fruit essence to their sauvignon blanc to make it taste more 'typical' which isn't strictly legal.

This scandal made a huge impact on sales of South African wines and the South Africans themselves were quick to put the lid on the problem to salvage their international reputation.

So have no fear, get back out there buying up these great wines, they will be better than ever in a bid to over-perform and prove their worth.

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