When you think of a bottle of red wine you often think of Christmas or wintertime. Great with cooked meats and comfort food it is often not seen as a wine for the summer.
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It's a frequent aspiration among wine buffs to take over a small vinery and dedicate their lifetimes to making wine. Images of days spent looking after the vines and then retreating to a patio in the evenings to taste the resulting vino are definitely romantic, but probably unlikely to be realistic.

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There’s nothing more enjoyable than having friends and family
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Over the last ten years or so wine has become more and more alcoholic. The fashion for strong wine, heavy on the alcohol came into fashion during the 1980s and seems to have stuck with us ever since. However as wines get stronger people are starting to worry more about the quantity of alcohol they are ingesting and are starting to look for wines with a lower alcohol content. After all there are now wines with 15% alcohol, this is mainly the case with wines from the New World where the hot sun ripens the grapes so intensely that the finished product packs a pretty hefty punch. There are however some wines that are traditionally low in alcohol and others are now being filtered to make them more that way.
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We all associate sparkling wine and champagne with joyous celebrations. However, recently, many people have recognized that sparkling wine can provide a bargain accompaniment even for an everyday meal.
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One of the most popular imported wine styles in America is Pinot grigio. Nearly all of the Pinot grigio consumed in the US comes from Italy, but as we shall see this is likely to change soon. Pinot grigio is very popular with consumers, but it receives mixed reviews from wine judges and wine critics.
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Widely known throughout a specific part of the world's societies, the Green Fairy has, until recently, been a legend of darkness, horror and hallucinations. The pages of her history include characters such as Roman charioteers, Parisian Bohemian artists and French courtiers. Although the nickname of "Green Fairy" is only 200 years old, her given name is none other than "Absinthe".
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It’s official, the economy is at its worst since World War 2. And with it comes the tightening of belts and the pulling of purse strings. So as we all become more price conscious, more and more of us are swapping our boozy nights out for fun-filled nights in.
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One of the healthiest ways of living in this world of continuous temptation and excess is to adopt a Mediterranean style diet. This diet is one that has been around since Roman times at least and advocates the consumption of lots of vegetables, pulses and wine. It contains much less fat than other western diets and the fats that are consumed in a Mediterranean style diet are more of the ‘good fats’ such as olive oil.
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With the Met Office predicting a scorcher this summer, more and more BBQs are being pulled out and getting cleaned up ready for a season of outdoor entertaining. But it’s not just the food we need to think about to deliver the perfect al fresco dining experience.
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