I know, I can’t believe it either. But yes, I did Celebrity Mastermind and it airs on BBC1 this Saturday. My specialist subject is Jackie Collins (natch) and no spoilers but remember it’s all about the taking part! And despite it being one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done it was also one …
Happy New Year to you! A bit late but I had a busy start to the year hanging out (literally) in my swimwear doing a wine tasting in a hot tub halfway up a Swiss mountain ON NATIONAL TELEVISION. I know, I can’t believe it either but if you missed it and want to see …
Well hello, proper autumnal weather. Regular readers will know how excited I am about this. Basically I was born to wear big jumpers, polo necks, chunky knits and cardigans. My collection of scarves is, frankly, getting a little out of hand. I love so much about this time of year, from the low sun to …
As you know, I spend a lot of time tasting wine. (Yes, I know. My job is ridiculous). But over the next few weeks I’ll be tasting more wines than usual. Around 300 a day, in fact. It’s the International Wine Challenge and as one of the judges I’m lucky enough to get to taste …
Feeling festive yet? I had my first cream sherry of the season last week whilst watching Sleepless in Seattle and we’ve had Jamie Cullum’s new Christmas album on repeat (he was a guest on Saturday Kitchen a few weeks ago, the album’s a cracker). Then there was the festive fizz tasting with the wonderful Kat Farmer …
Here’s a sobering thought: spend £5 on a bottle of wine and more than 60% of the cost is tax. That’s £2.23 on duty (gulp) plus another 20% on VAT. And whilst beer and spirits have enjoyed duty freezes in recent years, tax on wine has been rising for a decade (39% since since 2010 …
Well, it’s been fun. Relative lie-ins, impromptu picnics on the beach, slightly too much pizza. Even losing half of our luggage on the flight back from our holiday didn’t dampen my spirits, not least because it halved the amount of post-holiday washing. But it hasn’t all been secs and rugs and sausage rolls (I know, …
Last week I hosted a wine tasting with a group of wine-loving women organised by clothing brand Hush. Now, if there were such a thing as a spirit clothing brand, Hush would be mine. I remember when they sold nothing but thick socks and the softest loungewear long before any of us realised we’d be …
One of the best bits about being in a TV studio is you never know who you might see. I did a wine tasting on This Morning earlier this week and saw the back of Jason Donovan’s head and the woman from Tenko. And Phil & Holly of course (she really does smell like unicorns). …
Endless cups of tea on the sofa, nailing the last series of Catastrophe I’ve been meaning to watch for ages…turns out recovering from knee surgery can be FUN. And as for the drugs…well. They have a lot to answer for. Not least the pair of sequinned leopard print espadrilles ordered at the weekend. I mean …
Remember I hurt my knee doing The Nutcracker at Christmas? (We take charades very seriously in this house). Turns out I’ve got to have surgery later this week so I’ll be sofa-bound for a couple of days post-op. For obvious reasons, I’m thrilled at the prospect of being forced to put my feet up for …
I do love a baby. Especially mine obviously, but they’re not babies anymore. And I’m not broody when I see one nowadays, just ridiculously tears-in-eyes happy. So much so I think I slightly freaked out the young mother in John Lewis last week, whose sleeping baby looked so beautiful tucked up in its pram I …
‘Just checking you’re ok…not seen you on social media for a bit?’ went the first message from a friend. ‘Are you away on hols?’ went another. Sadly I wasn’t sitting on my own private island with a cocktail in one hand, book in the other (would have posted that, obviously). But I did go dark for …
I’m sure it won’t surprise you to know that I’m not doing Sober October because a) life’s too short and b) life’s too short. But I saw a friend of mine who is doing it recently and man, their skin looked good. Given that I want to have my cake/glass and eat/drink it, I realised …
Last week I was going on about not caring what I looked like in a swimming costume. But then I went and ordered a new one after two glasses of rosé last Sunday night. When it arrived, I opened the box and put it on the table. I literally couldn’t take my eyes off it. …
So, here we are. As promised, there’s a bumper selection of suitably christmassy wines this week including the bargain champagne featured on last week’s This Morning. Yes, I did ACTUAL This Morning on the telly on Friday! A festive fizz tasting on ice with skating polar bears in the background. The clip’s on the KMWC …
So all my presents are bought, wrapped and ready to go. Cards have been written. Homemade mince pies are stashed in the freezer. In my dreams, obviously. Honestly, when it comes to Christmas planning I’m definitely not your woman. But when it comes to sorting out drinks, that I can do. If you’re on the lookout …
I’ve been all over the place this week. Literally. London for work, Manchester for an author’s talk and Bath for a wine tasting. And I’ve done some radio interviews in between, including one on how drink affects your mood (answer: largely depends how you’re feeling before you have one) and another on whether there’s any …
I remember a time when Halloween wasn’t really a thing. Not any more. And, I’ve realised, resistance is futile. When I suggested that perhaps we, y’know, scale back this year’s Halloween extravaganza – ridiculous spooky tea at ours before visiting neighbours to claim the kids’ bodyweight in Haribo – it was met with (funnily enough) …
What a week. Met a deadline on Tuesday, another on Wednesday, had a flat tyre on Thursday (sorry, this is sounding like the worst Craig David song ever). But – hooray! – it’s Friday and the weekend is almost ours. It’s been quite a week so when I did get that flat tyre yesterday, I made the most …
Not that we really need an excuse to open a bottle of something pink and sparkly but at least on Valentine’s Day we don’t even have to make one up. Very quickly, what makes wine pink? Answer: the skins of the grapes. You can’t make rose from white grapes; but add red grapes into the …
So this is me, holding a copy of my new book – Teetotal Tipples – in my hand. Obviously, I have a glass of wine in the other. It’s now exactly a month until the book is out but you can pre-order it here! I wrote it because, having done a dry January earlier this year, I realised …
I’m a little delirious. I blame half term. Normally, when the kids are all at school, I get a clear day to do stuff. Until 3pm, that is, when all bets are off until at least 8pm. But at least there are a few hours in the day to work, write, taste wine (I know, ridiculous job) and …
My let-them-get-bored strategy has come back to bite me. “Mum, please can we do some painting?” are seven words you don’t want to hear at 6.35pm after a long day. It was enough to make me want to play Chardonnay Go. If you haven’t seen it, watch it here; forget Pokémon Go, this is way more …
First of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who’s ordered a case (or more) of our first ever KMWC exclusive wine case. It’s absolutely flying! Lots of you have already tucked in (I expect nothing less) and I’m loving hearing what you think of the wines. If you can, take a picture with bottle in hand …
We went away last week for a few days during half term, to Scotland, with friends. Three days of glorious weather and picnics. Also: a run of late nights meaning I had to come back and lie in a darkened room. Which I did for, ooh, all of five minutes before somebody was asking me …
As promised, a quick update on those booze-related beauty treatments I tested out last week. Washing my hair in beer made me smell like a brewery and washing my face in red wine, egg white and honey was as horrible as it sounds. However, making a home-made body scrub from tequila, salt, oil and lime juice …
Last Saturday, I was front page news. Well, sort of. My face was on the front of the paper – in Spain. Here, I was slightly less in-your-face, tucked inside with a feature on, er, my face. Specifically, the effect a wine-free month had on my skin, along with some rather hideous close-ups of it pre- and post-January. …
According to new alcohol consumption guidelines issued last week, drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week is bad for us. From now on we’re advised to drink no more than seven glasses of wine a week. If pregnant, it’s nothing at all. And you know that thing about wine being good for you in moderation? …
I’m sure there’ll be a year when all the presents are wrapped and the food prepped ahead of time. Just not this one. But before we part company for a bit, here are some of the wines featured in a list I put together for The Pool, a brilliant website stuffed with great articles and the …
So, I went to Lake Como last week. I won’t go on about it (much) but SERIOUSLY. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. And we had a Very Famous Person on our flight out. I realised something was up when one of the air stewards practically exploded with excitement and mouthed to …
Last Saturday, we went to a local fete in the grounds of a nearby stately. It’s one of my favourites, complete with dog show (including a dogs-who-look-like-their-owners round), a Punch & Judy show and a myriad of stalls including cake, plant and bottle. I won a bottle of Amaretto on the latter, which was a …
In the last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to do wine tastings at festivals all over the place. And one of the highlights was at Camp Bestival last year, a pop-up tasting for fifty fellow knackered mothers and wine lovers. So I’m really happy to have been asked back again this year as part …
Yesterday, I spent the day at the London Wine Fair. It’s an annual trade fair that I’ve been to almost every year since I began working in the wine industry 20 years ago. Obviously things have changed enormously in that time, not least the fact that I now no longer have the energy to go …
Well, hopefully nicely chilled for whites and room temperature for reds because we’re talking wine dates, and lots of them. I’m going to be out and about a bit this month and I wanted to let you know just in case you’re nearby and up for joining me for a glass of wine. This Friday …
On a shoot last week, hat at jaunty angle. This last week has been a blur of school music concerts, nativity plays (the cowboy theme totally worked, by the way), panic baking and just-about-making work deadlines. The children are so ready for the end of term and so excited about Christmas. Me too, not least …
Every year, when the temperature drops, I do the jumper swap. Away go the 286 breton-stripped tops that I own (I’ve been buying them since 1988; never got the memo about horizontal stripes and big boobs). Out come the chunky knits and in them I stay until at least March. Except, when I sorted through …
Tents and festivals are not my usual habitat but this weekend I’m doing both, at Camp Bestival. My sister and I are yet to do Paper, Scissors, Rock to decide who has to share a tent with my mother (she’s a terrible snorer) but apart from that, it’s excitement all round. People have been asking …
A bucket. Of chips. I love a list. But I don’t have a bucket list. So I thought I’d write one for this summer. Not the usual climb-a-mountain-run-a-marathon kind of list though. Rather, a wine bucket list: 10 wines I aim to find and buy and drink over the summer. Here it is: 1. Alpine …
I’ve had an idea. Each month, we’ll hold a wine surgery. More sit-down-and-grab-a-glass than walk-in, but it’s open to all wine questions. I’ve started it off with something someone asked me last week, about the difference between blends and single varietal wines. So if you have a question about wine, simply post it here in …
The following exhaustive (and exhausting) list of wines appeared in Saturday’s Daily Mail, here’s a link if you want pictures of the bottles too. There’s 10 whites, 10 reds, 10 sparkling and 10 pudding/after dinner drinks. And this gorgeous picture was taken by the very lovely Juliette Neel. Sadly, it wasn’t used in the piece but …
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