Bernard Ferrie lines-up his favourite footy wines

Wine-tasting and football have much in common: reserves, spitting, red and white are popular colours. Can we put together a team? Well, two substitutes are beers and not a Chardonnay (almost) or Abi in sight. Premier cru is really Premier League. Will we be relegated or will your cup run over? Cue Bovril and mutton pies and the Wee Red Book.

Bernard Ferrie gives us his golfing tipples

Gary Player’s saying ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get,’ applies to golf and surgery; both frustrating after years of practice. An Ayrshire doctor I know says he is royalty – he plays every week at Royal Troon. I settle for weekly worship at St Bupa, but go past a very fine golf course at Aston Parva.

Let’s head for the 19th, the easiest hole on the course and a great revenue for many an ailing cash-strapped golf club. Tee-off for a half round of drinks, gossip and put the world to rights. But no Tiger or Monty jokes as Tom Morris, Vardon, Cotton, Thompson and Nicklaus join us.

Bulgaria’s fascinating wine-making heritage

Bulgarian wines have never had a good image in the UK but a recent foray into the local property market has prompted this detailed scientific study. Many of the best are not exported – to import a bubbly would have meant an order for 40,000 bottles per year, which is beyond the scope of this column.

More music to the taste buds

Johan Strauss: ‘A waltz and a glass of wine invite an encore’, so waltz into 2011 and an encore of wines with a musical theme. Yet another octet to get a Handel on (did we squeeze that howler in before?), but quaffing vino can be more ‘glug glug’ than ‘Gluck Gluck’. Remember not everyone can tell their Donizetti from their Delmonte or a crochet from a quaver. The cheese ones go nicely at a wine tasting – Domaine Francois Crochet Sancerre 2006 (Averys, £10.99), an excellent if rare Loire white. A refreshing start.

 

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