Sit and stare

This photo is determined to publish itself sideways but it looks Christmassy anyway so until Toby can sort it out, I'll keep it here in all its sideways glory.



Paul Dring, writing for this month’s Waitrose Food Illustrated says that whereas centuries ago mulling wine made sense because it rescued it from being vinegary and unpalatable, nowadays, “mulling is a good way of making perfectly good wine undrinkable”.

This is a classic example of opinion represented as fact (for any of you GCSE English students out there). Why do winies (what’s the noun? I’ve adapted ‘foodies’ because I can’t remember) say that mulled wine is undrinkable when it is demonstrably not as lots of people drink it with pleasure? Of course, they are sad about how the delicate process of wine-making is all for nothing in the end if we just add orange juice, brandy and spices to it. But people do like mulled wine and how else are they supposed to make it, other than by using wine?

Oh anyway, it annoys me and I keep reading articles slating mulled wine which, apparently, isn’t a very original topic. Why not tell us something useful about what wine to have at Christmas instead?