Every year, we round up the top gifts one could possibly give without going over-the-top-crazy for Valentine's Day. Fortunately, this year our Utterly Inessential columnist is in love. Unfortunately, her heart still belongs to gin. You can't win them all.

This time last year, it’s safe to say that I was having a little bit of a mare.

Recently, brutally dumped a week before my birthday (which is tomorrow, for the 20% of readers who aren’t my best friend, my mother and grandmother), I would drag myself to work and open my inbox to 100+ emails extolling the wonders of February 14th. Thankfully, my wonderful boss made me copious cups of tea and cut down my schedule to the bare minimum. The one thing he didn’t cut, however, was the Valentine’s shopping list.

Who is to say why this was? The hypotheses are endless but maybe, just maybe, he knew it would be an important step in my recovery.

The Promenade at The Dorchester – featuring The Dorchester Rose.

What came next was, undoubtably, the height of my journalistic career – including the 4-page-spread on how to spice up ones marriage I had published in Essentials at the tender age of 19. A bitter stream of vitriol lampooning that most romantic of days, shamelessly fuelled by my own pain. Glorious.

This year, my prospects have improved some. Reunited with my university crush, I’m once more on the happy side of love.

Fortunately for the schadenfreude of it all, his career as an officer among our country’s bravest keeps him chained to the coast and often out of contact, meaning this Valentine’s Day I will once more be curled up on my sofa, watching About Time, eating mint ice cream and drinking pink gin with my long-suffering flatmate. C’est la vie. 

A rose by any other name…

The best Valentine’s gift you could ever give someone, arguably, definitely, is to breed a variety of rose and name it after them. It’s the height of romance, it’s suitably difficult and, unlike a star, you can keep it in your front room. Unfortunately, this process takes years at best, so while your seeds are a-sowing, pop over to Park Lane and have a look at the Dorchester Rose.

Designer florist Philip Hammond has transformed the hotel’s promenade with display upon display of the gorgeous blushed-white rose, which itself is seven years in the making. A bouquet of this very special flower, sold in the pop-up Florist in the hotel itself, is just the way to say ‘I love you’.

Find out more about The Dorchester Rose and The Promenade: Florist at www.dorchestercollection.com. Buy the signature bouquet for £65.

For sipping a romantic cocktail…or drinking to see the end of a bottle

Once, a few of my girlfriends went out for ‘supplies’ on the last night of a girl’s holiday in Dorset and came back with three litres of gin for the six of us. We drove back to London later than we had intended.

It’s a staple, it’s continuously reinvented and it’s one for every single mood – gin really is the best of Britain. That’s why this raspberry gin from Warner’s is the perfect companion to whatever plans you have next weekend. You can even personalise the bottle for a present to your beloved, if you’re so inclined. No hints.

Warner’s Raspberry Gin, £36.00, is available in supermarkets nationwide.

If you’re looking for something small to accompany your flowers, their Pink by Nature gin set is only £12 and contains their Strawberry & Rose gin, which is truly delicious.

Pink by Nature gift set, £12, www.warnersdistillery.com

While you’re at it…

Valentine’s isn’t the day for subtlety. If you’re having a gin, mix it with Fentimans Rose Lemonade (aka, my favourite non-alcoholic drink ever) for a sweet pink twist. If you’re more of a bubbly person, use it to top up a glass of Prosecco. If you’ve decided to continue Dry January a little longer, have it on its own. They’ve now released a light version and its delightful, so no excuses.

For the true love of your life

‘Am I your best friend?’ I ask, desperately (key word, there) trying to catch his eye over the head of his two beloved terriers. ‘Sure.’ He says. . Far be it from me to stand in the way of true love.

If you, too, are more enamoured by your pet than your amour, you’re not alone. The Red Dog Company’s dog mats are just the thing to keep your furry friend comfortable in their favourite spot, without the risk of them pulling out the stuffing of a bed or eating an entire wicker basket. It’s been done.

Mat from The Red Dog Company, from £95, www.thereddogcompany.com

Hinting? Me? Never.

These earrings are adorable. The perfect way to say ‘I love you. I’m sorry I didn’t take you to see Frozen II last year. I’m sorry I made you watch the Rugby last weekend then fell asleep 20 minutes in. You’re a brilliant journalist.’ Or any number of other, non-specific things.

Wanderlust Mini Heart Hoops in Silver and Gold, £35 by Emily Mortimer Jewellery, available at www.emilymortimer.co.uk

Pop the bottle, not the question

Okay, I think proposals on Valentine’s Day are cheesy. Do you know what’s not cheesy? Moët & Chandon’s Limited Edition Rosé Impérial. It’s very, very good. And pink.

Moët & Chandon Limited Edition Rosé Impérial, £47, www.clos19.com

Ok Google, play Marvin Gaye

If you’ve ever balanced your phone in a mug with the volume on full, you know that there’s no replacement for a good speaker. Treat Yo’ Self this Valentine’s Day to that one thing you didn’t get for Christmas and do it properly – the SRS-XB30 can be expanded to include other speakers for a full-house party, has a Mega Bass boost function if the sound quality (which is fantastic, by the way) isn’t quite enough to drown out your tear- eh hem, shower.

The front display even creates a light show in time with your music and it’s splash-resistant. Seriously. Shower party time.

Sony SRS-XB30 Portable Wireless Speaker in red, £150, AO.com, www.ao.com

Best for… making your eyes go funny

For that little something extra

If gifts aren’t your Valentine’s style, you’re not alone. But if, unlike me, you’ve got a while until their next birthday (Valentine’s Day, both birthdays and our anniversary are all within two weeks of each other. What the hell.), then you may want to mark the occasion with a little something. These diffusers are creative, cute and smell phenomenal.

Look, Valentine’s Day isn’t Valentine’s Day without chocolates. That’s why I’ve sent this very pink, very girly heart-shaped box of truffles down to darkest Devon in the hopes that it’ll be opened in front of as many military men as possible. I can see his face now.

Truffle Heart Box, 22-piece, £30 from Godiva, www.godivachocolates.co.uk

Happy Valentine’s Day. For the sake of my friends, colleagues and our readers, I’ll not to mess this one up. 

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Fight away the winter chills, make the perfect après-ski concoction or whip up a detox cocktail if Dry January gave you a taste for a healthier approach.

You will impress anyone with these winter drinks recipes which are both simple and fun to make.

Alps hot chocolate/ Alcoholic’s milkshake

Perfect if you have a sweet tooth, love chocolate and want that après-ski drink, this recipe can be drunk hot or cold.

Ingredients

• 1 spoon of Nutella
• 25 ml Baileys
• 25 ml Rum
• 75 ml Hot or cold milk depending on whether you want hot chocolate or milkshake
• 20ml Cream
• 1 large spoon Chocolate powder
• Sugar – (as sweet you want, but one spoon of brown sugar is advised)

Shake it all up in a cocktail shaker and pour into a tall glass. You can add chocolate or butterscotch ice cream to the cold milkshake version. Garnish – chocolate around the glass and watch it melt then top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

English After Eight

Perfect as a fourth course at a dinner party.

Ingredients

• 50 ml – 50-50 Cream & milk
• 8 Large leaves – Fresh mint leaves
• 45 ml – Tuaca – caramel and vanilla rum
• 25 ml – Chocolate schnapps
• 1 spoon Chocolate Syrup
• 1 large spoon Gomme

Shake hard and double strain into a martini glass garnish with mint leaf and chocolate shavings.

The Green Giant

If you’re run down and feeling groggy, knock yourself up a medicinal cocktail to help fight away those winter germs: The Green Giant (Hot Green Tea cocktail) will warm you up, keep your immune system strong against colds and help speed up your digestion, and made up of chopped fresh ginger, green tea, brandy and honey with fresh lemon, it’s a real winter warmer.

Ingredients

• Green tea bag
• 1.5 average size cup of hot water
• ½ of a lemon sliced
• 1.5 shots of Brandy
• ½ a shot of citron vodka
• 1 large spoon of honey

The advantage of this cocktail is that you can change it to being your own perfect drink, for instance replacing the brandy to gin and the lemon to orange, or adding cinnamon or ginger.  This really is open to a wide range of twists. No garnish.  Serve in a tea cup.

Seven Sisters Detox

When the Christmas season is long gone but your liver is still trying to recover from looking like a shrivelled raisin and your energy levels are lacking, make the Seven Sisters Detox.  This drink will help detoxify your liver and immune system, fight toxins in your body and revive your energy levels as the New Year progresses.

Ingredients

• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons agave (a healthy alternative to sugar with the same sweetness but almost no calories)
• 10 ml ginseng liquid
• 1 chopped ginger clove / muddled
• 10 ml milk thistle (Helps to repair liver damage)
• 50 ml cranberry juice
• 5 crushed fresh raspberries

Preparation – muddle all the fruits together with the ginger and lemon, add agave syrup in the mixing shaker then add milk thistle, ginseng and cranberry to ice and shake very vigorously together for at least 20 seconds. Garnish with a raspberry and even some fresh ginger. Serve in a tall glass

Do not drink before bed, preferable drinking time is in the morning – it will give you a buzz!

These recipes originally supplied by www.jujulondon.com

Here at Country Life we love nothing more than a top wine merchant, but there isn't always the chance to get to one when you need it. Whether you've left it late to sort out a nice bottle for a romantic evening at home or just fancy something for the weekend, this list will have you covered.

Sainsbury’s, Taste the Difference Petit Chablis, Burgundy, France 2018

£10.50, Sainsbury’s, 12% abv

Classy and classic nose of citrus and mineral, with a struck-match character. The clean, crisp palate also has a lovely creaminess, all underpinned by a streak of minerality. Fresh, well-balanced and great value for money.

Errazuriz, Sauvignon Blanc, Aconcagua Valley, Chile 2018

£9, Morrisons, 13% abv

If you prefer a more mineral and food-friendly style of Sauvignon Blanc, this one is a delicious choice. Limey and rather savoury, it has flint and struck-match aromas leading to fresh herbs, crunchy green apple and more lime on the palate.

Cepa Lebrel Rioja Crianza, Spain, 2015

£5.79, Lidl, 13.5% abv 

Our erstwhile wine correspondent Harry Eyres always professed himself impressed ‘by the quality the supermarket chain Lidl achieves at remarkably reasonable prices.’ He picked out this as a prime example: youthful in colour, quite rich and oaky on the nose (the Bodega Isidro Milagro uses a mix of French and American oak), warm, soft and full on the palate.

Calvet, Brut Rosé, Crémant de Bordeaux, France 2015

£12.99, Ocado, 11.5% abv

A light, aromatic crémant made in the traditional method from Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Crunchy strawberry and raspberry flavours with a touch of biscuit, fine bubbles filling the mouth, balanced acidity and a rounded finish. Great as an aperitif — worth trading up from cheaper options, and if you’ve left it too late to add this to an Ocado order then the non-rosé version is on the shelf at Tesco.

Pata Negra, Reserva, Rioja, Spain 2015

£15.99 for a magnum (150cl) Aldi, 13.5% abv

Excellent value for a magnum of Rioja Reserva that would be perfect with haggis, this shows a hint of saddle leather alongside sweet, balsamic-strawberry fruit. It still has enough fresh acidity and structure from 30 months’ oak-ageing to develop for several years yet.

For more wine reviews, visit our sister website www.decanter.com

Alexandra Fraser extols the wonders of her favourite flavour of city escape, while sampling London’s latest rendition: Bottles, on Draycott Avenue.

If there’s one thing (there are many, so there must be one) that I will forever laud, no matter the time or prescribed order of business, it’s the advantages of the tactically-placed wine bar.

This is the small pocket away from reality, decked in rack-upon-rack of shining bottles, which you stumble upon while trying to wile away the hour before your dinner reservation, or prolong a successful first date, or desperately escape the rain because you more-than-slightly resemble a drowned rat.

Where, you ask, is this oasis from the storms of a big city or the trials of a long day?

That’s the best thing: it’s everywhere. It’s a corner of the Mercato Centrale, near-buried under leather goods stands and mini Venus de Milos. It’s at the end of a cobbled street in the quiet Évian-les-Bains, where you can perch on ever-so-slightly unstable bar stools and sip rosé while the sun sets. And now, it’s on a pretty street in South Kensington, far enough from the hustle and bustle to be a world of its own.

This is Bottles. It’s a picturesque spot gracing Draycott Avenue, whose quiet music and grotto-like feel is accented by its cork walls and quirky copper cutlery. Oh yes – this is more than just a spot to whet your whistle on the way to dinner down the road: there’s a selectively-delicious food menu, too.

You can take anyone to a tactically-placed wine bar. That’s the beauty of it. A long-time partner who knows your order before you do, your boyfriend’s charming sister who is in town for a few days and loves a good time, a best friend who’ll never turn down a glass of Prosecco.

For this, the first visit, I opted for the latter.

I’ll always be the first to admit that I don’t retain pairing information very well, so I tend to leave it up to the experts. At Bottles, we found staff invested in offering us the best wining and dining experience possible.

To start with, we enjoyed delicious Cornish scallops in a ‘mentsuyu sauce roe with topinambur’.  Although we were too busy eating to enquire into what exactly those exotic flavours were, they were presented in a shell like a gift from the ocean, and paired perfectly with a crisp Prosecco – try the Fantinel One & Old Prosecco Brut D.O.C for the true Italian experience. If you’re looking for a warmer start, opt for the whole-wheat squid taco with a crisp Riesling. Absolutely delicious.

After trying one of their ‘bites’, it was all too tempting to stay for something more substantial. Everything we tried was, frankly, a delight for the tastebuds, but it’d be remiss not to give special mention to the pasta. Truffle tagliolini was the highlight of the night, dressed in anchovy-infused butter and topped with fine nero pregiato truffle. It was a complete experience of sensational flavour, of earthy truffle and perfect pasta, one that I’ll undoubtedly drag my boyfriend, his sister and many a friend to in the future. Pair it with a rich red to accentuate the flavours.

We also tried the gorgeous langoustine fusillione, with smoked butter and eryngii mushrooms, paired with an equally-gorgeous orange wine. There’s no copious sauce disguising pasta sins at Bottles; everything is clean cut, simple and absolutely spot on.

Having consumed an elegant sufficiency, we were nevertheless tempted by the cumin wholewheat tartlet. From our corner of the bar we could see the care and attention that went into assembling this artwork of a dessert – a diligence that came through wholeheartedly in the beautiful flavours. It was exactly what we needed after an excellent meal; not too sweet, not too rich. Just perfect.

The beauty of a tactically-placed wine bar, instantly available the minute ones thoughts turn to an evening’s entertainment, cannot be overstated. Bottles in Chelsea has added its cosy corner to this legacy with undeniable style, improving, if it were possible, on an old-world institution with its carefully-curated menu and erudite staff. I look forward to the next time the wind blows me its way.

Glasses of wine at Bottles start at £6, bites start at £5, pasta from £14 and other mains from £18 — www.bottleswine.bar,  020 3880 9002. 

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It’s been dubbed ‘the world’s most idiotic marathon’: a 26-mile run through vineyards, fuelled by wine and cheese. Emma Hughes finds out if she has the stomach for the legendary Marathon du Médoc.

History doesn’t record what Pheidippides, the Ancient Greek soldier who ran to bring the Athenians news of their victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon, was thinking as he trudged along. Whatever he imagined his legacy might be, it almost certainly wasn’t a long line of people in various states of intoxication wobbling through vineyards, trying not to be sick.

The Marathon du Médoc, which has been taking place in and around Pauillac since 1985, is infamous. Participants (who tend to be British; in terms of doomed endeavours, this is up there with the Charge of the Light Brigade) are expected to break 23 times to gorge themselves with the region’s finest — and richest — foodstuffs. Plus, of course, a glass of claret at each stop.

‘Is this the world’s most idiotic marathon?’ ran the headline on a feature covering the race a few years ago. The general consensus appears to be ‘yes’. And I’ve put my name down to do it.

The Pichon Longueville castle on the route.

I am neither a runner nor a heavy drinker, so I’ve pressganged my friend Edward into joining me. He’s a Withnailian dilettante whose blood type is Port.

We’ve barely taken off for Bordeaux when he reaches into his bag and pulls out a travel-sized bottle of sherry. ‘Full of electrolytes,’ he announces, offering me a swig.

I decline, thinking of the gargantuan quantity of wine I’ll be expected to get through the following day. Nobody, I tell myself, has ever actually died running the Marathon du Médoc — but there’s always a first time, isn’t there?

Our base for the weekend is Les Sources de Caudalie, an enchanting collection of converted barns and a grand manoir arranged around a lake: The Wind in the Willows meets Versailles. Wine, obviously, is the thing here: the hotel’s rooms overlook the famous Château Smith Haut Lafitte winery and the spa offers a series of ‘vinothérapie’ treatments.

‘I wish I’d trained more, but is there anything that can prepare you for stuffing a wedge of brie into your mouth as you endeavour to keep up with a drunken Scarlet Pimpernel?’

My plan for the night before the marathon is for us to join some other runners at one of the official pre-race pasta parties. Edward has other ideas. ‘I’ve booked a table in the hotel restaurant,’ he tells me. ‘We’re having five courses.’ His eyes twinkle evilly. ‘And matching wines.’

I take the guide to pre-race nutrition I’ve cut out of Runner’s World to dinner, but my resolve evaporates in the face of tomato tarte tatin, monkfish with preserved-lemon risotto and a caramel mille feuille for two. The wines, all of which come from across the road, are outstanding. ‘Think of it as training,’ Edward instructs as he brims my glass for the umpteenth time. We stagger off to bed at midnight.

Five hours later, our alarm goes off — the starting gun is fired at 9.30am and we’re nearly 80 miles from Pauillac. We struggle into our costumes — fancy dress is mandatory. Edward, for no clear reason, has come as a Georgian fop, complete with canary breeches and a cravat. As a result of a misunderstanding with the fancy-dress shop, I am dressed as a traffic cone. The forecast for today is 30˚C; I already feel as if I’ve been swaddled in asbestos.

The train to Pauillac is rammed with British people, many of whom also look very much the worse for wear. It’s standing room only; Edward and I clutch the pre-marathon picnics the hotel has kindly packed us off with, swaying slightly. The journey passes in a queasy blur. Whenever we go through a big wine name, such as Margaux, my stomach lurches.

Pauillac itself has been completely taken over by the race, with jacketed marshalls stationed outside every bistro and tabac. The pavements are packed with runners: we pass all Seven of the Dwarves, as well as Asterix and Obelix doing calf stretches.

A number of experienced-looking participants, I notice with alarm, are already dosing themselves with Imodium.

We fight our way to the media tent, where Jean-Yves, the charming press officer, loads us up with bottles of water. ‘Drink lots of this, yes?’ he says, bundling us towards the starting line. ‘Not just wine, okay?’

There’s barely time to steel ourselves before we’re shunted into motion by a Viking longboat being pulled by six men in horned helmets. The marathon route loops south from Pauillac and heads down towards Bordeaux, before winding its way north again and finishing right where it started.

It takes in household names such as Château Lafite, Château Mouton Rothschild and Château Latour and, within minutes, we’re among the vines. It’s already scorchingly hot and there’s little shade, but the crowds cheering on the side of the road are a tonic.

It becomes apparent that we’re going to need a little more help than that when, less than three miles in, we’re overtaken by someone being pushed along in a shopping trolley. ‘We need to run faster,’ I wheeze at Edward, who’s stopped to chat to a group of Japanese tourists, all of whom want their photos taken with ‘Mr Darcy’. ‘It may be too late for that,’ he says, pointing behind me: hot on our heels is the Sweeper, a float adorned with brooms that urges runners to keep their pace up (the cut-off time for the marathon is 6½ hours).

We set off at speed, the coffee I chugged earlier to clear my head sloshing around ominously in my stomach. Luckily — or unluckily, depending on your perspective — we’re almost at the first stop.

‘Hanging off a vine is a dinosaur suit, tragically crumpled. We stop in front of it, paying our respects to the fallen’

The grounds of Château Lynch-Bages are full of trestle tables laid out with beakers of red wine and cheese biscuits, as well as more usual snacks, such as bananas. They’re staffed by volunteers from the town, who urge us on with cries of ‘Allez!’. A Tyrannosaurus rex waddles past eating a KitKat.

Each stop merges with the next. We’re struggling along at mile eight when a honk from the Sweeper forces us to take evasive action. ‘Over here,’ Edward hisses, gesturing towards the vines themselves. We cut a corner by sprinting through them, emerging on the other side, significantly further ahead, to whoops and cheers. We’re press, rather than official participants, so nobody seems to mind.

I wish I’d trained more, but is there anything that can prepare you for stuffing a wedge of brie into your mouth as you endeavour to keep up with a drunken Scarlet Pimpernel?

At about mile 11, we make an executive decision to switch from jogging to walking. The sun is beating down mercilessly; rivers of sweat are pouring out of my traffic-cone suit and Edward’s cravat is gently steaming.

We’re not the only ones to have succumbed to the wrath of grapes: the road is littered with false moustaches, wigs and clown shoes. Hanging off a vine is a dinosaur suit, tragically crumpled. We stop in front of it, paying our respects to the fallen.

A runner stops of a wine break in the courtyard of Chateau Montrose, near Pauillac.

‘You know, we’re about halfway,’ Edward says, consulting his map, ‘which means we’re actually very near Pauillac.’ He pauses and raises an eyebrow. ‘Spot of lunch?’ I nod, more grateful than I have ever been in my life.

We limp to the nearest fromagerie, where we feast on fresh baguettes, farmhouse cheeses and cherry jam, surrounded by fellow marathon escapees. Our table has a view of the finishing line and we watch as the first runners start to trickle through. Everyone looks ecstatic.

As we’re paying the bill, Jean-Yves emails with the news that the fastest person completed the course in an astonishing time of two hours and 28 minutes. ‘Perhaps next year,’ Edward shrugs gallicly.

Back at Les Sources de Caudalie, the pool is a shimmering oasis and I sit on the edge with my feet in it, whimpering.

Another guest looks up from his book. ‘You know,’ he remarks, ‘you look like you could really do with a glass of wine.’

The Marathon du Médoc takes place every year in September — for details and to register, visit www.marathondumedoc.com. Rooms at Les Sources de Caudalie from €300 per night — www.sources-caudalie.com.

This article originally appeared in Country Life in 2019.

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What better for Mother's Day than a bottle of 'Mother's Ruin'? We've selected some of the finest gins on the market which are sure to give your long-suffering parent a treat.

A gin to… make you smile, for a long time

There is a down-side, believe it or not, to testing out gin. Not much of a downside, we’ll grant you, but one nevertheless: quite often we’ll be delighted by the flavour of a new gin, only to discover that it costs enough per bottle to fill a small car with petrol.

In this case, however, we’re very happy to report that Gordon’s new Sicilian Lemon Gin is absolutely the best new gin we’ve tasted in many months, and also among the cheapest. Apparently the recipe is one that Alexander Gordon himself used back in the 1930s. Clearly it must have been adapted to make it suitable for the company’s now-vast distillation factories, but my goodness they’ve done a good job. Just brilliantly balanced between sweet, sour and bitter, with just the right amount of lemon — it’s pretty much a perfect G&T gin.

Gordon’s Sicilian Lemon Gin, around £16.60 — in supermarkets at the moment, or on sale via Amazon

A gin to… make you feel good about doing your bit

If getting a great gin at a great price, as in the case of the Gordon’s above, is win-win, then so is getting a great gin while helping protect our feathered friends. We’ll be honest: we didn’t have enormously high hopes for The RSPB’s Secret Garden Gin, distilled just outside Edinburgh. But we were wrong: it’s truly superb. We wouldn’t be writing about it otherwise.

£35.95 from oldcuriosity.co.uk — buy it here

A gin to… remind you of Paddington Bear

Marmalade gins are not a new gin — the punchy-tasting Aber Falls marmalade gin has had our thumbs-up before now — but never have we had one which channels the spirit of a slice of marmalade on toast quite so accurately as this one from Slingsby’s of Harrogate. With that in mind, this won’t be for everyone: it’s a proper, old-school bitter marmalade of the type that my mother used to make. But if that’s your thing, you’ll absolutely love it.

£36.95 from The Whisky Exchange

A gin to… make you wonder how they came up with the name

A gin to… warm the heart of any 1990s kid

The Brewdog company have made millions with their punchy, confident range of beers. Now, they’re trying to crack the spirits market too, and LoneWolf Cloudy Lemon gin is an out-and-out assault on the senses — including your sight, as you’ll notice from the label. It’s powerfully-flavoured almost to a fault, in fact: this is a seriously lemony drink, so be warned. When mixed as a G&T ended up tasting more like a Bacardi Breezer or that Hooper’s Hooch stuff which we all chugged by the crate back in the 1990s. If aTom Collins is your particular poison, however, you’ll struggle to find a better option.

£21 from Waitrose

A gin to… keep your taste buds guessing

Having made a huge splash in the world of single malt whisky, the Bruichladdich Distillery turned their hand to gin for this now-well-known drink. The Botanist. Gin-lovers will probably have tried this already and know if they like it; if you haven’t, it’s bold and different, with notes of apple, coriander, citrus peel, honey, coconut and wild mint. It’s also ferociously strong (46%) so needs mixing with care.

Priced at £31.89. Click here to buy.

A gin to… make you think of spring meadows

Adding an overt flavour to a gin can be a tricky business. Some, such as Whitley Neil’s rhubarb and ginger gin, get it just right. Others fall foul – Heston Blumenthal’s Cirus Sherbet Gin, for example, left many people underwhelmed. Warner’s (formerly Warner Edwards) have nailed it with their Elderflower Gin. Made in Harrington, Northamptonshire, they use their own natural springs and ingredients from local hedgerows and their own botanical garden. Absolutely delicious.

Priced at £36. Click here to buy.

Conker Dorset Dry Gin

Conker Gin, with it’s marvellously distinctive bottle, is distilled in the New Forest with a range of ingredients that include gorse flowers, samphire and elderberries. If you’ve not tried it yet you really ought to, as it’s a fabulously well-balanced drink. (Indeed, the mother of one of our testers admits it’s her favourite and insists on having a bottle in the house at all times.) That cute bottle is both a plus and a minus, however: pretty it might be, but we have found it decidedly awkward to pour from.

Priced at £34.49. Click here to buy.

A gin to… introduce you to ingredients you’ve never heard of

A Scottish drink, Carounn Gin is made in small batches at a distillery in the Highlands, intrigued us with its somewhat outlandish list of ingredients – or ‘botanicals’, as gin-makers insist on calling them. Dandelion, heather, ‘coul bush apple’ (whatever that is), bog myrtle (not sure how that differs from common-or-garden myrtle) and rowan berries. But it’s far from a gimmick: the combination of flavours is smooth, fruity and refreshing, and the fact that this is perhaps the prettiest bottle on this page makes it a particularly good present.

Priced at £24. Click here to buy.

A gin to… serve as the antidote to all the fancy stuff above

You read the name correctly: Britain’s most famous wine merchant has made their own gin. It’s not a case of bandwagon-jumping from Berry Bros & Rudd, however – more a case of jumping back on the bandwagon, as this is an early 20th century recipe that has been resurrected from a single remaining sample bottle from the 1950s. The science of how that recreation happened is fascinating; the result is a super quality London dry gin, not unlike a Gordon’s in that it’s a clean, unfussy and straightforward drink. Excellent stuff.

Priced at £25. Click here to buy.

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There's no getting away from it: spending weeks on end sitting at home will mean you'll probably drink more. Here's how to make sure the well doesn't run dry during self-isolation.

We’ll admit that we were more than a little surprised when the government added off-licences to the list of ‘essential’ shops which are permitted to say open during lockdown.

A week of home-schooling two young children soon put paid to that. Right now we’d probably rather go without bread than wine. Or gin, or beer. Something. Anything.

That said, heading out to an off-licence doesn’t sit well — but many off-licences, wine merchants and even breweries are using contact-free delivery.

Wine

If you’re pushing the boat out, then Berry Bros & Rudd — wine merchants to royalty — are still delivering, and for free at that, though you do have to spend at least £200. Given that we’re likely to be in lockdown for many more weeks, that doesn’t sound particularly hard — and it’s not as if the wine will do anything but improve if you don’t get through it all before normal life returns.

Winebuyers.com is another place to look, an online wine club which connects producers direct to the drinkers and promises ‘zero mark up and a commission-free price tag’. Their experts suggested a couple of wines to help see you through: a Vigano Sangiovese and an intriguing-looking rosé made with Ortega and Pinot Noir, made by Westwell in Kent.

While that website has bottles from around £5, www.finewinedirect.co.uk specialises in higher-end stuff — though they have some around the £12 mark which come recommended by the company’s director, Sam Earl. ‘Try the Chateau La Plaige 2016 Bordeaux,’ he suggests, adding that it’s a ‘very good everyday drinking claret from a great vintage’.

Spirits

You wouldn’t order wine or beer from Amazon (well, we wouldn’t) but it’s got a surprisingly good selection of spirits — they sell the usual suspects such as Slingsby as well as harder-to-find bottles such as Fifty Pounds London Dry, which won Country Life’s ‘best gin’ title in 2016 — and which, thankfully, costs far less than £50.

For spirits specialists, The Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt are still running deliveries, with the latter donating £1 to help those affected by the crisis. Also well worth a look is The Drop Store (TheDropStore.com) which is doing its bit until the end of April by offering  10% off with the promo code ‘thanks10’ — and there’s free delivery over £30. We also happened to notice that they’re selling giant 1.75 litre bottles of Whitley Neill gin for £40, including their rhubarb and ginger — a perennial favourite of the Country Life team.

Given the situation in the world right now, many of those delivery services have delays of up to a week — and if you need speed then look to Warner’s, a wonderful Northamptonshire distillery with a superb elderflower variant. They are still confident they can get the booze to your door inside 48 hours — and they’re even chucking in free delivery and two Fever Tree mixers with each order over £30 using the code FREEDELIVERY.

Beer

Supermarkets are still selling beer and the large online beer retailers — www.beerhawk.co.uk is well worth a look — are running as normal, albeit with

Bigger breweries including BrewDog have devlivery services up and running, but many smaller breweries — who will be hit very hard by pub closures — are also finding ways to get their wares out to customers. One such not far from the Country Life offices is Hogsback (www.hogsback.co.uk) who are delivering fresh beer (i.e. what gets sold in the pubs, rather than bottled) in the local area. You can also use their contact-free drive-through: one of the team will put your pre-paid beer in the boot, and you can drive off in safety.

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There are all manner of creative ways companies across Britain are helping us cope with lockdown by allowing a few little treats to help keep us going.

Whether your poison is a sweet treat, fine wine or gin, don’t forget to raise your glass a key workers when you enjoy what follows.

The swishest takeaway of all time

Remember those M&S adverts? ‘This is not just [insert name of generic foodstuff]. This is Marks & Spencers [generic foodstuff] made with [insert list of exotic-sounding ingredients].‘

Clever stuff, but isolation means a chance to up the ante on dining at home thanks to Fischer’s of Baslow Hall — which we visited a couple of years ago, and loved. They’re making their Michelin-star fine dining available for home delivery, and also giving their suppliers a way to sell their goods.
www.fischers-baslowhall.co.uk

Just in case you can’t think of an excuse to pour a gin…

Slingsby gin is running a ‘gin quiz’ on Instagram and Facebook at 6pm this very evening at the time of writing — we’re not sure what the questions will be, but there are prizes… and, well, it’s gin, on Friday. What’s not to like?

The company has been running regular ‘sofa sessions’ so even if you miss this one, another will surely be along soon.

Meanwhile, Manchester Gin and Tobermory Gin are both — separately — running gin tasting sessions live via their Facebook and Instagram pages. The idea is that you buy a bottle and drink along — you can also submit questions to distillers.

Both are offering discounts to sweeten the deal: Tobermory is giving 10% off, and donating a further 10% to The BEN hospital charity. Manchester Gin, meanwhile, are offering 20% off for key workers, and have a tasting set of four gin miniatures, glasses, tonic and tasting notes.
Tobermory Gin on Facebook
Manchester Gin on Facebook

Make someone’s day (your own, or someone else’s) with a hamper

Now this really is a nice idea: hamper specialists Cartwright & Butler are selling a range of lovely little treat boxes that, for the cost of a bunch of flowers, lets you send a selection of goodies to brighten the day of a friend or loved-one. You can order a ‘Thinking of You’ selection for just £27 — then again, you could always push the boat out with something fancier.
www.cartwrightandbutler.co.uk

Instagram live wine tastings

A wine delivery company called www.pullthecork.co.uk (who specialise in organic and sustainable wine and so on) is running live tastings on its Instagram page — the idea is that you order a trio of wines for £45, and can then follow along.
www.pullthecork.co.uk

English wine from home

Having spent the last decade helping visitors to explore the vineyards of England and Wales, Wine Cellar Door has branched out by opening an online wine shop. They’re not taking orders and delivering themselves, but instead pointing customers direct to vineyard websites — meaning that it’s the producers (such as Leonardslee) who take 100% of the proceeds.
www.winecellardoor.co.uk

From Rioja alternatives to fruit-packed bottles, discover an eclectic selection of interesting, reasonably priced wines with our latest list.

Azinhaga de Ouro Reserva, Douro Valley, Portugal 2017

£5.99, Lidl, 14% abv
Made from the same grapes used in Port production, this is packed with smoky plum and mulberry fruit, framed by some spicy oak. It doesn’t have the concentration that more expensive red wines from the Douro region would offer, but it’s still a good-value, uncomplicated and crowd-pleasing choice.

La Cave des Hautes Côtes, Crémant de Bourgogne, Burgundy, France, no vintage

£10, Marks & Spencer, 12.5% abv
A blend of 75% Pinot Noir with Aligoté, Chardonnay and Gamay, this good-value fizz has a fine, creamy mousse and pear, white blossom and citrus on the nose. The palate features candied pear and bright acidity, with lime peel on the finish.

Aldinger, Estate Spätburgunder, Württemberg, Germany 2017

£14.45, The WineBarn, 12.5% abv
This wine receives its light-pink hue from 40%–50% whole-bunch fermentation. It features a nose of fragrant herbs, strawberry and hawthorn, with a touch of savoury bacon complexity. The lengthy, juicy, berry palate is supported by fine-grained, dusty tannins.

Quails’ Gate, Chardonnay, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada 2016

£22.49–£24.24, All About Wine, Corking Wines, 13% abv
This is drinking beautifully, packed with ripe apple, pear and acid-driven pineapple. Toast and vanilla notes come from partial ageing in French oak.

Lidl Mezquiriz Reserva, Navarra, Spain 2013

£5.99, Lidl, 13.5% abv
This Tempranillo is part of Lidl’s latest Wine Tour line-up — a revolving selection available alongside the core range. The vintage may be 2013, but the wine is still youthful, showing fresh, soft blackberry fruit and a touch of spicy oak. A good value alternative to Rioja.

Sir Ian Botham, The All-Rounder Chardonnay, South Eastern Australia 2018

£7.75– £7.99, Morrisons, Ocado, Waitrose Cellar, 12.5% abv
Unlike many other celebrities, cricket legend Sir Ian has had actual involvement in his new wine project. Here, he wanted the lightly oaked Margaret River fruit to give a tropical, peachy flavour, which joins green apple, zippy grapefruit acidity and vanilla hints. Great value— especially when on offer at £5.99.

Domaine de La Cendrillon, Nuance, Vin de France 2018

£12.80, Tanners, 14% abv
A fruit salad of varieties — 38% Petit Manseng, plus seven other grapes — all sourced from the vineyards of a Corbières family estate founded in 1750. Leesy, creamy cashew roundness and a raspy texture, with pear juice, spiced apple, stone fruit and a long apricot finish.

Mt Beautiful, Pinot Noir, North Canterbury, New Zealand 2017

£16.95, Wine Utopia, Dunell’s, 13% abv
In addition to food matches, such as ‘moussaka on a rainy night’, owner David Teece suggests pairing this savoury Pinot with jazz music by Miles Davis. It has black-cherry, violet and bramble notes, a nice grip of tannins and spice from 10 months in barrel.

For more wine reviews, visit our sister website www.decanter.com

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Normally, we write a few introductory lines in this space.

Today, we’re just too excited about getting on to the first entry that… well, this is your lot.

The gin you’ve been waiting for? Jaffa Cake Gin

‘Please can you send me the link? Will buy INSTANTLY’ was the immediate reaction from one of the Country Life staff on being told of the existence of this gin, via a Teams message.

Shockingly, not everybody was quite as excited. Those people are wrong. How could you possibly not love a gin distilled with distilled with oranges, fresh orange peel, cocoa powder and real-life Jaffa Cakes?

Priced at £27.95 from Master of Malt — click here to buy.

Time for a… rum and tonic? Union Lemon & Leaf Rum

The idea of putting rum in your tonic (or should that be the other way around?) is a bit of a tough sell to lovers of the classic G&T and the Cuba Libre alike. Yet this is worth a try: it comes across like a G&T with an unusual zing that’s unexpected and different. Union also suggest this a cocktail of 50ml of the rum, 20ml passion fruit puree, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml vanilla syrup, garnished with passionfruit. If any of those were in stock for home delivery, we’d have given it a try. Let us know what it’s like if you manage it.

Priced at £34.95 from The Whisky Exchange — click here to buy.

A treacly delight: Co-op PX Irresistible Sherry

Co-op has released its first own-label Pedro Ximénez Sherry, aged for up to 12 years in an American-oak solera system, according to the experts at decanter.com. A little goes a long way here, as the flavours are so intense that you’ll really only need a small glass. This is a treacly, mouth-coating delight with raisiny, grapey, fruit flavours.

Priced at £6 for 37.5cl from the Co-Op — click here to buy.

Best use ever of video conferencing? Gin tasting

If you’re holding a gin-tasting party over Zoom in lockdown, this set is a good starting point, with examples of all the major gin types which is also a mini-tour of Britain. There’s Slingsby Gooseberry as a fruity gin from Yorkshire, Silent Pool for floral from Surrey, Aber Falls for the juniper-led gin from Wales and a pair of citrus gins, Boë (Scotland) and Boatyard (Northern Ireland).

Purists might keep looking for a set which also includes a herbal and a spiced gin; the rest of us will only be disappointed that each bottle includes no more than 50ml.

Priced at £29 from www.ilovegin.com — click here to buy.

Crunchy Croatian wine? Alba Malvazija Istarska

We were slightly shocked to hear our friends over at Decanter talking about this wine as being reminiscent of ‘crunchy pear fruit’, but it was merely an image, for there are decidedly no bits whatsoever in this wine, made with a blend of grapes from six vineyards, vinified separately, and fermented in stainless steel with no skin contact. Fresh, herby and mineral — and absolutely no crunchy bits.

Priced at £17.99 from Liberty Wines — click here to buy.

There's nothing quite like the noise of uncorking a bottle of wine. Despite the inroads made by screwcaps, the majority of us still prefer the ritual of opening a bottle with a corkscrew. But how did we first start doing that in the first place? Martin Fone investigates.

I went to open a bottle of wine the other day and, to my astonishment, I found that it was sealed with a cork.

This prompted a frantic search for a corkscrew, followed by a life-and-death struggle to extract the stopper without corking the wine. I realised then that the life of a sommelier was not for me.

After consuming the bottle’s contents — the perfect time, I find, for existential cogitation — I began to wonder just who it was that had invented the corkscrew.

Until Sir Kenelm Digby cracked the problem of the mass production of uniformly sized bottles made from strong glass in the 1630s, wine was commonly stored in jugs with stoppers made of oil cloth or pieces of wood. After his breakthrough, wine bottles were a cheap and viable option for storing and transporting wine. But the problem of sealing them up had yet to be solved.

Initially, their stoppers were also made of glass, making them tricky to remove and in clumsy or shaking hands, the calamitous outcome would often be the breakage of the bottle or the ruination of its contents.

Around the middle of the century, stoppers started to be made of cork — an ideal substitute, being cheaper to manufacture than glass and making a tighter seal. But an added benefit was soon discovered: a well-fitted cork, by allowing little more than a milligram of oxygen into the bottle per annum, removed the sulphites added in the bottling process, slowed down the oxidation process and allowed the wine to age and develop secondary aromas.

Having sealed the bottle with a cork, the next problem was how to remove it. Rudimentary corkscrews of necessity soon appeared using a piece of equipment a soldier would have in his kitbag: a gun worm. Their muskets were inefficient, would often misfire and the musket ball would get stuck in the barrel of the gun. To remove the offending ball, the soldier would use the gun worm —  which was screw-shaped — to drill into the lead and drag the bullet out.

The same principle could be applied to a wine bottle. The earliest reference to the device, in a museum catalogue from 1681, describes ‘a steel worme used for the drawing of Corks out of Bottles’, usually with a ring on the top to allow the user some purchase. It was later called a bottlescrew before the term corkscrew was settled upon.

“A quick tug and even the tightest-fitting cork would be released accompanied by that satisfying popping sound.”

It is a curious thing, but those who make a significant contribution to wine technology seem to be raffish characters. It seems to go with the territory. Samuel Henshall, elected a fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford in 1793, was a philologist, publishing several books including a translation of The Domesday Book. He was also a clergyman, serving as curate of Christ Church, Spitalfields and, from 1802 to his death in 1807, as rector of Bow Church, where he is buried.

Finance was not his strong point. Often in debt, he was dragged to the debtors’ court three time, once by a brewer to whom he owed the princely sum of £420. But for helixophiles — the name given to aficionados of the corkscrew — he can do no wrong.

The reason? Henshall revolutionised the design of the corkscrew.

His brainwave was to add a small metal disc to the top of the screw which limited how far into the cork the screw could travel. Once this point had been reached, by twisting the handle the cork would turn, thus breaking the seal that had formed between it and the neck of the bottle. This achieved, a quick tug and even the tightest-fitting cork would be released accompanied by that satisfying popping sound. There was even a brush on the end of the corkscrew to remove the motes of dust that had settled on a vintage wine that had been laid down in the cellar.

An 1897 illustration of a corkscrew.

Convinced that he was on to a winner, Henshall called on the services of a manufacturer and entrepreneur, Matthew Boulton, who had collaborated with James Watt in developing the stationary steam engines that did so much to fuel the Industrial Revolution. In a letter detailing his invention to Boulton, Henshall sang its praises, describing it as ‘a new mode of applying the screw, and a mode which every person who sees it will be surprised that he himself did not find out. It will have the power to extract the hardest, tightest or most decayed cork’.

Boulton agreed to support the venture, but — unsurprisingly, given the state of Henshall’s parlous finances — had difficulty in getting the inventor to stump up his share of the patent expenses. Boulton’s legal advisor wrote to him somewhat wryly: ‘I doubt I shall not so easily extract £50 from the Parson as he would a cork from a bottle.’  The patent, awarded in 1795, did not transform Henshall’s fortunes and when he died, in debt of course, it is said that his stock of corkscrews was buried with him.

Without wishing to turn the screw further on Henshall’s reputation, it is claimed that he had stolen the idea, possibly from a Dublin-based cutler by the name of Thomas Read who had invented a similar device, the coaxer, in the 1770s. Be that as it may, Henshall held the first patent and can claim to have given the world of the corkscrew the impetus it needed.

In 1802, Birmingham-based Edward Thomason came up with a corkscrew with one screw inside the other. Upon turning the handle, the inner screw went down into the cork, stopping when the outer screw engaged and pulling the cork upwards. Those who know about these things claim it to be the finest corkscrew ever designed.

Another Englishman, Marshall Weir, developed the concertina corkscrew in 1884, consisting of a set of collapsible levers which folded over the screw. The cork was extracted by pulling them open with a ring. The now familiar design involving a couple of arms, which lift when the screw is turned into the cork and are pushed down again to remove it, was patented by Dominick Rosati in 1930.

Such is the growth in screwcaps that in 2016 only 70% of wine bottles were sealed with natural cork. However, in these days of heightened environmental and sustainability concerns, there are signs that cork might by springing back. Studies into various forms of stopper suggest that on most tests of environmental impact, cork is the most environmentally friendly. For oenophiles, there are also concerns that other types of stopper do not provide as tight a seal, enhancing the speed at which the wine oxidises and reducing its drinking life. Perish the thought.

I suppose it is a question of ‘you pays your money, you takes your choice’. Someone who did pay their money was an anonymous bidder at an auction in Essex in November 2014. What they got for their £40,000 was a corkscrew some of whose parts were made from metal salvaged from London Bridge when it was demolished in 1831.

I do not think we have seen the last of the corkscrew just yet.

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How to buy a bottle of fine wine good enough to pass down as an heirloom

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From floral and fruity gins to wines that you can drink without a pang of conscience, we've rounded up some of the best new drinks on the market, perfect for an al fresco drink as the height of summer approaches.

No brown paper bag required

Without doubt one of the best-looking bottles on the off-licence shelves, Bathtub Gun has long been on the Country Life ‘must try’ list. It was worth the wait for what Master of Malt call an ‘extraordinary award-winning gin from Ableforth’s’. It really is cleverly balanced with juniper and citrus, but also more unusual notes such as cardomom and coriander. Plus, there’s that fabulous brown paper bag packaging, which shouldn’t matter but… well, it’s all part of the fun.

Priced at Bathtub Gin — £31 — see more details.

Truly guilt-free wine

If you ever feel bad about cracking open another bottle, Sea Change wines have the answer: environmentally-conscious wine, with plastic-free bottles, corks and labels, plus a donation for each bottle to a charity that battles plastic pollution in the oceans. They’ve been selling a red and a white for a while, but the new Provence Rosé is really rather fantastic. It’s full of flavour and fruit, with notes of grapefruit and pineapple, but without any excessive sweetness — ideal for summer.

Priced at Sea Change Provence Rosé — £15.99 (£13.99 each for 6) — see more details.

It’s 6 o’clock somewhere

British-Indian chef Romy Gill came up with this drink along with the 6 O’clock Gin company — and it’s really quite unlike anything we’ve tried before, in a good way. There are strong mango and lime notes which are powerful but well balanced — it’d play havoc with cocktail recipes, but on the upside it makes a standard G&T into a cocktail in itself. Recommended.

Priced at Romy’s Edition 6 O’clock Gin — £38 — see more details.

Fine wine from… Romania?

Romanian wine sounds like the sort of thing that would set up a joke on Only Fools and Horses, but we’re told that the nation’s tipple is ‘having a moment’ — a moment which includes this Sorcova Pinot Grigio finding its way onto the hallowed booze shelves of Waitrose. We’d back their buyers up: it’s tropical, refreshing and strong with just enough acidity.

Priced at Sorvo Pinot Grigio — £7.79 from Waitrose (currently 25% off) — see more details.

The bit on the Venn diagram where gin meets heavy metal

There’s no getting away from it: the frankly hilarious label on Cait Sith gin looks like an album cover for a 1980s heavy metal band. Throw in the rather funky name — which sounds like a character from one of the Star Wars prequels — and we were intrigued upon uncorking. We needn’t have been: this tipple from Colonsay is utterly superb, with subtle hints of orange and vanilla which really lift it above the norm. As you’d hope: the it’s very pricey at £40 for a 50cl bottle.

Priced at Cait Sith Gin — £40 for 50cl — see more details.

Time for a… rum and tonic?

The idea of putting rum in your tonic (or should that be the other way around?) is a bit of a tough sell to lovers of the classic G&T and the Cuba Libre alike. Yet this is worth a try: it comes across like a G&T with an unusual zing that’s unexpected and different. Union also suggest this a cocktail of 50ml of the rum, 20ml passion fruit puree, 30ml fresh lemon juice and 15ml vanilla syrup, garnished with passionfruit. If any of those were in stock for home delivery, we’d have given it a try. Let us know what it’s like if you manage it.

Union Lemon & Leaf Rum at £34.95 from The Whisky Exchange — click here to buy.

This week, the phrase 'be careful what you wish for' comes back to bite both of our corona-correspondents.

Our writers Rosie Paterson and James Fisher — who have both, one way or another, ended up alone for the duration — are sharing slices of their lives.

So far they’ve revealed the rules of cycling, ranked musical instruments (and not in a good way), gone to the pub, shared tales of curious robins, video chat and little old ladies winching shopping through windows. You can catch up on all their columns here.

Wine writer Matthew Jukes spent years looking for a decent zero-alcohol alternative to wine — and in the end decided to start making his own. He tells the story of how he did it.

It seems a strange thing for a wine writer to devote himself to something other than the real thing. Country Life’s taste test of Matthew’s ‘Jukes Cordialities’ drinks found them unusual and intriguing, if a little disconcertingly different at first sip — but certainly worth a try for those who are looking for a non-alcoholic option which doesn’t involve sugar, carbonation or both. 

We wine writers are a funny old breed.  Infamous for using non-grape-based terms for describing the flavour of our beloved grape-based drinks we have an unfortunate habit of baffling wine lovers and confusing amateurs with our sometimes florid descriptions of taste.  I find that using too many disparate terms can put people off and so I tend to stick to where the wine is made, who makes it and what it goes with, from a food point of view, but there is no doubt that the story of each wine needs a reference to flavour, too, to help people out.  The main problem is that wine does not taste of grapes!

A few years ago, I set out on a mission to make a series of genuinely delicious, adult, alcohol-free drinks which would do the same job that wine does on the aroma, palate, aftertaste in the hope that they would work perfectly with all styles of cuisine when you wanted to swerve a bottle of wine for whatever reason.   People are more conscious of their health these days and more people are teetotal than ever, particularly in younger age groups.  My philosophy was not to necessarily aim entirely at non-drinkers but to provide health-conscious low calorie, sophisticated drinks for those drinkers with experienced palates something to drink on their days off.  But where does one start with a challenge like this?

My eureka moment came when I made a list of all of the wine flavour descriptors I had used in my 34 years in the wine business and set about blending these fruits, vegetable, herbs, spices and flowers together to attempt to come up with drinks which were every bit as complex as the finest wines imaginable.

While this might sound rather romantic, in reality, it was anything but.  I found a wonderful lady called Sylvia who is an expert in making smoothies, veggie shots, ginger drinks and all manner of healthy, well-being-centric delights.  She agreed to help me with the research and development stage of my quest.  I hopped on my motorbike and drove the four miles from my house in Battersea, in south London, to her studio in Camberwell to kick off this sensory odyssey.

Whizzing backwards and forwards, for nearly a year, tasting, refining, re-blending and tinkering, like a liquid Willy Wonka, I inched closer and closer to making a drink whose perfume was beguiling, whose flavour was complete and rewarding and, crucially, whose ‘finish’, to use a wine term, was long, dry, fine and memorable.

The miracle ingredient in this drink is organic apple cider vinegar which can draw out the flavours and perfumes of any ingredient which you soak or ‘macerate’ (another wine parallel) in it.  The apple cider vinegar forms the backbone of the Jukes series of drinks and from this framework, I can ‘hang’ all of the stunning fruit, vegetable, herb, spice and flower ‘notes’ which make these drinks sing.

Who would have thought that a couple of years later, after deliberating over packaging, boxes, labels and all of the other details which seem so straightforward but which, in reality, also take so long to finesse, I now have a brand new series of drinks which are somewhat unique in their packaging, message and flavour.  In addition, I now spend much of my time talking about drinks which do indeed contain blackberries, plums, lemons, cucumber, peach, raspberries, strawberries, apples and the like.  It certainly makes a difference from trying to explain why a Sauvignon Blanc tastes citrusy or a Syrah has lashings of blackberries and cracked pepper!

You can see more about Matthew’s drinks at his website, www.jukescordialities.com.

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The 1980s staple is back, but with a newfound restraint and delicacy.

The nights are drawing in, the temperature is plummeting and your finger is hovering over the switch to put the central heating on. So how about a nice gin to pick you up?

Where gin meets the mysteries of the Orient (and now also the Occident)

Those looking for something a little different in their gin might very well have come across Opihr (or OPIHR, as they rather shoutily refer to it), a spiced gin that contains ‘hand-picked botanicals from along the ancient Spice Route.’ This phrase is, of course, a masterpiece of marketing, since despite what The Jetsons told us decades ago, pretty much all botanicals are hand-picked, and the spice routes cover pretty much anywhere between Paris and Beijing. Still, it makes the gin sound suitably exotic, and that’s half-way to making it taste exotic too.

There is now a ‘European Edition’, which comes in a gloriously pretty bottle which works brilliantly to magnifiy the back of the label to make it seem that a map of Europe is floating inside the liquid itself. The European version is ideal for a Negroni, seemingly 2020’s cocktail du jour, but it’s also remarkably good simply served neat over ice.

£26 from Amazon

Does apple-infused gin count as one of your five a day?

When is a gin not a gin? The London-based distillery 58 Gin has come up with a pair of new gins, English Berry and Apple & Hibiscus. Both of them push at the edges of what you’d expect — partly because the juniper notes take a back seat, partly because the distiller avoids sugar or sweeteners to create more of a fruity feel. The berry edition is best suited for cocktails and coolers, but the apple and hibiscus makes a fine, and rather different, G&T.

58 Gin English Berry and 58 Gin Apple & Hibiscus, both around £34 from masterofmalt.com

Gin’s most beautiful bottle?

One of the most remarkable things about the gin revolution of the last few years is how so many far flung distilleries have turned their hand to creating interesting gin. The Isle of Harris Distillery is a case in point: theirs is infused with ‘sugar kelp’, which we won’t pretend to have heard of before seeing it on the label of what are perhaps the prettiest gin bottles on the market.

They’ve now pushed the beauty of their bottles a step further by asking a ceramicist called Rupert Blamire to create these limited edition earthenware versions, the ‘Cèilidh bottle’. In terms of the gin itself it’s not cheap at £45 for 35cl, but the bottle makes this a very handsome present indeed — so much so that they’re struggling to keep up with demand.

£45 for 35cl from harrisdistillery.com

If this gin were in the army, it would be one of those near-retirement types with endless medal ribbons on its chest

If the 58 Gin duo above veer away from traditional gin, Thomas Dakin steers us right back: this is a classic London dry gin, named in honour of the young distiller from Warrington who founded a distillery that evolved in various directions to produce gins including Bombay Sapphire and Greenall’s.

Beyond the usual juniper and orange peel there are slight peppery notes too — rather surprisingly, a tiny dash of horseradish (referred to as ‘red cole’ on the label) is among the ingredients. It’s won dozens of medals in various gin competitions around the world — and we’re not a bit surprised.

£28.99 from simplywinesdirect.com

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Make sure you've got the right recipe for your sloe gin batch this year. Ours is tried and tested!

Make perfect sloe gin this year with our ultimate recipe.

Of course you should really make your sloe gin 12 months in advance – so anything you make now should be ideal for this time next year. If this is your first time, we’ll forgive you for cracking and jumping in sooner than that… but do try and keep some for next year – it only improves.

And if you can’t find any – or enough – sloe berries? You can use the same recipe with damsons, or other similar fruits.

Top tip: When you’re picking from the blackthorn bushes do beware of the prickles…they still catch the most experienced pickers out.

Ingredients

12oz of fruit (350g)
3 oz of caster sugar (75g)
1 bottle of gin (75cl)
A small dash of almond essence
A couple of jam jars with good, tight-fitting lids (sterilized and cooled preferably)
A jelly bag
Decorative bottles for eventual storage

– – –

• Wash the sloes in warm water, and remove (or drown!) any hitchhikers in insect form that may have made their way to the sink.
• Using a sturdy needle (such as a darning needle) prick each fruit a few times, and divide the spoils between the two jam jars.
• Put half the sugar and half the gin (or as much as will fit) into each jar.
• Add a couple of drops of the almond essence to each one.
• Close the lids tightly and store in a cool, dry, dark place.
• Give the jars a good shake each day, until all of the sugar has dissolved.
• Leave to mature for at least three months – but don’t let the fruit spoil, so no more than six.
• Taste for sweetness, and add sugar if necessary/preferred.
• Continue the ‘daily shakes’ until all of the newly added sugar has dissolved.
• Carefully strain all the liquid through a jelly bag and decant into decorative bottles. (Don’t forget to label!).

Now the gin is ready to drink – but is best left to mature for a bit longer (a couple of months) – it will now keep indefinitely.

Don’t throw the sloes away after you’ve drained them – they are now deliciously sweet and can be covered in chocolate and eaten with ice-cream, or as a post-supper treat.

– – –

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This time of year usually sees hundreds of thousands of people descend upon Bavaria to celebrate — er, well, we're not quite sure, but at any rate they drink lots of beer. So what better time to take a look at some of the best new brews on the market?

It’s like one of those selection packs of chocolate bars you used to get at Christmas, except for beer

Any time the normal rules of life get turned upside down there are winners and losers — and booze delivery companies have had a bumper 2020. One such is Beerhawk, a London-based firm which sells beers of the world from a warehouse in Stamford. They go slightly Oktoberfest crazy even in a normal year, as you might imagine, but this year they’ve got a series of packs which include specially-brewed festival beers, and they’ll even throw in one of those giant beer steins to add to the authenticity. They even have one set with a couple of steins and some t-shirts — though, sadly, no lederhosen. Perhaps that’s an idea for next year chaps?

The beers themselves are very decent German beers covering a range of Teutonic brewing styles, all of which are (thankfully) a world away from the terrible lager you’ll find in most English pubs. All are good, the stand-out is probably the Ayinger Festmarzen. Or maybe the ABK… but then again, the Hofbrau was excellent too…

£20 for five beers and a 0.5l tankard; £35 for 10 beers and a 1l stein; or £55 for 18 bottles of beer, two 1l steins, two t-shirts and some beer mats. The £35 set is probably the sweet spot…

The closest you’ll ever get to drinking a Black Forest gateau

Okay, so that headline isn’t quite accurate. You could put an entire Black Forest gateau in a blender or smoothie maker and drink the results. But I don’t think it’d taste as good as this effort from the London Beer Factory. They have actually described this beer, ‘Zia’, as ‘Tiramisu Pastry Stout’ — an eye-catching name, with an even more eye-catching ABV of 9.2%.

Yet it is sweeter and more substantial than a tiramisu, and (for our money) rather more delicious. Plus the whole Black Forest thing links in to this week’s Oktoberfest theme rather well. And just like a real Black Forest gateau, you can pick one up at the supermarket — they’re selling this outlandish stuff in Tesco at the moment.

£3.50 for a 440ml from Tesco

If bees drank beer, this is what they’d go for

I’m not sure there’s a product on the planet that doesn’t have a honey-flavoured variation these days — I blame Burt for putting it in his shampoo. Anyway, if you’re a lover of honey notes in everything, be prepared for a real whack of the flavour in these Hiver beers — far more so than in, say, Fuller’s Honey Dew — and that makes it a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it beer. Well worth a try.

£1.80 for 330ml from Sainsbury’s

Work Ethic finishes at 5pm on Friday

There was a time when seeing that beer came in a can was enough to suggest that it probably wasn’t much cop. Those days are long gone — even in great little breweries such as Firebird in West Sussex, cans are now taking over. But grab a glass, pour it out and any lingering resistance you might have will probably disappear when you sip this staggeringly fruity IPA, which is something like a cross between beer and lightly sparkling grapefruit juice.

£43.20 for 12x 440ml cans

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If you haven't already started Sober October... well, you've missed the start, but it's never too late.

Macmillan Cancer Support have long run fund-raising campaigns tied in to October, and are suggesting that even a 14- or 21-day cessation of boozing could do you good and help raise money for a very great cause.

Apparently 24% of the adults in the UK admitted to drinking more in these coronavirus-hit months (presumably the remaining 76% simply didn’t admit it) so having a few weeks off is well-advised. We’d encourage anyone to get involved.

But that leaves the thorny problem of how to scratch that boozy itch. We’ve tested some out and picked out those which really help you not to feel too deprived.

Gin-free juniper juice?

Warner’s have made some really wonderful gins (particularly their elderflower) in recent years, so we were curious to see what their new alcohol-free range would be like. They’ve been making them at their same HQ as the gins (Falls Farm in Northamptonshire) and have apparently spent two years tinkering to get the recipes right — and it’s time well spent, since we’re happy to report that they are very good indeed.

It’s difficult to describe just how: the ‘Juniper Double Dry’ mixed with a dollop of Schweppes tastes nothing like gin and tonic, yet there’s something… well… gin-and-tonicy about it. They’re also making a ‘Pink Berry’ which was overtly fruity without any cloying sweetness; it feels like it would probably make a great starter for a mocktail.

Warner’s Juniper Double Dry and Pink Berry 0% Botanic Garden Spirits, £18 for 500ml

It’s not free and there are no stars in it

I’ll be honest. Hopes were not high when popping open a tin of Freestar beer. For starters, it sounds like a car driven by a Donald Trump supporter. And secondly, alcohol-free beer, to put it bluntly, is almost always pretty awful. Well, what a shock this turned out to be — in a good way.

Rather than being brewed and then having its alcohol removed, it’s apparently blended or some such — but frankly you won’t really care about such technicalities. It’s a deliciously good IPA-style lager with a hint of citrus, and for our money far nicer than the likes of Becks Blue or Bavaria. They even have a social conscience: they’ve decided to sell their beer half-price to NHS workers in recognition of the heroics of our medical workforce in 2020 — not just for a few months, but in perpetuity.

Free Star beer, £24 fo 12 cans (£26 for 12 bottles)

Stands the clock at ten to three, why does this gin taste like tea?

Gin has taken over the world, of course. But tea? Really? Tea? Well, not quite: there’s no actual distillation or alchohol involved in the Isle of Harris Distillery’s Gin Tea. Instead, they’ve used the same ingredients (or ‘botanicals’, as gin makers love to call them) that they use in their gin to produce this infusion. There’s juniper, Scottish sugar sea kelp, bitter orange peel and cassia bark, among other things.

The result is a tea that has a pleasant, smoky taste and an almost peppery kick. You wouldn’t drink it all day, every day, but it’s certainly a fun one to try.

Gin Tea, £7.95 for 100g (loose leaf)

Hits of spritz

The bottle alone is almost enough to win you over with Wilfred’s Spritz: it’s got a real 1980s vibe that reminded us of the old Tia Maria adverts. It’s a bittersweet orange and rosemary flavoured aperitif that’s designed to be served with tonic and ice to approximate a classic Aperol Spritz — something it achieves with plenty of flavour and without any excess sweetness.

Wilfred’s Spritz, £18 for 500ml

Putting the ‘tea’ in teetotal

The inventors of the very Japanese-looking Saicho Sparkling Tea are the very un-Japanese sounding Charlie and Natalie Winkworth-Smith, but there’s a nice story behind it. Natalie — who is originally from Hong Kong — is intolerant to alcohol, turns ‘red as a tomato’ if she touches a drop, and always felt left out at parties where everybody was sipping Champagne or Prosecco.

The couple created this range of sparkling teas to put an end to that. Very nice they are too; try the Jasmine; it’s floral, delicate and deliciously refreshing – once you get over the fact that your tea is cold. And fizzy.

Saicho Sparkling Teas in Jasmine, Darjeeling and Hojicha — £7.99 per 500ml bottle

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The prickly juniper bush has been in decline for decades, a worrying development at a time when gin is soaring in popularity. Vicky Liddell takes a look at the history of this fascinating plant, and discovers that it's making a comeback on Surrey’s North Downs.

On the vertiginous slopes of Box Hill in Surrey, Andrew Wright, National Trust countryside manager, is examining the contents of an aggressively prickly bush. He is checking on the progress of the aromatic berries of the juniper (Juniperus communis), which, despite being one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last Ice Age, has been in steady decline over the past few decades.

Southern counties have experienced losses of between 60% and 70% and, in some regions, the species has disappeared altogether. Box Hill on the North Downs, the scene of Jane Austen’s imagined picnic in Emma, was once a stronghold, but, even here, its Juniper Top and Juniper Bottom sites are worryingly diminished, with no young plants and only a few ancient bushes remaining.

‘Juniper has everything against it,’ explains Mr Wright, who describes it as ‘a bit of a diva’. Female plants will often fail to catch the pollen when pollutants block off their receptors, seeds must first be eaten by birds and then go through two frosts. We need at least 30 plants to ensure a healthy population and milder winters are proving to be a problem.’

Juniper berries.

In 2014, help came from an unusual source when Neil Beckett, owner of Becketts Gin, came up with a proposal to help finance the propagation of 200 juniper seedlings in return for harvesting some of the juniper berries from the Duke’s Area, where there are still about 60 bushes. Every October, Mr Beckett collects about 500g of berries, which are divided up between conservation and gin production.

‘The homegrown berries give the gin a unique tart flavour, but raising the seedlings has proved quite a challenge,’ says Mr Beckett. ‘The first year’s seeds were unviable, but subsequent harvests have improved and with luck, in a few years, the new bushes can be planted out on Juniper Top.’

In other parts of the country, the charity Plantlife has set up its own juniper conservation project and, in 2010, local seeds were sown at 30 sites, bare ‘scrapes’ where the top layers of soil had been removed. ‘These are the conditions that juniper would historically have experienced, with periods of heavy grazing followed by periods of reduced grazing, and so far the results are good,’ explains Trevor Dines, the charity’s botanical specialist.

From about 8,000 seeds at each site, the work has produced between 50 and 70 healthy ‘teenager’ bushes, each about 2ft–3ft tall and bursting with berries. Plantlife now hopes to help landowners in other parts of the country unlock the secrets of juniper management, too.

Scotland and the North are faring better, except in the Lake District, where a fungus is attacking the roots. The largest population in the UK can be found at Porton Down, a protected important plant area in Wiltshire, where periods of artillery use have churned up the land and imitated heavy grazing.

Surprisingly, for a species that is so precise in its germination requirements, the juniper will grow happily in very different habitats, from cold rainy sites on acid soils in the North to hot, dry, chalk downland in the South. Bent by wind and trimmed by browsers, veteran bushes become gnarled and twisted, taking on Tolkienesque shapes.

The small berries are actually modified cones that slowly turn from bright green in their first year to the familiar dark purple in their second. The bushes are also very slow-growing, typically only adding 1½in–2in every year, but can live for about 100–120 years and often longer.

Given the relative difficulty of cultivating it, then, how did juniper become the key ingredient in gin? It turns out that humans and juniper berries have had a long association. Most famous, of course, is the flavouring the shrub brings to gin, first distilled in Holland in the 16th century. (The Dutch for juniper is genever, which became Anglicised to ginever and then to gin.) Used whole, the berries lend a bitter crunchy bite to game dishes, and were traditionally used to flavour bread and fruit cake in the North of England.

The link goes back much further than that, however. The ancient Greeks consumed juniper berries during Olympic events, in the belief that they increased stamina, and the Romans valued them as an economical substitute for black pepper.

The earliest recorded medical use of juniper berries dates from an Egyptian papyrus of 1,500bc, where they were suggested as a cure for tapeworm infestations, but their most significant historical use was as an abortifacient. Juniper berries are known to stimulate contractions of the uterus and this may have led to the Victorian belief that gin could be used for the same purpose (hence ‘mother’s ruin’) and, as noted in Richard Mabey’s Flora Britannica, pills made from juniper were still being advertised discreetly as The Lady’s Friend in the mid 1980s.

Juniper, ‘the savage tree’, has accumulated many local names: aiten, aitnach, melmot and horse savin, which is still used in Herefordshire, where juniper perked up horses as a form of veterinary medicine. The shrub is rich in folklore and there’s a long-standing belief that it can avert evil influences. A juniper planted by an elder was said to catch witches and, in Wiltshire, a juniper branch in a beehive would protect the hive from magic.

Dreaming of picking the berries in winter was a sign of prosperity and, in art, the shrub was a symbol of purity and chastity, because of the way the thorny needles protected the berries, as in Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de’ Benci.

In the Lake District, where juniper formed the basis of a successful business producing charcoal for gunpowder, its sticks were used as a base for haystacks and, in Scotland, its low smoke output made the wood a popular choice among illicit 19th-century Highland whisky distilleries keen to avoid detection by the local excise man.

‘Saving juniper will have a good effect on biodiversity,’ predicts Dr Dines.

‘In only a few years, a scrape can become home to a whole succession of chalk-downland flora, including orchids, kidney vetch, horseshoe vetch and cowslips.’

Juniper shield bug, one of many species that lives on juniper trees.

More than 40 species of fungi have been associated with juniper, as well as some 50 insects, including rare species such as the juniper shield bug and the juniper carpet moth.

‘Juniper may be the panda of the plant world,’ concludes Dr Dines, ‘but I’m optimistic that we can bring it back to the places where it traditionally existed.’ That’s certainly worth raising a glass of gin and tonic.

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Warner’s Christmas Cake Gin

It’s beginning to taste a lot like Christmas

There’s a fine line to be trodden when blending a flavoured gin. Too gin-like and you leave people wondering why they didn’t just get a ‘normal’ gin; too sweet or flavoured and it can seem sickly or gimmicky. Warner’s are among the best at walking the tightrope — and though their Christmas cake gin packs in the grin-inducing flavour, it never crosses the line. Not cheap, but hard to imagine a more fun mid-morning starter-for-10 tipple on Christmas Day.

Warner’s Christmas Cake Gin, £38 from the distillery, M&S or Ocado

The Dalmore Whisky

Dalmore delight

When the tasting notes for a whisky cite not just blood oranges, but a specific type of blood orange (sanguinello, since you’re asking) you know you’re in the upper reaches of the distiller’s art — even before you’ve seen the price tag. Christmas is a time to enjoy things that are very special indeed — and for a real connoisseur of the Water of Life, The Dalmore’s 2003 and 2006 bottlings, being sold via Harrod’s, are quite astonishingly good.

The rarity and £1,500 price of the 2003 vintage suggest it’ll more likely be laid down to appreciate rather than popped open to drink (a shame, but understandable) yet the 2006 is a much more reasonable £200 and still hopelessly good, with a sticky toffee pudding note in the finish which would make it a truly perfect post-Christmas dinner dram.

The Dalmore 2003 and 2006 vintages, £1,500 and £200 respectively

Craft Gin Club membership

Why give one bottle of gin when you can give 12?

Once you’ve signed up for your Country Life subscription, you might want to consider other subscriptions too — such as this club membership, described as ‘the ultimate gift for gin lovers’. Monthly boxes (or bi-monthly, or quarterly if you prefer) are sent out, each containing a bottle of gin, mixers, garnishes, cocktail recipes plus the ingredients to make them and various other bits and pieces.

Craft Gin Club gift membership from £149 for 4 boxes, £440 for 12

Tarquin’s Figgy Pudding Gin

And we won’t leave until we’ve drunk some

Tarquin’s Cornish Gin has been winning a reputation for some time now, but this year they’ve really branched out into all manner of interesting special editions. There’s blackberry, blod orange and a slightly insane 57% ABV ‘Navy-strength’ edition they call The Seadog. For Christmas, though, it’s their Figgy Pudding Gin which will catch the eye. It’s an unusual mix of Christmas pud with gin, and just as sweet and quirky as you’d imagine — just like the pud itself, great for a taste even if it wouldn’t top your list the other 51 weeks of the year.

Tarquin’s Festive Figgy Pudding Gin, £36

The Emissary Prosecco

I’m forever drinking bubbles

There’s always something waiting in the wings to take over the booze world. Today, it’s gin; but not so long ago it was prosecco that was the drink on everyone’s lips — and as producers battled to keep up with demand, there were undoubtedly some pretty nasty examples pumped out onto the market. It’s refreshing, then, to see producers and suppliers bringing a bit of quality back.

‘The Emissary’ in question, incidentally, is a wine merchant named Ed Smith, who travelled Italy to find some decent sparkling wine. He spent his time well: both this Extra-Brut and the Prosecco Superiore (which costs a couple of quid more) are delicious, low-sugar and cost about half what you’d pay for a comparable Champagne.

The Emissary DOC, £14.99

Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin

It’s… errr… what mixed with gin?

Yes, yes — we know this Australian gin sounds weird. But honestly, it’s absolutely worth a try — think grapes rather than wine and it all sounds less freaky. There’s almost a sloe gin vibe as the hint of Shiraz comes through into the gin flavours. It’ll also lend a wonderful rich colour to cocktails, and is very good mixed with bitter lemon.

Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin, £35 at Waitrose

One Sage & Apple Gin

A gin to knock the stuffing in to you

When trying to produce a Christmassy gin, the obvious is probably to go with sweet treats — so kudos for the bravery of One Gin making this distilliation using traditional turkey stuffing ingredients. Shockingly, it works really incredibly well — flavoursome without any cloying sweetnes and a lovely depth to the flavour. Really good stuff.

One Sage & Apple Gin, £38 from Tesco, Amazon and elsewhere

Yuletide Gin

A glass of Christmas sparkles

The curiously-named That Boutique-y Gin Company produce dozens of different types of gin — you can even get an advent calendar purely of their creations — but this must rank among the most weird and wonderful. It’s immediately striking thanks to the gold leaf flakes floating within, but they also flavour it with frankincense and myrrh, as well as anything else Christmas-related they seem to have been able to put their hands on: gingerbread, nutmeg and even Christmas tree needles. Utterly bonkers and it split opinion in testing, but one of our guinea pigs proclaimed it to be ‘like drinking a mince pie’.

Yuletide Gin from That Boutique-y Gin Company, £34.95 for 50cl

Old and Rare Whisky Advent Calendar

High-rollers only need apply

The whisky connoisseurs at Drinks by the Dram always come up with interesting Advent calendars, but they’ve really pushed the boat out here. 24 wax-sealed miniatures are contained within — the web link here has the contents if you don’t mind spoilers, but there are some truly extraordinary things here (as you’d hope, for the price) including several 40-year-plus aged single malts.

The Old and Rare Advent Calendar from Drinks by the Dram, £999.95 from Master of Malt.

Millionnaires’ Shortbread Gin Liqueur

Ready to give up alcohol yet?

From the top end of the price spectrum we come to the other end: Aldi’s selection of gin liqueurs come in at under a tenner. There’s a Northern Lights liqueuer that shimmers appropriately green in the right light, when given a shake; and a Millionaire’s Shortbread Gin Liqueur that’s almost comically indulgent. Not things you’d want to drink regularly, but great stocking filler fun.

Millionnaires Shortbread Gin Liqueur, £8.99 from Aldi

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