Thinking about winter drinks

It seems such a long time ago that you were sitting in the sun happily slurping down the local vino and thinking 'I could stay here doing this forever' - the sun warming you skin and turning it a healthy brown, if you're lucky, and all's well with the world. The grim truth is that it's grey, wet and very windy outside as I write this piece and sun, sand and chilled wine seems that lifetime away.

So it's not so much of a salad that's in mind - more like a tasty homemade lamb or beef stew and a fire in the hearth. There's always a sort of nostalgia that runs through me when I sit down to stew, a remembrance of the communal spirit at home when all the family sat around a steaming crock pot. Truth is it wasn't always a cosy atmosphere but that's the way I choose to remember it. Mind you dad never said 'anyone fancy a glass of wine with this stew?' - it would have been luxury if the glass of red was Tizer!

However a first class stew can be part of entertaining and its simplicity often leads to a more enjoyable occasion since guests seem to acknowledge it as a rather less formal occasion than a five course 'do' - and wine can certainly make it more fun.

Because a beef stew is so rich - well it is the way I make it - it's not always easy to chose a wine to serve with it because you'd really want it to work with the meat and with the aromatic vegetables. A light red would be overpowered and something with a real thump might overpower the food. So for a stew that's got a load of 'goodness' in it - the beef, winter veg like carrots, parsnips, turnips etc with a few handfuls of onions and celery I'd suggest something with a real fruity flavour like a cabernet sauvignon or perhaps a cotes du Rhone. The plus is that you can also make the wine part of the original recipe.

Moving on to a classic Irish stew of unbrowned lamb cooked with onions and potatoes then you'd best serve a crisp dry white that will have enough alchohol to stand up to the fatty lamb - perhaps sauvignon blanc or a white Bordeaux.