New Year - new you?

It’s a media mantra at this time of year – a diet and exercise regime to create a whole new person out of that lump of lard that has spent the best part of two weeks either parked in front of the TV or eating – or both at the same time.

Yet just a few short weeks ago those same newspapers and magazines were bombarding us with images of decadent desserts and indulgent Christmas treats to gorge ourselves on over the festive period. This invitation to fatten ourselves up like the livers of foie gras geese followed close on the heels of exhortations to get ourselves thin enough to sparkle in our Christmas party gear.

But now the pendulum has swung back again and we are made to feel guilty for giving into the temptation of all those high-fat treats washed down with a glass or three of wine. Now the talk is all about denial and detox so that we can release that fitter, svelter, younger version of ourselves that we have been doing our best to disguise in a fat suit in recent weeks. Before we know it we’ll be measuring the circumference of our thighs with a fatuous smile on our faces as the weight drops off.

Gawd help us, are we really such mindless hamsters on a wheel, that we respond automatically to whatever stimulus is put in front of us?

And am I really going to peddle wine, those cocktails of empty calories and evil alcohol, at this time of year? Hell yes, January is bad enough without depriving yourself of the occasional glass of something.

The Drinkaware website is full of useful, if rather downbeat, information on alcohol and its effects, including the number of calories contained in a glass of wine. Their statistics are based on a 250ml glass of wine, ie a third of a bottle. This amount of wine containing 13% alcohol provides 200 calories and constitutes 3.3 units of alcohol. And no matter how fruity the wine, it does nothing towards your five a day.

I would like to make a couple of modest suggestions based on this information. First of all, 250ml is a lot of wine to have in a glass. You might think, just one glass is fine, but at 3.3 units of alcohol that is already in excess of the recommended drinking guidelines for a woman (which is no more than 2-3 units a day). Whether those guidelines have any scientific validity and whether there is any such thing as a “safe” level of alcohol intake are hotly debated questions  - which I do not intend to debate.

Here is a small illustration of what 125ml and 250ml look like in the glasses I generally drink from at home. What immediately strikes me (other than the fact that my wine has gone blue), is that the bigger measure doesn’t look anything like twice the amount in the other glass.

If you tend to pour something closer to the glass on the right, it might be a good idea to measure 125ml in a measuring jug and see what that looks like in your own wine glasses, so that you can get in to the habit of smaller measures. You can still have your glass of wine, but you’re not blowing more than 3 units in one go – and your calorie intake is kept down too. A 125ml glass of Champagne (almost always 12% alcohol) constitutes a single unit of alcohol and a more reasonable 86 calories (the equivalent of a chocolate digestive biscuit the helpful bods at Drinkaware inform me).

Lower calorie and lower alcohol wine options

I’m a full fat milk kinda person and instinctively shrink from anything that is a light or low fat version of the real thing. I would always rather choose a small amount of what I really like, rather than lots of something that doesn’t quite hit the spot. So if I were to be counting the calories in my wine, that 125ml of Champagne looks good to me.

However, there are also a number of wines who advertise their lower alcohol and lower than average calories. Generally they are made from grapes are picked earlier than usual, so sugar levels start out  lower than in fully ripe grapes. Many of the finished wines also have quite a bit of residual sugar, ie not added, but sugar that was already present in the grape juice and which remains after fermentation.

Bella Sauvignon Blanc 2011 - £9.99 from Taurus Wines (Bramley)

A lower (9.5%) alcohol version of one of this country’s favourite wine styles – Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. I have actually tasted this wine and it slips down easily with bags of fruit, juicy acidity and is definitely off-dry. All fair enough, but don’t go looking for complexity with this kind of wine. 90 calories for 148mls.

Jacob’s Creek Cool Harvest – RRP £8

Jacob’s Creek have a range of wines including a Sauvignon Blanc and a Shiraz rosé with alcohol levels of 9.5-10.5% and clocking in at 100 calories per 120mls.

If your tastes are more on the bone dry side, then make friends with Australian Semillon. Most famously grown in the Hunter Valley, Semillon makes for intensely limey, crisp and bone dry wines with modest alcohol levels.  Young wines are incredibly fresh palate-sharpeners, but Semillon also ages beautifully, developing toasty, lime marmalade flavours with more time in bottle. Try Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Hunter Valley Aged Semillon as an example, which has 10.2% alcohol and 114 calories per 125ml glass.

And don’t worry if counting calories and units is getting you down, the media pendulum will soon swing back again as we head towards Valentine’s Day, accompanied as it is by a tsunami of chocolate and pink fizz.  Come April and Easter means more chocolate…. closely followed by the anticipation of summer and a raft of regimes to get your body bikini-ready. Back to our wheels, hamsters.

Pies and Prejudice

It's been quite a fortnight for women – it was International Women's Day on 8^th March, which fell in the middle of National Pie Week. How can half the planet's population be worth only a day, yet a pastry-based food item merits an entire week? Both of those momentous events may have passed you by (put them in the diary for next year now), but the big one is still to come: this Sunday, 18^th March, is Mother's Day.

Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday, as any bar-room bore will tell you, did not originate as a way for grateful offspring to reward their mums for 364 days a year of thankless toil by giving them a lie-in, a card, a box of chocolates and a Richard Curtis DVD.

In fact the Mother in question was the “mother church” and it was a tradition for Christians in Medieval times to return to worship at their home church on the middle Sunday of Lent. Travelling back to their birthplace also presented families with a rare opportunity to reunite at a time when many children left home to work, or marry, often at an early age. It's a small imaginative leap from these beginnings to the habit of presenting your own Mother with a present at the same time.

So much for the origins; it would be a brave son or daughter nowadays who would leave their poor mum with no flowers, chocolates or lunch at the pub, insisting that Mothering Sunday is nothing to to with her. Mums are generally a pretty tolerant bunch when it comes to the foibles of their nearest and dearest, but, come their special day, woe betide any offspring who don't play the game.

What should you do to make your mum feel special? You don't need to throw money at the problem and even if you are strapped for cash there are still plenty of ways to spoil your mum without even having to open your wallet.

The sound of someone else doing the hoovering (as long as it doesn't disturb one's lie-in) is music to the ears, as is the soapy slap of a son or daughter wielding the mop on the kitchen floor. And don't forget to do all the washing up if you offer to cook Sunday lunch.

With just a couple of quid to spend, a bunch of the cheapest cheery daffs and a homemade card are always welcome.

If money is not so tight, then good chocolates can be yours – oops, I mean hers. Chocolates are very much personal taste, but even the most discerning chocolate connoisseur will be impressed with the quality of Hotel du Chocolat's offerings. They have a branch in Guildford (and instore at John Lewis in Kingston) and, while not cheap, they are definitely what is technically known as a bit special.

However, if your mum is anything like the ones I know, a bottle of something special is not going to go amiss. Regular readers may recall that I assembled a crack team of mums last year in order to road test some pink fizz, tasted blind.

Without re-hashing the results in their entirety, I'll summarise here: Moët et Chandon Brut Rosé NV and Veuve Clicquot Brut Rosé NV (which will set you back somewhere between £30 and £40 depending on where you shop) both had their fans and came top overall. However, a very creditable runner up was the bargain-priced Jacob's Creek Sparkling Rosé (widely available at around £10, but currently £8 at Sainsbury's). Its easy-going, creamy red fruit and gentle fizz won over the jury that night. However, in case anyone from my own family is reading, my particular favourite was the Veuve Clicquot Rosé. Just sayin'...

On the whole I am not a believer in “wines for the ladies” as distinct from wines that appeal to men. Here then, is a selection of wines for current drinking that have impressed me recently and would be perfect for any wine-loving mum (or dad).

Trimbach Riesling 2009 - £10.99 at Majestic

Riesling is the great grape variety that wine writers want you all to love, but you just won't. It's a mystery. Is it the tall bottles? The risk of it being sweet? Who knows. Please have a crack at this one, from Alsace in eastern France: it's dry, but gentle with nicely integrated acidity; the flavours of citrus and a certain stoniness linger. Sauvignon blanc drinkers: do yourselves a favour and give it a go.

Camel Valley Atlantic Dry 2010 - £11.95 from Camel Valley's online shop or £13.50 from The Wine Society

Something tells me that English wines are going to be big this year. This could be your tipple of choice at any Jubilee street parties come June. Don't worry too much about the slightly spooky-sounding varieties in here – Bacchus and Reichensteiner, plus some more familiar Chardonnay. Focus instead on the lovely fresh, floral nose and deft, grapefruit-y palate. This would be a delight with posh fish and chips.

Humberto Canale Gran Reserva Pinot Noir 2009 - £15.95 at Great Western Wine

Argentina and wine generally mean two things: Malbec and Mendoza. However, down in the cool and wetter far south of Patagonia, there is a wine growing area where cooler climate varieties such as Pinot Noir thrive. This Gran Reserva has had plenty of oak thrown at it, but this does not obscure the beautifully smooth pinot fruit. A wine that it is all too easy to love.

2011 review: my best bits

If you're feverishly searching for last minute Christmas wine recommendations – and you really are cutting it fine – then please have a look at my previous two posts on this blog.

In the caring sharing spirit of Christmas, I offer here just one nugget that could save your bacon. If you seek the perfect wine match for Christmas pudding, then look no further than Moscatel de Valencia, a ridiculously under-priced dessert wine from Spain. Its luscious sweetness with an orange marmelade edge makes the pudding sing. Sainsburys' version is just £3.98 a bottle. If you're quick you might just make it...

This column is devoted to a review of the best bits of 2011. Here, in no particular order, are my personal highlights of the year:

• Tasting top class Aussie Rieslings courtesy of Jacob's Creek at “wine workshop and kitchen” 28-50 in London. The 2005 Steingarten Riesling was the highlight, but Jacob's Creek Riesling Reserve 2010 was pretty delicious too: fresh and lively (and limey), floral but dry – a great palate cleanser.
  
  
• A Bollinger Grande Année masterclass, with chef de cave Mathieu Kaufmann, where I learned that I have expensive tastes when it comes to Champagne. Bollinger Grande Année Rose 1996 was my favourite, if you're reading this, Santa. Completely beguiling, luxurious stuff which, sadly, I can't afford.
  
  
• Marcelo Retamel, Chilean winemaker (at the family-owned De Martino winery) and Iron Maiden fan, describing his return from the Dark Side of wine-making. Tasting the first vintage (another 1996) of his single vineyard Carmenère was a delicious reminder of how good wine can be when allowed to mature without the added glitz of selected yeasts, new oak and other winemaking frippery. Look out for the 2010 vintage of the Alto de Piedras Carmenère when it arrives at the Wine Society, which marks his return to the more natural style of winemaking that characterised that first vintage back in 1996. 
   
• I can't honestly remember what the exact bottle was, but drinking fizz in spring sunshine at our Royal Wedding street party felt both modern and traditional at the same time.
  
  
• Meeting Chester Osborn, legendary Australian winemaker at d'Arenberg and infamous wearer of loud shirts, and his collection of wine-themed fluffy toys at a wine “speed tasting”. His Money Spider Roussanne 2009 was one of my favourites at the whistle-stop tasting.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tasting Tio Pepe “en rama” at Bar Pepito in King's Cross (a must for sherry lovers) and then seeing how well it stood up to their excellent range of tapas. The summer weather may have been a let-down, but that day was a true taste of the Mediterranean. “En rama” is a special, full-flavoured, unfiltered bottling of Tio Pepe that sells out (mostly to those in the know in the wine trade) almost as soon as it hits these shores. The classic Tio Pepe, however, is widely available for around a tenner.
  
  
• Getting to grips with the new face of Portugal's Vinho Verde at a fascinating tasting this summer. I learned that Vinho Verde is not green and doesn't have to be redolent of soluble aspirin – and it can also be red! 
   
• Buying an exotic-looking liqueur in France over the summer, only to find it was none other than that British Christmas stalwart, sloe gin. Equally nice served cold in the summer, I can helpfully tell you.
  
  
• Spending three footsore days working at the London wine trade's annual fair in May – but my reward was to be responsible for encouraging visitors to taste a great selection of interesting, individual and delicious wines from Southwest France.
  
  
  
• The taste of Graham's Malvedos 1958 single quinta port – still looking and tasting good at 50!
  
  
• Tasting Zind-Humbrecht's Rangen de Thann Clos-Saint-Urbain Gewurztraminer 2009 at the first dedicated biodynamic wine tasting in London in November. Olivier Humbrecht (Master of Wine and PhD) has managed to create a perfect marriage of grape variety to terroir making for an unforgettable wine experience.
  
  
  
  
  
• Seeing how Hunter Valley Semillon ages (well, it turns out) courtesy of a vertical tasting of Neil McGuigan's Bin 9000 Semillons back to 1997.
  
  
  
  
  
• Drinking nothing but Champagne for 3 days (OK and some water) during my first study tour of the region.

Life could be worse! Wishing you a suitably merry time over the next couple of weeks. See you all in 2012.