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Fancy a drink? Lucy Corry raises her glass to the week's best buys.
CAN WE SEE THE WINE LIST?
Once upon a time, ordering a bottle of wine in a restaurant was fraught with tension.
The sommelier would reverently lay the leather-bound wine list on the table - invariably in front of the man - and screw his face up in a disapproving fashion if you dared order from the lower end of the price scale. Woe betide if you didn't swirl the wine in the glass properly or 'nose' it in the correct fashion.
Even now, when the bottle is brought to the table, I invariably get the giggles and think of the Fawlty Towers scene where Basil presents a bottle of wine to the hotel inspector.
When he tells Basil the wine is corked, the erstwhile hotelier explodes with rage. "Of course it's corked," he shouts. "That's how I got the wine out of the bottle and into the glass!"
Times have mostly changed for the better now and you can usually count on most restaurant wine lists having reliable - and reasonably priced - options.
It can be hard not to be intimidated when you're out of your dining comfort zone, but Spaniard Alvaro Marcos Garcia, head sommelier and wine buyer at Theo Randall at London's swanky Intercontinental Hotel, says that sommeliers aren't out to trick unsuspecting diners or extract hard-earned cash from their wallets.
Alvaro, winner of the 2007 International Sommelier Challenge, is responsible for a 160-strong list at the critically-acclaimed Italian restaurant and can tell a bad wine from 100 paces.
He has some surprisingly straightforward advice for those who start to shake when a lengthy wine list appears.
"Don't be afraid if you don't know what to have, just tell the wine waiter what sort of wine you like," he says.
"If you like wine from Spain, or fruity white wines, tell them. That way they can start to narrow down what you might like and you can go from there."If your choices are influenced by cost - and in these financially shaky times, only the oil barons can probably afford to drink whatever they like - Alvaro says there's nothing wrong with opting for the house wine.
"Can you trust house wine? Of course you can!," he says, explaining that house wine is often priced lower than other choices because the restaurant wine buyer has put the squeeze on their supplier.
"In good establishments the house wine will be good quality at a good price. House wine is chosen to represent the restaurant, so it makes sense for it to be good."What you choose also comes down to how important you see the food and wine matching element of a meal, he says.
"When I started as a sommelier I used to be shocked if a customer ordered, say, a sauvignon blanc if they were eating beef," Alvaro says.
"But now I think, well, if they are enjoying it, that's the important thing. It's very personal."If you feel that the sommelier is trying to push you into choosing a wine you really don't want, don't be shy to stand your ground.
"We are not here to make people spend money, we're here to give advice," Alvaro says.
"The sommelier is there for the guests' benefit - and a restaurant wants the customers to come back, so we don't want to give you bad advice."Even so, maybe you should spare a thought for the person lugging bottles to and from your table.
"Some people don't want your advice - they want to have a rioja no matter what," Alvaro sighs. "And if they want rioja, they want rioja!"What does a wine waiter drink when he's off-duty? Alvaro says his favourite wine - with food or without - is riesling.
"I like sauvignon blanc too, but if I am going out with friends, I'm happy to have beer. I'm not really that fussy!"DRINK THIS: Bumper trading results from pizza delivery chain Domino's has some pundits claiming that the credit crunch means staying in is the new going out. Here's a tip: make your own pizza and you'll save even more! Reward your thriftiness by cracking open a bottle of Altano 2005 - a juicy, very drinkable red made from port grapes in Portugal's Douro region. It's a bargain too - £5.49 at Waitrose.
LIQUID NEWS :: Believe it or not, wine tasting can be hard work - after the first dozen or so I feel like my tongue is numb and everything tastes the same.
Obviously I'm not alone, because www.decanter.com reports that Spanish scientists are developing an electronic tongue that could be more reliable and sophisticated than the human palate.
While the e-tongue is still in development at Barcelona's Institute of Microelectronics, it can already tell the difference between several grape varieties and vintages.
The device works in the same way as the human tongue and is sensitive to sweet, salty, acidic, sour and savoury (umami) tastes.
Experts think the e-tongue could be useful in detecting fraud by identifying dodgy substances added to wine to improve its quality.
:: Drinking cocktails and saving the world at the same time might sound a bit dubious - but the people behind award-winning Whitley Neill Gin reckon it can be done.
The premium London dry gin, which has the fruit of the iconic African Baobab tree as a signature botanical, donates 5% of the proceeds of each bottle sold to Tree Aid, a UK-based charity that supports African communities in the sub-Sahara.
To do your bit, try making a King Solomon's Cooler: squeeze a wedge of lemon and one wedge of lime into a tall glass. Add ice, 40ml Whitley Neill Gin and 50ml pressed English apple juice, then top with lemonade.
Whitley Neill Gin is available from Waitrose and Oddbins, priced £16.99. Other stockists include Booths, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and http://www.drinkon.com/.
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