It is one of life’s most pertinent questions in my humble opinion. Sometimes you can wake up in a good mood, look outside and say, ‘Well at least it’s not raining’ and just like that you feel as though you are perhaps ‘beating the winter blues’. It makes me wonder; how did we get the ‘winter blues’ in the first place? Is it because, generally speaking, in northern Europe over half of our days in a year are overcast? Or maybe because it rains A LOT? Or perhaps because it’s just bloody cold. This year in particular could be a...

Post-Christmas Bargains (January) It’s that time of year again, “New Year New Me” or “Dry January” it’s just awful… We as human beings have decided over the previous decade that we’re all going to treat our bodies better, I kid you not there has been quite a rise in people going to the gym, in people eating healthier and more balanced diets hence “Veganuary” (I still can’t get over that name!). It is testament to ourselves that after years of the general population eating and drinking whatever we want that we are now trying to change, I am sure like...

May the fourth be with you…. Yes indeed this is a reference to the unofficial holiday celebrated by all Star Wars fans....now I am not a closet Storm Trooper or Trekkie... but I am partial to a good bit of Sci-Fi and was surprised at the supposed first use of the above phrase in print.  Do you know? (and do you care?)… Back in 1979, none other than the great Margaret Thatcher was supposedly welcomed into office by a congratulatory message saying… “May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations." The message was reportedly placed by the Conservative party in a London Newspaper…. now there are a...

Spring has Sprung! The clocks went back a while ago, the first buds of spring are now bunches of flowers and the sun has arrived for our typical English summer (April). So traditionally it’s out with the old and in with the new! At Red Bottle Towers we have worked ceaselessly over the cold winter months to find some new wines to tickle your taste buds. Not just ordinary wines, when tasting a few hundred at various tastings with our major importers, these had to shock us out of our reverie by their personality, quality and charm.  This winter there...

An evening with Daenerys! This winter it has been ferociously wet and windy outside and I am cold! A feeling that most of us have in the UK between 1850 and 2016…. Oh! well ok… maybe just October to March each year…. So what do you do?         Better still, what do you drink? This winter Harry finally decided to bow to popular opinion (he’d ignored mine) and catch up with Game of Thrones. So we found ourselves more often than not getting in early from work, far too early for ‘She’ and therefore a fire was lit and we...