Stop. Date check. It’s 2011, non? And yet I’m still rarely passed the wine list unless Mr B gestures for the waiter to do so. It makes me wonder when I’m out with my girlfriends how staff decide which one of us looks worthy of being handed the wine list. What qualities do they look for within the group? The one with the largest nose? The one that looks like they earn the most? Wine savvy or not when it’s just us girls they can’t fall back on the usual indicator of what is or is not between our legs….

With this in mind I’m manning up. Not in a stuff my trousers sort of way or by quoting equal rights the next time a wine list is swooped into Mr B’s hands. Non, this month I’m manning up my wines, I’m talking wood, full bodied, oaky wines that stand up and get noticed and can’t fail to be taken seriously. Au revoir light and floral, delicate whites and pinker than pink summer rosés. This season I’m drinking manly wines, wines that won’t pull their punches and are so fantastically complex that you’ll be left in no doubt as to who’s wearing the trousers. ………

When you think of Portugal what springs to mind? If you asked Mr Bouquet he’d say golf and sand, if you asked Brother Bouquet he’d say stolen wetsuits and surfing. And if you’d asked me even a couple of years ago I’d have said Mateus rosé and post A-level sun. But for most in the wine-know, unsurprisingly, they’d say Port and corks, and with good reason. The country’s cork trees account for 50% of the world’s total cork production, and of course, Port can only be labelled as such if it’s made in Port-ugal!

Without doubt, in terms of growth in reputation and excitement Portuguese still wines have become the next big wine thing in the UK. ………

Every January London’s streets become a training track for the Christmas over indulgers and crazy London marathon runners. After April the pavements are cut some slack but come May a swathe of women take to the streets. Have you noticed? They’re all a similar age, all desperate to tone up & lose some weight and all sporting a diamond or three on their left hand. Beware the Bridezilla’s!

It’s a horrible term isn’t it? Bridezilla. A cross between a bride and an oversized gorilla, ………

The last of the summer wine…. is it that time of year already? My bikini has yet to see the light of day & my consumption of rosé hasn’t peaked since Christmas, yet the *crunch* of pink screwcaps opening, which has long signalled the sound of the summer wine, has been unusually quiet this season. Surprisingly though I’ve realised I’ve not actually missed it.

Amongst the wine trends I’ve been enjoying over the last few weeks – including a renewed interest in chilling red wine (hands up those that heard me on the radio talking about that one?!) and the rise and rise of the delicious wines of Portugal (more on that next time) – a general nonchalance towards the nations favourite summer wine had passed me by. ………

I’m a huge fan of Stylist magazine, and used to love the Lucy Mangan Out Spoken columns. I think we have some things in common, like her dismay at other people’s reaction to her not taking her husband’s name. As I prepare for my own wedding, I’m experiencing the same looks of bemusement and pity (the first at me, the later at him). But one rip-out-and-keep column has long stuck in my mind; she addressed her dislike of people who proudly proclaim their ignorance of certain things. “Why be proud of your lack of knowledge about anything!” she exclaimed. As a wine professional, I’m always amazed at how excited people get when they hear I work in the wine trade but you’d be surprised how often their enthusiasm is followed by a confession of how little they know about the subject!

Let’s get real for a minute; ………

A new wine app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch has been launched by wine blogger Miss Bouquet. My Wine Friend offers consumers a platform to build a ‘notebook’ of the wines they’ve been drinking, enjoying – and those they haven’t liked. It allows users to take photos of, write their own tasting notes on, and rate wines using a star system – a tool designed to ultimately help general wine consumers get to know their own wine tastes.

The creator of Miss Bouquet explains: “When I started my blog two years ago, I wanted to write about wine in the way I speak about wine when I’m out and about with friends, not in wine trade talk. The research I’ve done shows that consumers who enjoy wine want to know more about it but they don’t necessarily want to join a wine club, subscribe to a wine magazine or pay to go on a wine course, the app has been designed to reflect that, it’s about the we live now and the way we drink now. ………