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Paula's Wines of the Week with Mature Times

Details: 21 July 2008 8:00pm

Paula My new weekly wine column Paula's Wines of the Week for Mature Times website maturetimes.co.uk is now live. Each week I’ll be finding and recommending tasty wines. And if these have been marked down by a couple of pounds a bottle, even better. Because good wine needn't be an expensive business, but working your way through the bland and disappointing can be. That's where I come in.

Bargain Wines of the Week

Details: 14 July 2008 12:40pm

wine pour Despite the recent duty increase on wine there are still some good bottles to be found that cost the same as a couple of National Lottery tickets. The £3.99 and under price range is dominated by German wines and 3-litre boxes, where you pay more upfront but the equivalent bottle price is always less than you'd pay for a separate 75cl glass bottle.

Marmalade recipe for bears and writers

Details: 9 June 2008 8:00am

oranges Paddington bear is celebrating his fiftieth birthday. Yes it's been five decades since the Peruvian immigrant with a love for marmalade sandwiches arrived at a certain railway terminus and took up residence with the Brown family. Their housekeeper, Mrs Bird, instinctively knew that bears need plentiful supplies of that bitter-sweet breakfast jam if they're to maintain the shine on their fur. And so a message was sent to the local grocer for top up supplies. How times have changed. Now finding and purchasing a decent pot of marmalade suitable for south American bears and Wiltshire-born writers with a penchant for chunky, dark and sour marmalade is virtually impossible.

England's green and pleasant wine

Details: 27 May 2008 10:59am

Chapel Down Bacchus It's English Wine Week, so of course it must be raining. That pretty much captures the essence of what it's like to be an English winemaker - great when the sun shines but for the other 300 days of the year it's just plain hard work getting grapes to ripen in less than ideal conditions. Luckily newer cross-bred grape varieties make it easier to produce an end product surpassing New World competitors.

Three quid bargain wine

Details: 25 May 2008 2:15pm

Mont Tauch label Many wine experts predicted the extinction of the three pound bottle from Britain's supermarket wine aisles following the Chancellor's recent duty increases. But rummage among the expensive named chateau in the 'French' wine aisle of your nearest Somerfield supermarket and you'll find a great bargain hiding behind a sepia monstrosity of a wine label. Mont Tauch Corbières 2006 may not look much from the outside but the young and vibrant wine inside will get you excited.

Got the Blues

Details: 21 May 2008 10:35am

Blue Nun Merlot The red was fruity and pleasant, but not something I’d want to pay more than £3.99 a bottle for. The dry rosé tasted of strawberries, but little else. Both had an easy-drinking nature which hinted that they might be French or Italian. But I was only half right. France and Italy make good mass-market wines and, yes, that red turned out to be a French Merlot. But the rosé was Spanish – and there’s a good chance you’d find them both on the shelves under ‘Germany’. Because these two wines are branded Blue Nun.

Roll out the port

Details: 24 April 2008 6:38am

Stilton cheese Stilton is one of those cheeses you either love or hate. Looking rather too much like a cheese that's been left at the back of the fridge too long, it's blue veins will either inspire fear or a reverential delight. If it's only the smell that puts you off then you'll have no problems entering this May Day's Stilton Cheese Rolling Championships taking place in Stilton, the Cambridgeshire village that made the cheese famous.

Think cake, think beer

Details: 16 December 2007 8:00pm

Manns Brown Ale Xmas December's recipe ingredient favourites of rum soaked raisins, thick almond marzipan and rich royal icing need matching with an alcoholic beverage of equally tasty proportions capable of standing up to their intensely rich flavours. Sweet sherry, Marsala or sugar-laden dessert wines will certainly match Christmas cake and other seasonal puddings, but if you're looking for something a little bit different why not get in some premium bottled beers instead?