Paula Goddard

Thanks to all all paulagoddard.com readers who entered the Win tickets to The Wine Show competition. This competition has now closed. Take a look to see if your name is among the 10 winners of pairs of tickets for The Wine Show on Sunday 28 October. If your name isn't listed, don't despair - why not enter my new competition to win Black Magic's new range of dark chocolates.

If you've just started an evening class in wine appreciation at your local adult education centre and don't know what to say when the course tutor asks the inevitable “so what do think this wine smells of?”, then have a read of my column on livingit.com. Hopefully you will be taught by a knowledgeable wine tutor like Pamela Brown, a tutor with the Kent Adult Education Service, who took over the teaching of my existing wine courses when I was moving to Warwickshire in 2006.

If your evening class in Wine Appreciation has inspired you to organise your own wine tasting at home, then you'll need to get some kit together. Buy yourself some Premium Large Wine Glasses from Morrisons (4 for £3.99, in 228 of their 371 stores). Not only are these glasses excellent value, their shape is almost identical to the those recommended by the International Standards Organisation for wine tasting professionals – their tulip-shaped bowls capture any wine aromas released when the wine is swirled prior to sniffing and tasting. To help you keep track of all the wines you taste why not use my free wine tasting sheet? Comments and criticisms on its design from the many wine tasting students who have used it during my wine courses has left a, hopefully, user-friendly A4 landscape wine tasting sheet.

Today sees the launch of the Co-op's first own-label Fairtrade Reserve wines, a white from South Africa and a red from Argentina. The grape growers receive a guaranteed Fairtrade price for their crops and additional money from the Co-op to help fund social projects - a community centre and mini bus for the workers at the Du Toitskloof vineyard co-operative in South Africa's Western Cape and a new water pump for the La Riojana wine co-operative's well in the Famatina Valley, Argentina. Reserve status means the two new wines are priced at £5.99, £2 more per bottle than the Co-op's 12 other Fairtrade wines – but are they worth it?