Wow – January is NOT a good time to give up wine! I wonder how many of you made a resolution on the 1st? And how many of you are sticking to it?
I’m finding it really difficult – even though I know all about Healthy Ways to Drink – I still find myself craving an extra glass or two after a hot day.
Quite apart from cutting down for the sake of my health and weight, I also need to cut down for the sake of my wallet which took a severe hammering over a 3-week holiday in the UK. I think a lot of people feel that way as well, so I have decided to split all my wine recommendations into 3 categories this year, to make it easier for you to manage your drinking spend.
‘Budget’ is going to be the first category and I shall be concentrating on wines under R40 – if I can find any good ones, then it will be less.
‘Everyday Drinking’ will be the next category for wines between R40 and R75 – ones that it is nice to sip and savour, but which won’t scare the bank manager.
And then there will be ‘Top-notch’ for those occasions when you want to splash out, give as a gift or impress the father-in-law – these will be anything from R75 and up, but all of them will be good value whatever they cost.
So hopefully that will make it easier for us all to buy the small amount of wine we’re all now allowing ourselves to drink!
Some fun festivals coming up
And, of course, none of this is helped by the number of awesome wine festivals coming up. Riesling Rocks, Stellenbosch Wine Festival, Robertson Hands-on Harvest, Grape-stomping at Delheim – all delicious excuses to deviate from the diet of no-wine!
And if that weren’t enough – now there are beer festivals as well! The Constantia Beer Project is running an awesome festival in February – and our fab beer writer, Martin Tucker, will be there. If you don’t yet know the difference between an ale and a lager – make sure you find out before you go!
Somehow I feel my enthusiasm for drinking less getting smaller and smaller and smaller. If only the same could be said about my arse.
Cheers!