On the grapevine

More miss than hit: It seems that every celebrity has their own wine or gin, and Gary Barlow is the latest to put his name on the wine shelves. With bold lettering on the bottles and a motif of piano keys, the wines stand out in appearance. The wine inside the bottles is slightly less appealing. The grapes are organic, from Castilla in Spain, and have been put together by the people who look after Kylie Minogue and Ian Botham’s excellent wines.

But something is missing. The white wine is perfectly fine, simple and easy drinking, while the red has a little more character with sweetish red fruit and a hint of herbs on the finish. But they are a bit like lift music. Perfectly fine while you are there, but not memorable.

They should be around £8 a bottle, but Morrisons has them on offer at £6.

Global wine drought: It is the kind of headline that makes everyone dash out to the shops and stock up. Given the current economic and pandemic situation, that is not a bad idea but there are genuine warnings of shortages of some wines. The New Zealand harvest is down by around 30 per cent, Napa by 25 to 40 per cent and some champagne producers have suffered catastrophic losses. But there are always other parts of the world keen to get their products out in the global market. South Africa has lots of wine, so head in that direction, and Australia has its Chinese market blocked, so there is hope they can spare us a few bottles. Stock up and enjoy your wine, but there is no need to panic buy.

Make merry: For those who like to plan ahead,

Firth & Co has published its gift brochure so you can send alcohol-infused Christmas presents to your loved ones. My favourite is the Very Merry Christmas Case with Champagne, Sancerre, reds from Bordeaux and Tuscany, together with a bottle of Tokaji and a box of fudge – all for £255. www.firthandco.com