AN OCCASIONAL TIPPLE: Sumptuous suppers with lovely low-calorie wine

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat... Please put all your pennies in my Panama Hat! For only Raymond Gleug can tell you where the best wine's at. And since I'm actually feeling quite flahulach at the minute, you can even hold on to your pennies.
Raymond GleugRaymond Gleug
Raymond Gleug

You’ll find plenty of other outlets for your meagre income, I’m sure.

For example, you could channel some of your pennies and pounds towards The Wine Society (www.thewinesociety.com) who are currently offering a wide range of Christmas gift ideas (wine, spirits, puddings, food and wine hampers etc) which are well worth checking out.

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One that caught my eye was their Wine champions of 2017 for £99.

This is a selection of top 12 wines as blind-tasted by their buyers, some of whom have palates almost as discerning as my own, from a selection of hundreds of bottles.

That should keep your festive parties rocking till the early hours.

Of course, all the over-eating and drinking that will happen in December can be detrimental to one’s health and wellbeing, I pondered to myself, while enjoying a sumptuous repast of chicken livers, onion, mushroom and carrots in a creamy, garlicky, white wine sauce, served alongside some very buttery champ, all lovingly prepared for me by my devoted wife, the fabulous Madame G.

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You see, the deliciously succulent chicken livers didn’t have a single ounce of fat on them.

“Chickens don’t drink alcohol and so they don’t become fatty and get alcohol-related illnesses,” I reasoned.

They get to go to the slaughterhouse instead in perfect health with happy hearts.

Thankfully, my Madame had carefully matched the livers with today’s WINE OF THE WEEK, the fresh, fragrant and ferociously crisp 2017 Sumika Sauvignon Blanc (£7.50, M&S). With only 50 calories per 100g glass, it has less than half the calorie count of most wine.

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This delicate, complex and bone-dry South African white white is only 8.5% alcohol but doesn’t compromise on taste.

It is brimfull of peach, zesty citrus and elderflower flavours on the palate before a tingly, discreetly acidic finish.

Oh, it’s not quite beetroot juice, I know, but it’s a start...

Which conveniently takes me to where I must finish today.

With a promise not to mention the dreaded C word to you for at least another fortnight.

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As for flahulach, which I know you’ve been wondering about, that’s a word which my father, the erudite Cornelius Gleug, occasionally uses meaning generous, flash with the cash etc.

It comes from Gaelic but I’m trying to bring it into more common usage locally.

By my reckoning, if we can bring enough of these Gaelic words across, there’d be no real need for an Irish Language Act. How’s that for peace and goodwill?

Till next week, tipplers, sante!