An Occasional Tipple: Revealing the secrets of wine and love

Every day. For the rest of your life.

Shortcomings becoming evidence of your utterly selfless love.

Proof of how wonderful (or foolish) you are.

I mention this because you can apply the same test to wine.

I fell in love with wine because its beauty fascinated me so; it made me feel happy and relaxed and went so nicely with my evening meals.

I relate to it nowadays because I too, like a good wine, seem to be getting better as I grow older.

And I still love wine despite the fact that it has occasionally made me feel sick, weak and ashamed of myself; it has caused me to say things that I have later regretted and made me appear like a fool with purple lips and a purple tongue.

Yes, it's exactly like love.

Most recently, a tantalising drop that has tested my love most pleasingly has been today's WINE OF THE WEEK, the taut, bone-dry and very elegant 2023 Dom Maxwell Riesling (£11.99, Naked Wines).

This sophisticated New Zealand white has a complex palate with well-judged minerality alongside hints of mandarin, honeysuckle and peach.

One for a mild, creamy seafood curry.

Of course, a true test of devotion should leave you with purple lips. Your partner can then prove their love by kissing them.

Step forward today's second recommendation, the brash, bold and full-bodied 2022 Kumala Shiraz (£6.75, Tesco).

Dark jammy fruit flavours combine pleasingly on the palate before a lengthy finish with beguiling notes of earthy spices.

One for juicy, succulent lamb chops.

If you take the view that meat is murder, just remember that while your partner's penchant for eating dead animals may seem disgusting to you, it's also an opportunity for you to prove how much you adore them by somehow looking past it.

Love is as polymorphous as it is splendid.

Have yours with a cauliflower steak instead maybe?

Looking past it is also the best answer I know to the age-old question of what love is.

Seeing the same face every morning, hearing the same moans and groans, tolerating the same irritations, day after day and year after year and somehow looking past it, that is ultimately what love is.

Luckily, I don't have that problem.

I'm frozen in the 'I love you because' stage with my wonderful wife, the redoubtable Madame G.

She's so great!

You’re probably not quite as lucky as me.

Look past their faults, acknowledge their virtues and while you should always look before you leap in matters of business, in affairs of the heart or the bottle you just take your courage in your hands and dive right in - that's the trick.

Till next week, tipplers, sante!