A dark tale of dancing and drinking

How pretty she looked in her new, sparkly red dress! She was so excited to be going out to the local dance and, as she was celebrating her 21st birthday, she was enjoying a glass of today’s WINE OF THE WEEK, the beautifully structured, supple and sumptuously smooth 2016 Gaston de Veau Shiraz (£8, M&S).

Its luscious tangy palate was dominated by ripe blackberry flavours before a lingering finish with notes of oak and spice in a medium-bodied red which was a fine accompaniment to her birthday dinner of lamb chops and garlic fries.

As she was doing her hair, her mother burst into the room and told her that she couldn’t go to the dance.

She had spoken with the vicar who was convinced that the devil himself would be on the prowl tonight.

Juliette nodded her head in reluctant agreement but the second her mother’s head was turned she sneaked out.

When she arrived at the dance all the boys gazed longingly at her for she was so radiant in her new dress.

They fought to dance with her which was highly unusual as Juliette had hitherto been regarded by the villagers as a plain sort.

After a few dances, she decided to sit one out and relax with a glass of the fresh, fragrant and gloriously refreshing 2016 Brancott Estate Pinot Grigio (£8, Sainsbury’s).

This lively New Zealand white bursts with sharp lime and juicy melon flavours alongside grassy aromatics with backnotes of almonds. And who doesn’t love a drop of Pinot G when they’re out dancing?

Or, if you’re sitting in, enjoy it with a mildly spiced chicken curry.

A tall handsome stranger with a neatly trimmed ginger beard and a fine head of bushy red hair beneath his fine Panama Hat, falsely claiming to be the renowned critic and bon viveur, Raymond Gleug, approached Juliette and asked her to dance.

The poor girl, bowled over by his outrageous sexiness and intoxicating fame agreed, the band started playing and soon she was dancing better than she ever had before.

The crowd gasped as the stranger spun her round and round, faster and faster. Juliette’s feet felt hot and the floor seemed to be melting beneath her.

The stranger, still claiming to be Gleug, spun her faster still until a cloud of dust flew up, hiding them both from the sight of the awestruck crowd.

When the dust settled, there was no sign of Juliette.

The stranger bowed to the crowd and vanished.

Yes, the vicar was right, for the devil had indeed come to the party and he had spun Juliette all the way down to Hell. Woouuuhhh!!!

Dance carefully at your Hallowe’en parties this weekend and beware of impossibly handsome strangers wearing Panama Hats.

Till next week, tipplers, sante!