Paula Goddard

The German winemakers Black Tower are using this week’s ‘biggest-ever wine category review by a supermarket’ to launch their new red Dornfelder Pinot Noir. This light red wine will increase the Black Tower range from the current two whites (Rivaner and Pinot Grigio) and a rosé made from Portugieser and Dornfelder grapes. Among the other 369 new wines on Tesco’s shelves is a white wine from South Africa’s Arniston Bay sold in a resealable 1.5-litre plastic pouch.

Wine writer Malcolm Gluck announced today that he's been forced to concede defeat in his attempts to get his wine-ratings website Superplonk up and running again. In a personal email to Superplonk subscribers, Malcolm explained its loss had been a huge personal blow but didn’t say why his website suddenly stopped working several months ago.

Italian scientists have discovered music helps grow healthier plants. The classical music of Mozart, Haydn, Vivaldi and Mahler relayed from an iPod to vines through 15 speakers was found to have a positive effect on shoot growth. Sangiovese grapes growing near the speakers had a greater number of leaves per vine than those growing in a silent area of the Tuscan vineyard Il Paradiso di Frassina.

Barbecues and subtle, delicate wines do not go together. To compete with the rich smells and flavours of barbecued food you need a wine with dark fruit and chocolate notes, so forget about whites and rosés – think instead of robustly-flavoured reds.

Matching wine to a lettuce and herb salad, whose only coating is a grind of salt and pepper, is easy - almost any white or light red wine will go. Finding a wine for a salad dressed in oil or vinegar is a little more difficult.

James Pimm, owner of an oyster bar in Victorian London, designed his Original drink to wash down the oysters. This house blend, known as a ‘cup’, included ingredients common to many bars or pubs - gin, soda, lemon, sugar, quinine and spices. What these ‘spices’ actually are is still a trade secret, supposedly known to only six people, but probably includes Seville (bitter) orange peel, cloves and cinnamon; giving Pimm’s Original Cup a taste of orange, Madiera cake and milk chocolate.

Put away your corkscrew, wine is available on tap. Look around the wine section of your average supermarket and you’ll see 800 different bottles and 30 wineboxes. Clearly more people buy wine in bottles but they are missing out on the great advantage of buying wine in 3-litre boxes - no corkscrew is required. To pour a glass of wine all you need do is push open a plastic tap.

My new weekly wine and drink column Drink Up... With Paula Goddard for Sky’s website livingit.com is now live. You can already read my thoughts on rosé, red and elderflower wines; matching wines with barbecued food and salad; champagne and strawberries , golfers’ wines , wineboxes and Pimm’s .  Each week I’ll be looking at a topical wine issue and recommending wines to try.