SIBA South West Beer Competition – The Forge Brewery has won the Champion Beer of the show for the 2nd year in succession – with a different beer this year, beating 260 other beers. Full results available here. You may remember I wrote an article on it’s remarkable achievement of winning last year, plus winning Silver in it’s category at the SIBA National Finals.

Why is this remarkable?

Quite simply because The Forge Brewery is a one man band! And has only been in existence for 4 years. It is Dave Lang, some 2nd hand equipment and a lot of hard work. And it is beating all comers, from established micro breweries to some of the major players like St Austell with multi million pound investment behind them.

Last year Dave won the Trophy for Best Beer at the show for his delicious Lighthouse ale (4.3% abv). His Lighthouse took Gold in it’s category again this year, plus Gold in it’s category in the bottled ale section but failed to take the Trophy this year – because it was beaten by one of Dave’s other beers, his Handsome 5.1%! (It did still wine the Bronze Medal for best overall beer though!)

As you can imagine this has stirred up a hornet’s nest amongst the big players wondering how he has achieved such remarkable results. There is one Devon theory that it must be down to fairy dust from a nest of fairies at the bottom of the garden, but I think it’s more likely due to Dave’s diligence, sheer hard work and a real pride and passion in what he is producing. Funny how these big brewers didn’t come up with that conclusion themselves though!

I find myself writing about this on a predominantly wine website because of the similarites with wine. Here is somebody working hard to produce a quality product with real pride, just as many small winemakers do. They face the same problems in a market dominated by inferior mass produced brands with millions in their marketing budget – (which should have been spent on quality ingredients in the first place!) . It’s great to see the resurgence in micro breweries, which also sends out a message to the big players that the consumer is not prepared to put up with inferior beer any more. The same is happening with wine all over the country, but sadly I doubt we will ever be given the option to buy good quality, well made wines in the supermarkets and multiples, and sadly in the majority of the off trade too. But at least for those of us who are interested, now we can all find a quality online wine merchant and enjoy the wines we want to at home.

 I’ve tasted both the Handsome and Lighthouse, and they are both absolutely delicious (and pure!). However Dave has also tipped me off that he has produced a new pale ale that he says is by far his best beer yet! Unfortunately though, as a small operation with so much success already, he simply cannot produce enough beer to satisfy the local market, let alone enough to export it “up country”. I had planned a wine tour of South Africa for my summer holidays this year, but it looks like I will have to have a fortnight in Devon instead!

Seriously though if you are headed out that way this summer, look out for The Forge beers. A great place to try them from my own personal experience is the Westleigh Inn, at Westleigh on the outskirts of Bideford. Duncan does excellent food too! (Duncan – Free steak pie next time I’m down there for writing this!)

Which wine is healthy and best for you? With all the sensationalist, misleading headlines about wine and beer causing cancer, this is a very popular question at the moment. There are two parts to the answer – firstly which wine has actual health benefits, and secondly which wine has the least negative effects! In my usual waffling manner I’ll answer part two first.

Wine is permitted by law to have upto 80 different chemicals added. The EU lawmakers justify this by saying that wine is such a wide and varied subject with thousands of different grape varieties, unlimited different microclimates, weather patterns, producers, production methods……..that they need the flexibility to use these chemicals to help correct potential problems. Unfortunately the truth is that cheap, mass produced wines are full of these chemicals and contain high levels of sulphites which are believed to cause mouth, throat and abdominal cancers as well as asthma of course. So no mass produced wine is good for you. In fact they are likely to all be very bad for you! That horrendous hangover isn’t caused by the alcohol – it is caused by the cocktail of chemicals in the wine. If it makes you feel that bad consider what harm it must actually be doing to your body. Drink some sulphite free wine (in moderation) and you will wake up without a hangover and actually feel healthy in the morning.

So which wine is actually good for you?

There is a lot of talk about Resveratrol, nature’s most powerful anti oxidant, which is found in grape skins. Resveratrol actively destroys the harmful free radicals in your body which cause cancer. The Polyphenols are also attributed to be good for the heart, and help lower bad cholesterol. These are both found in small quantities in good red wine, so in theory good red wine is the healthiest choice. Renowned physician and winemaker Dr Phil Norrie who produces Resveratrol enhanced wines, says that “people who regularly drink good red wine are less likely to die of any cause (illness – it won’t stop you being hit by a bus!) than people who don’t”. He has researched the link between wine and health for 30 years and has had many articles pubished. However the vast majority of red wines, even the expensive ones, still have chemicals added - sulphites in particular. Even EU Organic wine, legally labelled as “wine made from organically grown grapes” as it is only the actual grape growing which is certified, still has chemicals including sulphites added at the winemaking stage. And would you believe so do BIODYNAMIC certified wines! They are permitted to contain up to 90 mg/l of sulphites!

How do you find a good red wine which doesn’t contain these sulphites?

SoLo S02 Navitas is a sulphite free red wine made without the addition of any chemical substances at any stage right from the planting of the original vines, right through to the bottling of the wine. It is 100% natural – but also a beautiful wine in it’s own right. SoLo S02 Navitas is very possibly THE healthiest wine available anywhere. You can buy it from specialist low sulphite/sulfite free wine online retailer www.goodwineonline.co.uk who have a good selection of great tasting, healthy sulphite free wines. They offer a case deal on the SoLo S02 Navitas

One glass of wine or one pint of beer a day can cause cancer – that is the headline on the news today, and is the biggest load of crap I’ve heard in a long time. Again the media are using sensationalist headlines to grab attention, at the expense of real informative journalism.

Before you read any more let me explain that good wine has many health benefits and will actually help prevent cancer (and other diseases). If you want the facts on the subject rather than the sensational headlines and media spin, read Dr Phil Norrie’s revealing factual report here.

The British Medical Journal has published a report based on research carried out by a large group of leading medical scientists who spent millions researching drinking habits across tens of thousands of people in Europe. They came up with this ludicrous conclusion. No doubt in their report it will have been written suggestively “according to our research….may lead to….in certain people….” etc, which the media will have seized on and pulled out their definitive headline! The report goes into great detail about the individuals and their habits from smoking and diet to Body Mass Index, and even many factors as bizare as whether they had ever used oral contraception! However the one key factor they clearly didn’t consider also happens to be the most important factor in the whole investigation – what did they actually drink!

To include all alcoholic drinks under one umbrella shows complete professional incompetence, and a general lack of understanding about the drinks industry and the vast array of different ingredients involved. The obvious common denominator in their research was “alcohol” so they’ve concluded (wrongly!) that it is alcohol which causes the problem. This is like researching everybody who has ever eaten a pie, then because some people have some reactions, concluding it must be the one common denominator – the  pastry - that is bad for you! All those years ago when I was in school studying chemistry we were told that finding a common link between substance and reaction was not enough, we had to find definite proof. It would seem that’s all changed then?

For those of you who may not know, wines are permitted to have up to 80 different chemiclas added, and many of the mass produced ones do contain a huge amount! In fact they are more chemical than wine! Even EU “Organic” wines and Biodynamic certified wines are permitted to add chemicals including the one that is genuinely believed to cause cancer (and asthma) – sulphites. However there are a number of well made natural wines which contain no chemical additives whatsoever, and are sulphur free. How can a professional medical body not distinguish between the two for such important medical research?

Then take a look at beer. UK brewed lagers (and even real ales) brewed on a large scale by the major breweries all have large quantities of sulphites (and other chemicals) added as a preservative. But opt for a German Pilsner brewed to the purity laws and there are none. Or have a pint from a good micro brewery and it will also likely be chemical free. How can these be compared like for like? How bad a head do you get after a couple of pints of UK brewed Stella? But have a few bottles of the Belgian one which is more or less pure……

Then take a look at PPS – “alcopops” to you and me. They are made in factories by blending different chemicals!!! I’ve watched some being made and they didn’t even have any fruit basis to them, just different tanks of chemical! Cheap spirits are the same – just a blend of cheap chemicals and industrial alcohol.

All these drinks contain significant amounts of sulphites – a preservative which killed 30 people in the USA at just one salad bar! The World Health Organisation has recommended getting rid of them finally, after the Centre for Scientific Research in the Public Interest recommended banning them in the 1970s – and were suitably ignored of course!

Sulphites are widely used on a massive scale in the food and drink industry as a preservative. They’re in virtually all mass produced drinks, alcoholic and many soft drinks like fruit juices, as well as in seafood, processed meats, crisps, dried fruits, potato products…..the list is endless, which is exactly why nobody will openly admit these sulphites cause mouth, throat and abdominal cancers as well as asthma. The truth is industry doesn’t have a viable alternative so they’re trying to keep a lid on things till one can be found. Have you noticed now, all the foods (particularly own brands) in the supermarket are converting QUIETLY to “no added preservatives”. If I was a supermarket converting all these foods for the benefit of my customers I’d want them to know I was going to this extra trouble and expense for them, wouldn’t I? Do we conclude they’re keeping it quiet for a reason? McDonalds now iuses only organic milk – did we know that?

Winemaker Dr Phil Norrie has discovered an alternative to sulphites but it is still a long way from being ready on a commercial scale. RESVERATROL  which occurs naturally in grape skins, is nature’s most powerful anti oxidant and is actively good for you. However the EU has blocked import of Dr Phil’s Resveratrol enhanced wines into the UK for the last three years! However Nestle Pharmaceutical have given him massive financial backing to develop Resveratrol as they can see the widespread opportunities for a beneficial healthy preservative in foods and medicines, rather than one that actively poisons people.

Dr Phil has been researching the health benefits of wine for the last 30 years and has had many articles widely published.  He states that “people who regularly drink (in moderation) good red wine are less likely to die of any cause”. That is in part because they contain natural anti oxidants in the tannins that help combat the free radicals in the body that cause cancer. Good red wines also contain various other natural substances which are beneficial too, as well as the alcohol which taken in moderation is also beneficial as a relaxant and to destress.

So in complete contradiction to the headline above, good red wine is not only not bad for you, it is actively good for you and actually helps PREVENT cancer, not cause it! Just steer well clear of the mass produced rubbish pumped full of chemicals! That goes for wines, spirits, beers and even foods as well.

I suggest you save this article – in 10 years time we will look back and question why something wasn’t done now, and big industry will plead ignorance as their defence.  Mark my words!

Buy gourmet meats online? Order gourmet sausages, steaks, burgers online for home delivery? YES –  that is exactly what people are now doing from companies like www.westingourmet.co.uk  I put it down to a combination of factors – the credit crunch, the success of TV programmes like Come Dine With Me and Masterchef, and even the widely publicised M&S meal deals where two people can eat for £10 – so long as they only have pensioner size appetites of course (a meal deal for 2 just about fills me up and I give the wine to the mother in law, and drink something decent from the cellar!)

Dining in is the new going out, there is no doubt about that. Restaurant prices have always been high, partly down to high running costs and taxes, but also down to greed. Restaurateurs believe they have the right to charge astronomical mark ups on wine, and food, often aiming to make 72% gross profit on retail. The paying public have now examined their spending habits to see where they can make savings, and eating and drinking out is an obvious choice.

For £20 in a restaurant you can get a bottle of wine which would retail for £5 in a shop, but for £20 on the internet you can get a bottle of wine which would retail for £25 in a shop! You spend the same amount but you get a far superior product, and much better value….and VALUE is what the whole credit crunch has brought home. People still want to treat themselves, and don’t mind spending their hard earned money, but they won’t be ripped off any more.

We all know wine sales have been very successful on the internet and this is now the favoured method for buying quality wine for the simple reasons of widest choice, accessible info and advice, best prices and next day delivery (to save lugging it home yourself). So it is a natural progression for free thinking businesses like www.westingourmet.co.uk to extend this to offer gourmet foods online too.

So is the food any good? And is it cheaper than the supermarket or local butcher?

Firstly you will only find average meat (always bright pink which steak should not be!) and fish in the supermarket as their market, as with wines, is mass produced products in large volumes. We all perceive the supermarkets to offer value too, but then when we check the price of meat in particular we note that it’s not as cheap as we thought!

The local butcher on the other hand will offer good quality produce but prices can be high. Westin Gourmet have hit the magic middle ground – top quality but at realistic affordable prices. So how do they do it? Well the one minor drawback which is essential to make the system work, is that you have to buy in volume – not half a cow or anything like that, but in larger quantities than you would pick up from the local butcher. Perhaps a pack of 10 fillets or a dozen chicken breasts. And it makes sense to buy several items at the same time to reach £75 to qualify for free delivery. But that’s very easy to do as they offer a great range so you can pick up a roast for Sunday, a pack of sirloins for dinner on Friday night and some sausages and burgers for the kids – healthy ones, made properly with actual high meat content! The benefits are of course great value, great taste and reliable ethically produced healthy meats.

I tried a few things from www.westingourmet.co.uk. In fact I’m eating a roast beef butty as I write this, made from their 100 day matured Aussie rolled topside. It was a good size so we had to cut the joint in half, then had a roast beef on Sunday with it and I’m still eating butties today!  There were two items which stood out as sensational, although we’ve only tried a few of the meats so far, so there could be plenty more to come. But their cumberland sausages were absolutely gorgeous! We normally buy ours from an award winning local butchers, but these were a different class altogether. And the smoked salmon was just incredible.

I’m a convert already. We belive in drinking good quality, healthy wines low in chemiclas and additives, and we extend this to our food too. Proper healthy meat packed with flavour and goodness. Personally I’m delighted to have discovered a way to buy delicious meats at the right price – and I can do it all from the computer. They deliver the meats next day in specialised refrigerated packaging! Give www.westingourmet.co.uk a try – you will be impressed!

There are two parts to this page. Firstly explaining the con the supermarkets use to sell inferior wine, and secondly a breakdown of the actual costs of a bottle of wine where you can see who is actually making all the money, and why you really shouldn’t buy £5 wine!

We can all begrudge the ever increasing price of a bottle wine, and naturally to save money we tend to look for the cheaper options. The supermarkets seem to have some great deals on – half price, reduced from £9.99 to £4.99 – that has to be a good deal, right?

 No!!! It is not, and here is why 

Firstly for these offers to qualify legally as a genuine half price deal, the wine has to have been on sale at one branch for at least two weeks at it’s “full” price. They get round this by giving it an obscure single facing on a bottom row virtually out of sight, in a remote store, at a massively falsely inflated price. After two weeks they then give it multiple facings, centre shelf nationwide at half the inflated price. Loooks like a great deal, but in reality the wine is now on sale for the price it should have been in the first place. In the trade this is easy to recognise because we see the same wines from the importers at the same prices year round, routinely over inflated by the supermarkets at regular intervals. It should be illegal, but the supermarkets are experts at bending the law, and they’re now so powerful the government is scared to touch them. The supermarkets work on a 35% margin on wine – this would be completely impossible with a genuine half price deal! In fact nobody makes a margin where they can genuinely offer this kind of discount. Use your head – if it looks too good to be true, it is. You are being conned.

Now onto the real price of wine!

Let’s look at some wine which will cost a wine merchant US$50 per case of 12 from the USA. That’s $4.17 per bottle, which is roughly £2.62 per bottle. Ok, so could he retail that at £5 then? On the surface you would think so, but when you look at the horrendous UK taxes you would have to double that retail price! Most winery owners are dumbfounded when I they’re told how much we have to pay in the UK. In fact although it’s the winery owner who slaves away for a full year growing the grapes and making the wine, it’s the Uk government who will actually benefit and “earn” about three times as much per bottle as the winery!!

Let’s add shipping cost from California, about 40 pence per bottle. Then let’s add UK excise duty of £1.85 per bottle, plus the customs tax of 5 pence (on wine from outside the EU). This wine is now costing  £4.92 per bottle. Now let’s add the VAT of 98 pence. So the wine is now costing the merchant £5.90

Now when he sells the wine he also has to charge 20% VAT and pay the VAT on the difference between cost and sales to the VAT man. So if he sells it for £8.99 and it cost him £5.90, he makes a gross profit of £3.09 which is £2.58 for him, and  another 51 pence for the VAT man. If he happens to make a profit at the end of the year after all his costs he then pays the Inland Revenue some corporation tax too.

So the Inland Revenue have actually made: £1.90 excise duty & customs tax, plus £1.50 VAT, so £3.40 in total. The wine merchant has made a (GROSS) profit of £2.58, and the winery has probably made about £1.

This is obviously a massive money making exercise for the government and explains why a bottle of wine is so expensive in the UK. So how do the supermarkets offer 3 bottles for £10? Well in truth those offers are more like 3 for £11 these days so let’s have a look.

At £11 there is £1.83 VAT. ON 3 bottles there is £5.55 excise duty (let’s assume these are EU wines) which is £7.38 in total, leaving £3.62 to pay for the supermarket margin of around 35% – call it £3. This leaves just 62 pence to pay for the wine, the glass bottles, the labels, the cardboard box, the transport from country of origin and UK transport.

So what is the genuine value of the wine?

Basically the wine is worth about 5 pence per bottle! Yes, that is genuine fact. It’s mass produced plonk full of chemicals. The supermarket buyers are instructed to pay no more than US$0.35 cents per bottle, labelled and packed! As you can see if you spend a little more from a bona fide wine merchant, like the £8.99 example above, you will get a wine worth £2.62, approximately 53 times more than the supermarket plonk!

It certainly makes you think what you’re putting in your body when you drink this cheap plonk. Would you eat meat or fish which cost just 5 pence? Or would you suspect it wasn’t going to be good for you…….?

The UK press have reported that counterfeit wine has been discovered for sale in numerous off licenses in the South East. The wine is labelled as “Jacob’s Creek” and is believed to be imported from China. It’s apparently being offered for sale for £2 per bottle to these off licenses – so they clearly knew it was bent before accepting it – UK excise duty is now £1.85, plus customs tax of 5p, plus vat, making a total tax charge of £2.28 per bottle!

Certain elements in China have long been counterfeiting everything from designer clothes, sportsgear, watches, handbags ……etc, but in the last few years a massive trade in counterfeiting wine has been happening for consumption in China. The Chinese have been craving the trappings of success and fine wines have great status over there – as western indulgences such as fine wine appreciation are fairly recent developments in China, the average Chinese businessman wouldn’t know a fine wine from a bottle of plonk. So enterprising Chinese criminal gangs have been buying up all the bottom end French red wine they could find, counterfeiting labels from all the classed growth Bordeaux and selling the wine on at massive profits! The trouble is the Chinese businessman is likely to add coca cola to his wine anyway as apparently they have not yet acquired a taste for it!

However this is the first report of it happening in the UK. How can they do this without paying excise duty on it? Logically they would have to produce it in the UK to avoid customs, presumably in a laboratory or factory. Perhaps the “wine” is just a chemical solution, and possibly a dangerous one. The press report said it was Jacob’s Creek labels but inferior wine in the bottle – I didn’t think we could get much lower than Jacob’s Creek mass produced entry level dross! But then if it’s a nasty chemical solution which tastes awful and is not good for you……the counterfeit wine, not Jacob’s Creek I mean! Although………..I’m not going to use this as an excuse to slate mass produced over chemicalled plonk again, so I’ll now leave Jacob’s Creek alone.

If you happen to be concerned about this, apparently the counterfeit labels contain several spelling mistakes, so even if you can’t tell the difference from the taste or the nasty chemical hangover you should be able to spot it on the label!

Well, what a massively disappointing budget for the pub trade, brewers and pubgoers alike in the UK. George Osbourne upheld the excise duty escalator (as put in place by the former Labour government) which will have disastrous effects on the industry and actually bring in less revenue for the treasury! It is estimated 10,000 jobs will be lost across the industry from breweries to pubs, so that’s another 10,000 people on benefits too! If they all receive £10,000 in mixed benefits (jobseekers allowance, housing etc.) that is an extra £100 million a year out of the taxpayers’ pockets! Not to mention the loss of revenue from 10,000 people who were actually paying into the system with national insurance and PAYE!

There were parts of the budget which seemed quite good on the surface with some free thnking ideas, such as the reduction of corporation tax. To some this would appear to be giving big companies a tax break, but in reality most small businesses are also limited companies who pay corporation tax, so this is putting more money back into their business which they can hopefully use to invest in themselves.  Cutting taxes encourages people to work harder as they get to keep more of the rewards for themselves.

Increasing taxes such as excise duty – which also has VAT charged on top! – will only penalise already struggling businesses. Historically every time the treasury has increased excise duty they have actually received less money as people consume less. It is estimated this duty rise will reduce their income by £40 million in the coming year – plus another £8 million in VAT of course.  So by my reckoning that makes us £148 million worse off, with more people out of work and more UK manufacturing lost.

So why have they done it?

The supermarkets regularly sell alcohol way below cost, make a loss and claim VAT and tax relief on the loss. They don’t care what products they use as loss leaders as they can make the difference up on another product. After all they now sell food, booze, TVs, fridges, homeware, clothes, insurance, mobile phones, garden sheds…… the list is endless. Pubs on the other hand have one main product – alcohol, with some doing food or accomodation. Increasing excise duty will hammer the already suffering pubs who have no other income stream to switch to. 25 a week closed last year, and we can expect that to increase dramatically this year. The government had the chance to rebalance the regulated on-trade and the unregulated off-trade sale of alcohol with the recent proposed minimum pricing scheme. They buckled under pressure from the supermarkets and came up with a minimum pricing structure which is completely useless and ineffective. They could have simply brought in a new tax on the sale of alcohol for off premise consumption which would have brought in hundreds of millions of pounds for the treasury and protected the 10,000 pub related jobs that are now under threat. Not to mention cleaned up the anti social behaviour on our streets, and relieved the pressure on the NHS and police. Instead they have backed the duty escalator which will cost us another £148 million per year!

The supermarkets will be delighted by this duty increase – it will further damage the pub industry and give a greater market share to them. But what does the UK government get out of it? Perhaps they believe we have too many pubs. Close another 10,000 and with the new legislation to sidestep local planning for change of use on it’s way, they could be turned into affordable housing?

The current government contains some of the most intelligent ministers we’ve seen in 15 years. I can only presume they have some end goal in mind – or is it just one sector they’re not interested in, and they genuinely have scored a huge own goal? I sincerely hope not, but right now I’m not convinced. I welcome any comment from anybody who can shed some light on this financial suicide.

Well it has hit the headlines again today – the UK Government’s underhand headline grabber which will have absolutely no benefits on all the things they claim to be aiming to improve! 6 different Medical bodies have slammed the plans for a completely useless minimum pricing structure, and have withdrawn their support for the Government on the issue.  So what is the Government’s motivation behind this shady deal?

The Issue

Of course all of us resposible drinkers would love to be able to save a few pounds on a bottle of  our favourite wine, or a pack of beer - so why should we be in favour of a minimum pricing structure?

The issue is two pronged. Firstly the health implications (and the cost of, estimated to be £23 billion), and the late night trouble caused by excessive drinking.

Secondly the demise of the local Bristish pub, being forced out of business by a combination of inept, greedy pub companies, excessive taxation from the government and stealth tactics from the supermarkets who see the opportunity to completely dominate the drinks industry in the UK – including the wholesale supply to pubs, hotels and restaurants. Yes, that’s right – your friendly Tesco is aiming to dictate which wines you will be able to order in your local restaurant! Now, that’s a terrifying thought!

What is wrong with the current system?

By far the biggest problem we have is the supermarkets and multiple retailers, who discount alcohol way below cost price to attract customers. This means that super cheap booze is widely available. In real terms alcoholic drinks have never been so affordable. As the supermarkets do not make a profit on these items they do not pay any VAT on these sales . The supermarkets also do not pay any corporation tax on these sales either, in fact they claim tax relief on the loss they make on these below cost drinks! So the Inland Revenue actaully loses out twofold by allowing this to happen. We all know the supermarkets already sidestep paying the taxes small businesses have to pay, by employing only part time staff so they do not need to pay employer’s national insurance contributions, and the employees themselves don’t earn enough to pay income tax or national insurance, and in fact get top up benefits paid for by us the taxpayer!

The drinking culture has changed in recent years, and the youth of today all “pre-load” – the new term for buying from the supermarket and getting tanked up at home before going out to the pub or club. Combined with the relaxation of the licensing hours, this has had a disastrous effect on the pub industry. Our daughter’s age group would happily booze the evening away getting ready and not even go out till nearly midnight, then expect a pub licensee to keep open all night while they spread the night out with the couple of drinks they could afford. If there’s any trouble it’s the licensee who gets the blame, although all the boozing has been done at home or in the park!

If the supermarkets (and other retailers) were forced to sell alcohol – a controlled drug – at reasonable prices similar to those in the pub, people would actually go out for a drink and enjoy the evening (hopefully fairly responsibly) rather than cram in loads of cheap booze first in private, then all spill onto the streets late at night already inebriated. Quite simply they would not be able to afford to drink so much so regularly and would benefit from a health perspective, the NHS and Police would benefit from less costs, and the streets would be a less unpleasant and hostile environment late at night.

What has the Government proposed?

The Government consulted all the major health bodies and “business” to find a solution. However in the end they completely ignored all the medical advice under pressure from the supermarkets. On the news they will tell you it was pressure from the drinks industry – it is not! The drinks industry will sell alcohol through the on-trade (pubs, clubs, restaurants) or off-trade (shops, internet etc) so either route to market will work for them. Quite simply the supermarkets are now so powerful they can tell the Government what to do!

It was recommended that a minimum unit price for alcohol of 50p be introduced. Instead the Government has said that retailers should not be able to sell alcohol below cost – defined as the “cost of VAT plus excise duty” which is bullshit. What about the cost of raw materials, production, packaging, labelling, transport, producer’s margin, retailer’s margin? It works out as low as 21 pence per unit, and will have absolutely no effect on sales whatsoever. The research company Assossia did some work on this and calculated how many deals would be affected. They studied 3667 alcohol price deals on offer in the supermarkets. How many do you think would be affected by these proposed new regulations? NONE! Not one single offer. So what is the point of paying the massive costs and wasting vast amounts of time and resources on research to bring in legislation which will never even be used?

As long as the supermarkets can dictate to industry and government we will have more of the same in the UK. More anti social behaviour on the streets, more stress on the police and NHS, more law abiding, tax paying pubs going to the wall, more mass produced bottles of chemicals labelled as wine sold to us through all routes.  And less – less VAT paid by the supermarkets, less tax paid by the supermarkets, less national insurance paid by the supermarkets, less real jobs which contribute to the economy, and more bullshit part time jobs which actually drain the economy. This Government isn’t stupid. So what is their motivation? I welcome any answers you may have!

And if you’re a part time worker in a supermarket, I’m not having a go at you. I’m having a rant at the supermarket itself. They should be giving you a full time job with full time pay and contributing to the UK economy like other businesses have to.

Not an easy headline to understand so here’s the explanation. Congratulations to Dave Lang of the Forge Brewery in Hartland, for his recent success at the Society for Independent Brewer’s 2011 UK Champion Beer Awards.

The winners of the regional heats were all submitted in their relevant categories through to the national final. The Forge Brewery Lighthouse Ale won the gold medal in the Best Bitter 4.1 to 4.5% abv for the South West Region, plus Champion beer across all categories for the show. Quite incredible for a brewery built by Dave himself by hand 3 years ago in an old shed at the back of his house.

Well he had repeated success at the national finals with the Silver Medal in the same category – the 2nd best Best Bitter in the whole of the UK! Bowland Brewery from Clitheroe took the Gold Medal in this category with their Admiral Bitter, which also took the Silver Medal for overall champion, with the Gold Medal going to a mild from Cotswold Spring Brewery. Congratulations to both of them.

Why are we focussing on the Forge brewery rather than either of these two? Simply because the Forge is a one man operation, not an established company with staff and state of the art equipment. Dave even designed and built his own refrigeration system and cask washer equipment. He does everything himself by hand, working flat out seven days a week. This is just such a remarkable achievement from one man passionate about producing a quality product through sheer hard physical work and dedication – something we have always championed in the wine world. To go up against every other brewer in the UK  including multi million pound operations such as St Austell, J W Lees, Robinsons, Shepherd Neame…..(the list is endless) and win the silver medal, is just fantastic. Dave’s beers are all natural too. Unlike the big operators Dave doesn’t add artificial preservatives to his beer, so hangovers are also rare – I know, I drank 10 pints of Hartland Blonde in one sitting and awoke as fresh as a daisy!

The bad news though is his beer was very difficult to get hold of outside the North Devon area as he simply couldn’t keep up with demand. Now with this award, it’s going to be more in demand than ever. If you’re lucky enough to pass through the area this summer keep an eye out as his beers are in the majority of the best pubs in the area. The Lighthouse is well worth a try if you get chance (obviously) but so are his other beers, and he already has other medal winners too.

Check out his website for more details.

Carlo’s Restaurant - technically Italian cuisine – is undoubtedly the best seafood and steak restaurant in Llandudno, and probably all of North Wales. Carlo only buys the best produce – wild seabass (not farmed), Conwy mussels, Anglesey king scallops – not the little tiddly ones you will pay through the nose for in London! Their Gamberoni (king prawns) are simply stunning! He applies the same strict quality controls to his meats too and buys extra mature Welsh Black fillet direct from the abatoir when so may restaurants are downgrading to cheaper cuts like ribeye. This is why the restaurant is so busy and booking is essential on a weekend and recommended even on a Tuesday in February! Oh, I nearly forgot, their homemade garlic bread is just incredible – what a difference to the cheap ready made ones his competitors use! It’s these little touches that make all the difference.

Having holidayed in Capetown for the last three Januarys he was very impressed, and inspired by the restaurants out there. Firstly their fair pricing policies – wine in a restaurant is not much more expensive than in a bottle shop. In the UK we’re accustomed to the restaurant multiplying the cost of the wine by 4 then adding the VAT! Carlo doesn’t use multipliers, he just charges a fair price, and this makes his more expensive wines in particular great value. This way he sells two bottles where a more expensive restaurant may only sell one – he makes more money and the customer gets better value, if slightly more tipsy! So simple but why don’t other restaurants do it?

Secondly he was so impressed by the quality of the top end South African wines that he has added to his superb Italian range (including half a dozen Amarones)  by introducing some top end, boutique New World wines from South Africa, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and even a couple from Australia.

He now stocks some of the very best wines from these countries including Zevenwacht, Jean Daneel, Cape Point and Jordan from South Africa – all heavily awarded by John Platter. Tapiz, Benegas Lynch, Susana Balbo and Eral Bravo from Argentina – Gold Medal winning wines as featured at the Gaucho Grill. Morton Estates from New Zealand including Decanter’s “Best Chardonnay in the World” two years running – their stunning Coniglio 2002, exceptionally rare!

There are many restaurants struggling in the current economic slowdown. Perhaps they should take note of somebody thinking outside the box and introducing something different like the new world wines at Carlo’s, priced sensibly to give great value for money. If it works in sunny Llandudno on the Welsh Riviera, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work across the rest of the country! We’re all watching our spending, but that doesn’t mean we’re not spending, we’re just selective where we spend it! Give us great food, great wine, throw in a good family atmosphere, friendly efficient service and top it off with great value prices and you’ve got the recipe for success - particularly in this economic climate as there are fewer customers to go round, and they will go to the better restaurants first!