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Some red wine is much better for cardiovascular maintenance than others. The higher the altitude grapes were grown at, the greater the concentration of the sunlight and the relatively higher forming of polyphenols — the substance that prevents artery-hardening. Cabernet or Chianti are particularly profuse in this department.

Moderate alcohol consumption — one or two drinks a day — decreases the likelihood of your developing Type 2 Diabetes. A recent study in the U.S., of 23,000 pairs of twins, showed 40 percent fewer cases of Adult-Onset or Type 2 Diabetes.

Auto passengers who have been drinking are 50 percent more likely to get injured in an accident, and not simply because they’re too drunk to manage the seatbelt. Alcohol in the system temporarily weakens cell membranes meaning they are more likely to rupture on impact.

Ice cubes can be stored in the freezer without them sticking together if you keep them in a linen bag. An old linen pillowcase — well washed, of course — is just right for the job.

Smell wine before you taste it. Most of your taste sensations come through smell, and it will save you putting inferior wine in your mouth.

Sediment at the bottom of a bottle of wine can be a very good sign, as it shows the wine hasn’t been overly filtered and the remaining particles will have helped it to age and mature.

Remove a stubborn cork from a wine bottle by tightly wrapping the neck in a cloth dipped in boiling water — it will heat up and slightly expand the glass, allowing the cork to move more freely.

Red wine vinegar is red wine gone bad through contact with air, so don’t throw red wine away if it has gone bad; keep it and use it as vinegar. It’s what restaurants do.

Cheaper sparkling wines are made in exactly the same way as fizzy soft drinks: the carbon dioxide to make it bubble is pumped in at the end of the manufacturing process, just before it is bottled. More expensive sparkling wines or Champagne will be made to sparkle with a second or bottle fermentation — at the bottling stage a precise amount of sugar and yeast is added to the wine to restart the fermentation process and produce carbon dioxide within the liquid; once the pressure in the bottle is released by popping the cork this excapes as streams of tiny bubbles. This is what will be described on the label as “Methode Traditionelle” or “Methode Champagnoise”, and because it is the wine itself that continues to produce the gas it will retain its fizz for a long time, often overnight.

The vast majority of wine should be drunk within its first year. Experts say that only the very best 1 percent of all the world’s wine production continues to improve after 10 years, and then for no more than 10 years after that. The top 10 percent of all reds and the top 5 percent of all whites improve after a year, but they won’t continue to for longer than another 4 years.

The French wine trade has embraced organic viticulture with considerable gusto, in some cases going as far as to employ a system known as Biodynamics. This involves an approach very similar to homeopathic healing, in which relatively tiny amounts of specific natural plant extracts are introduced to the soil. Oh yes, it also measures doses in conjunction with the moon’s cycle, but, according to the evidence of the vines, it works.