“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”, said Alice. Or rather, Lewis Carroll did. Well, turns out I sort of know what he means, now that my alarm goes off at 6.15am in order to get Eldest Boy out of bed and ready to catch the bus to his new secondary school. But as much as the early starts are a shock to the system, I’ve discovered a whole half hour that I never knew existed. That is, between shooing Eldest Boy out of the door and waking up the other two for school. This means hot tea. It means a chance to read and answer a few emails. And it means a hot bath, with time to listen to the news/read my book/think* (after putting a wash on and emptying the dishwasher, obviously). I’ve even got time to eat a bowl of that flipping granola, which is lucky given that I got the quantities wrong and now have enough to keep us going until January.

 

Chin chin x

*or just close my eyes for a little bit longer

Current white in the fridge: Cote Mas Vermentino

Price: £6.79 - Buy From Waitrose

The thing about Vermentino is that it’s hard to pin down. It’s grown all over the place – mostly France and Italy – and goes under lots of different names, including Pigato, Favorita and Rolle. But if you haven’t tried Vermentino before and you like a bright-tasting, lemon peel-like white, chances are you’ll love this one from southern France. Delicious sipped whilst trying to think of something to do with leftovers. 

Current red in the rack: Cotes du Rhone Villages Serabel Chusclan 2014

Price: £5.99 - Buy From Lidl

If you’ve got a Lidl near you, get down there quick because they’ve got a whole load of new limited availability wines in from France (around 40). And some of them are really good. If you like teeth-tingling whites, try the white from the Savoie region. There’s a lovely red Minervois and if you like sweet wines, try the £8.99 Sauternes from Chateau Mauras. The Rhone red above was a big hit at Book Club last night. Chusclan is one of the villages in the Cotes du Rhone region and this is properly juicy and jammy, with gorgeous brambly fruit.