Since Baby Bouquet arrived I’ve been swatting up on my nursery rhymes and they’re surprisingly downbeat; if Jack and Jill aren’t tumbling down a hill, then Humpty is irreparably damaged or the best part of a case of wine (ten green bottles to be exact) has met its demise. At a time when green bottles are a sign of comfort for most new mums, singing about them crashing one by one is quite terrifying!

You only need to google ‘wine’ and ‘mums’ to see I’m not exaggerating; Mums are talking and reading about wine and there are some awesomely named websites that really hit the nail on the head. Take the Knackered Mothers Wine Club, OMG I so need a glass of wine or I’m gonna sell my kids and the bluntly named Moms who need wine…..! ………

Since baby Bouquet arrived a few weeks ago life has been a little topsy turvy. Nighttime resembles day, daytime resembles night and memories of my former life of wine tasting and marketing now seems extraordinarily glamourous in comparison to my current role of milk-manager and nappy-sniffer-in-chief! ………

As I sit sleeplessly waiting for Baby Bouquet to arrive I’ve had time to reflect on some of the glass half empty moments of the last nine months and look forward to some of the glass half full moments to come. Top of the glass half empty list has been the obvious physical emptiness of my wine glass (!) along with a general lack of other things I love like rare beef, poached eggs, goats cheese, blue cheese and going on fast funfair rides. To imply that there haven’t been any glass half full moments would be untrue; like the moment I first told my parents I was pregnant and travelling in a helicopter in Chile bump-and-all during those empowering & glowing weeks where ‘nothing could stop me’!

Now the bump is reminiscent of an oversized turkey crown and is denying me of all those things I love, as well as sleep, my mind has turned to all the things I have to look forward to in a delusional ‘won’t it be magical when the baby is here’ way that I can only imagine every new mum-to-be has to cling to. My glass half full moments to come include: ………

When the French release a wine there’s fan fair and dancing, price wars and road trips. Take Bordeaux’s annual en primeur campaign and Beaujolais Nouveau. Other wine producing countries have similar wine occasions too but often they go under the radar for their more modest approach. Take the Germans for example. Good at football, making cars and general efficiency but when it comes to wine they’ve struggled to reclaim the hearts of this nation that once couldn’t get enough of their wines and frequently fail to get the attention they deserve amongst the wine drinking masses.

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It’s one of the nation’s favourite white wines but as it continues to gain grounds in the popularity stakes is Sauvignon Blanc in danger of becoming the next Pinot Grigio? If some of the recent one’s I’ve tasted are anything to go by then move over Sauvignon Blanc; enter Sauvignon Bland. Luckily they’re not all bad. Here’s one to swallow and a couple you should spit:

Wine: 20 Barrels Limited Edition Sauvignon Blanc 2009
Style: White from Casablanca Valley, Chile
Price: £14.00
Outlets: Corks Out, Hailsham Wine Cellars, Slurp.co.uk, Your Favourite Wines
Occasion: A classy aperitif

Swallow because:
With only 1,000 cases produced, it’s a wine you’ll want to get your hands on before stocks run out. Its younger sister, the 2010 vintage, has just won best Sauvignon Blanc in the world (!) at the International Wine & Spirit Challenge this month so while that one is making its way across the Atlantic check out the ‘09 which is an English country garden in a glass; freshly cut grass, pea pod, asparagus and lime characters. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc….. watch out! ………

Stop. Date check. It’s 2011, non? And yet I’m still rarely passed the wine list unless Mr B gestures for the waiter to do so. It makes me wonder when I’m out with my girlfriends how staff decide which one of us looks worthy of being handed the wine list. What qualities do they look for within the group? The one with the largest nose? The one that looks like they earn the most? Wine savvy or not when it’s just us girls they can’t fall back on the usual indicator of what is or is not between our legs….

With this in mind I’m manning up. Not in a stuff my trousers sort of way or by quoting equal rights the next time a wine list is swooped into Mr B’s hands. Non, this month I’m manning up my wines, I’m talking wood, full bodied, oaky wines that stand up and get noticed and can’t fail to be taken seriously. Au revoir light and floral, delicate whites and pinker than pink summer rosés. This season I’m drinking manly wines, wines that won’t pull their punches and are so fantastically complex that you’ll be left in no doubt as to who’s wearing the trousers. ………