The wine that dares to speak its name.

(From Off Licence News)

Hooray for the enlightened vignerons of Ribera del Duero, who have produced a wine called Mundo Gay "to take a small step in making homosexuality normal", according to reports.

The wine is produced by Robeal in partnership with a group of other wineries in the region. "With gay marriage having been introduced in Spain and more liberty in the country, we wanted to take a step towards opening people's minds in the small agricultural area of Ribera del Duero," a spokesman explained.

This is not, readers may recall, the first gay wine, though it is arguably the first with a name that can be uttered in a public place without eliciting sniggers and Mr Humphries impersonations. Any takers for Kim Crawford's Pansy RosA? Alcohol makes you loud and dim Health warning labels are likely to be introduced for alcohol at some point in the near future, either voluntarily or as a result of some government diktat. There is still some debate about how to convince the public of the dangers of over-indulgence but copywriters have come up with a couple of front runners. "WARNING: Consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not" and "Consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing with you" are apparently the favoured choices of DoH officials.

Any beer but Kilkenny The Burnley Citizen recently carried a lovely profile of Alan Sagar's Rainhall Drinks Company, the award-winning Barnoldswick off-licence with an impressive line in beers. "Alan usually has around 300 different beers of the world in stock and he knows something about every single one of them," said the Citizen. "When it comes to beers, Alan believes there's something for all tastes from organic and fruit-flavoured beers to Trappist beer from Belgium." But as OLN readers know, you can' please everyone and the online version of the article has been appended with an inevitable reader's comment. It comes from a grumpy lorry driver who moans that Alan never has what he's looking for. Which might attract more sympathy if ...