As someone who cares where my food comes from, and who has no problem accepting that the fluffy animal in the field becomes the meat on my plate, I was really pleased when my partner bought me a voucher for a game butchery course for Christmas. The course took place at the Kings Head in Brooke last Thursday and was certainly an eye opener.

We arrived to an array of game birds, rabbits and hare laid out, intact, and so Nathan, the chef began our morning of learning. First up was how to pluck and prepare a bird. He demonstrated with a wood pigeon, explaining how to age a bird (if its beak is soft it is young; the “thumb” claw on the feet keeps growing throughout their life, so if it’s long you’ve got an old bird), how to pluck it, and how to prepare it for the oven (ie get rid of all the stuff you don’t want to think about!).

Demonstration over, we all took to our stations and we were allocated a bird (a teal for me, as I requested a small one – didn’t fancy holding the weight of a pheasant for as long as it was going to take me to pluck it). I, although happy to accept where my food comes from, am basically squeamish – certainly I could never be a nurse! But plucking the teal was very reassuringly repetitive. It was a task you could lose yourself in, so long as you overlook what you are holding. When it came to removing the giblets etc, I have to admit squeamishness overtook, and another member of our group kindly did the honours.

Next up was a demonstration of how to skin a hare or rabbit. The one Nathan demonstrated with had been shot in the stomach, so there was a lot of blood. I was interested to see how to do this, and what to do in which order, however the quantity of blood in the demonstration hare made me take the decision that yes, I was glad I knew what to do, but no, I didn’t need to have a go myself. Fortunately nobody made me feel uncomfortable for having made this decision. (My partner almost wobbled, but decided he would forever be cross with himself if he didn't try it, and ended up with a perfectly prepared rabbit)

Once all the brave people had prepared their rabbits, and after a brief coffee break, we had a cookery demonstration. We were shown how to make a game terrine; game pies (along the Melton Mowbray pork pie lines); jugged hare and a pigeon salad. It was fascinating to learn about different cookery techniques, and to have certain myths dispelled. Also, it was amazing to be in such a small group being taught by someone so passionate about what they do.

Lunch followed – the pigeon salad and the game terrine making up the starter, with jugged hare and some pies (beef, chicken and mushroom or cheese and potato – no game there), along with seasonal vegetables providing the main course. All of this was washed down with a glass or two of Chateauneuf du Pape (Le Palais des Papes Ogier), and accompanied by lively chat and great company.

While I appreciate that eating game is not to everyone’s taste, and many people don’t like to connect the meat they eat with the animal it came from, I found this to be a wonderfully informative day, which enabled me and my partner to see we don’t need to rely on supermarkets for any meat – we can use local butchers, gamekeepers or even, if need be, catch it ourself.

I've been thinking about blogging about supermarket wine for a while now, but wanted to make sure I had my thoughts straight so it would become a constructive post, not a rant.

I'll start with the positive(s) for supermarket wines, and will then explore some of the more negative aspects for the consumer.

The primary positive is that without the supermarkets selling wine, it'd still be out of the reach of many consumers. Previously wine was predominantly available from independent merchants, and while they did and still do sell some amazing wines, some can be very intimidating to the non "expert". Indeed I, as someone with a long history in the wine world, have been greeted with a look up and down and "do you know about wine?" when going into one shop, which shall remain nameless. Suffice to say, with an attitude like that, who can blame someone going to Tesco where they know they can go about their wine purchase without judgement.

Sadly that one positive, in my opinion, is outweighed by many negatives, the most important of which I have cited below.

By going to the wine aisles of the supermarket, one would be forgiven for thinking there are only, say, 200-300 vineyards in the world, when there are over 54,000 in Spain alone. Have a look the next time you're in Sainsburys, or Tesco, and see how many different grape varieties are being sold to you - can you find a Pinot Gris? A Barbera? A Grenache? All of these are grape varieties that are grown in large quantities, and yet the supermarkets seem to think giving us "choice" means giving us more Sauvignon Blancs at different price points and with different labels.

Then we have the discounting issue. We all get drawn in by the wine that is half price, don't we. And yet none of us necessarily stop to consider how much that wine is actually worth. Would you, or anyone else, ever have considered that wine to be good value at the £12 it has been "reduced" from? Or do you only buy it because you consider it a bargain? Have you noticed that often these reduced wines are still more expensive than the cheapest other wines, but because it's "reduced" we will pay more to get it. I very much doubt Messers Sainsbury, Tesco et al are losing out on any margin when they discount these wines, which surely means that when you pay full price you are being fleeced.

The final issue I'll address here is where the wine is bottled. Any winemaker worth his salt will want to bottle his own wine. He will want to have control over any variables, such as the addition of sulfites, before the wine leaves his care. And yet, if you look at many wines in supermarkets you will find there is either no bottling address, or it's some random UK address. In these cases, chances are the wine has been transported in a vast vat, at a much cheaper price than it'd cost to transport it in fragile glass, to some central depot and then bottled. I find this dishonest in the extreme - the wines are billed as being from a specific vineyard and vintage etc, and yet are not being finished there. Any amount of tampering/contamination could occur, and the wine maker will have  no control whatsoever, and yet it is his and his vineyard's name that will become mud.

I suggest, when you buy from the supermarket, that you stick to the wines on offer - they will be at the correct price. Check the label to see if a bottling address is supplied, and further to that if it is in at the very least the same country as the wine is said to be from. Ideally you'd like to find that it's bottled in the correct region, and better yet, on the vineyard. I would also suggest that if you've got into the habit of buying from the supermarkets, you just give an independent merchant a try. Find the right merchant and your wine buying will become easier and more reliable. Your guests will love you as you will always serve something delicious, as you will have cut out the hit and miss aspect of buying without information.

Wow, it's been a crazy few weeks. Certainly things have come my way that I would never have expected.

Firstly, I was approached by the friend of someone who had very recently become a customer asking if she could feature me in an article in the local newspaper. Of course, I said. I'm all for free publicity! Sadly the article is not online, or I'd link to it. Later that day the local BBC radio station called asking for an interview about the launch of the Norwich Wine Festival (I am one of the directors).

So far I felt I was still within the realms of "normal", until the next day, when I was called by a production company looking for guests for Handeep Singh Kohli's chat show that was going to be coming to Norwich Playhouse the following week. Would I like to come and do a bit of a wine tasting and promote Norwich Wine Festival. Um, yes please! Oh, and would I like to be a guest alongside BBC Look East presenters and get to try Handeep's lamb bhuna. Hell yeah!! Suffice to say the evening was exciting, scary and great fun. The show is really nicely informal and chatty. Handeep put everyone at ease in no time flat, and it was a great pleasure being able to be involved.

It was during the week after this that things went from hilarious to plain amazing. Last Tuesday I received a call from the landlord of the pub we were to be holding our Norwich Wine Festival quiz on Friday evening, saying would I be able to start the quiz earlier than planned, as The One Show wanted to have a live link up to it. Um, right, yes, of course. In the end it became apparent it'd be easier to have 2 quizzes across the evening - one for the purposes of the TV and then the proper one after. So, having established that the reason they wanted a Norwich quiz to link to was because they were going to have Stephen Fry in the studio, I got my geeky head on and wrote a mini quiz.

We received confirmation on Wednesday that it was definitely going to happen, and so the wheels were set in motion for one of the most random experiences of my life! I had to choose one team to be helped by Mr Fry, live from the One Show studio, and they were then billed as being useless at quizzes, and desperately in need of help. To say this was hilarious and bizarre would be an understatement.

Friday night came around and saw us getting to the Garden House pub for 5ish to have a chance to rehearse before going live at 7pm. The team all had ear pieces in so they could hear what was being said in the studio. Their spokesperson, Steve, had a microphone as well, and I, as quizmaster, had a microphone. The actual half hour of the programme ran wonderfully smoothly - massive credit to the production team, all of whom were just so friendly and professional, and before we knew it they'd gone and twitter had gone mental with people having spotted us!

Suffice to say, the quiz proper was a breeze after all the fun and games of the early evening. And now I just have to wonder what the next phone call will bring...

If you'd like to watch my One Show experience, have a look here

I am often asked by wedding show organisers if I'd like a stand at their shows, and I always have to say no, simply because of the corkage issue. People perceive that they are being robbed when told they must pay, say, £8 to the venue for bringing their own wine, yet that is often a lower amount than they would be paying to the venue for having the wines from their list.

For example, a house wine that is being sold at £15 by a hotel will probably have cost them no more than £5 to buy, so actually to pay corkage of £8 means you can get £7 wine and not pay any more than you would have. In other words, by paying the venue this "empty money" you stand yourself in good stead for getting higher quality wine for your event.

I understand that it seems weird to pay out for something that seems nothingey, however, unless the venue you have chosen has a wine list exactly to your taste and budget, it is often the shrewd way to organise your event wine...

As an online wine merchant, I generally sell by the case, albeit mixed as the customer wishes. This is such a convenient, easy way to buy, that it regularly surprises me how much of a barrier it is to many people. Thanks to the supermarkets making wine so much more accessible than it ever used to be, more and more people regularly drink it (latest Mintel reports show that 1 in 3 UK adults drink wine), and yet for many the idea of buying a case is simply too big a leap.

If I had a pound for everytime I heard the phrase "oh, I'd never drink 12 bottles" from someone who has happily polished off tasting samples of 6 wines and is hovering to see if there's any left, I'd be rich. There seems to be some feeling among those regular purchasers of a bottle or two from the supermarket that what they have bought is what they must consume IMMEDIATELY! To my mind, buying by the case gives the customer the chance to have a range of wines in the house at any one time, meaning it is far more likely that they'll have the thing they fancy drinking, or the bottle that will best complement the dish they have prepared, when they need it. Rather than having to trawl through the slim pickings of their nearest shop.

If you're in that supermarket rut of buying a couple of bottles of what's on offer and finding that the wine's never quite as nice as you hoped, why not, just once, buy a mixed case, try something out of your comfort zone, and see how you get on. You never know, you might just like the convenience!!