It’s quite a romantic idea to serve a wine made by your own fair hand, and even more so if your name appears on the label. I guess that this could be why a handful of celebrities have invested their millions into producing their very own wine…… ‘Pretentious’ I think it’s called. The reality though, is somewhat different to the dream – it’s quite hard work to grow grapes and make wine, even more difficult to sell it, and quite impossible to make a profit (OK, that last part is not strictly true, except to say that there are a lot of bodegas in Galicia struggling to make ends meet at the moment).

On a much smaller scale you could of course, buy a wine kit and make your own wine in the comfort of your own kitchen. Admittedly not quite as romantic an idea, but potentially a lot more fun (assuming that it works!). I believe that there are many different ways of doing it, although I confess that I have never tried, and I am sure that some kits will achieve better results than others. I did however, see a rather elaborate kit that caught my eye, the only downside being the price – $239 to make 1 gallon of wine. By my calculations that translates to about $63 a litre, or $47 a bottle (75cl)! You could buy a pretty decent bottle for that amount of money, and so you would hope that the result is at least drinkable, otherwise you might end up with a wine making kit that simply resembles a fairly expensive chemistry set.

This particular wine kit is available in different flavours (I am reluctant to say grape varieties), Chilean Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Moscato, Australian Chardonnay and Italian Pinot Grigio. The world of wine is at your feet, but only if you are prepared to forego a wonderful Spanish albariño…. Castro Martin – not available in any wine kit!