A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to enjoy a bit of a boozy weekend in Dublin. My other half had been invited over by one of the suppliers his firm does business with. Everything was paid for and all that we had to do was make our way to the airport for our flight.

We were met at the airport by our host and he swiftly whisked us off to his house so we could unpack. My jaw nearly dropped when I first saw how large his house was – it was huge. He had everything you could ever imagine – a swimming pool, sauna, tennis court, gym and even a home cinema.

Waiting for us in his kitchen was some beautiful Australian wine, nicely chilled in a wine cooler and bottle openers all ready to go.

Our host was a real wine buff and has his own wine rack down in his cellar. He imports a lot of wine from Australia and was explaining that the cellar has to be kept at just the right temperature, which is quite difficult at times. He went on to say that if conditions aren’t correct, then that’s when problems can happen. An example he was telling us was that if the humidity is too high in the cellar then this makes the corks dry out and in turn would allow air to get into the bottle and oxidise the wine, which would be disastrous.

After we had finished our drinks we were off for a night in the Temple Bar area. We had a brilliant night and the Irish are so friendly. Nothing is too much trouble and they are really genuine people. My husband was in his element drinking his beloved Guinness. Mind you I think the next morning he wished he hadn’t drunk quite so much.

We had a brilliant weekend and it is certainly something I would love to do again. Next time we go though, I think perhaps we should lay off drinking quite so much alcohol!