Resplendent in a tangerine toque and monitoring her middle-aged son with a manipulative, faux-beaten-dog wariness, Linda Marlowe's marvellous Mammles looks like the lost love child of Gloria Swanson and Albert Steptoe in Gene David Kirk's revelatory and richly entertaining revival of Mother Adam (1971).

After a palate-numbing week tasting over 1,000 Australian wines at the Decanter World Wine Awards last month, it was plain to see that the map of Australian wine has changed rapidly over the decade since the awards began.

Who knows what goes on behind closed doors? But for a rain-battered Brighton Festival banner on the gate you'd never guess that the nondescript lock-up on a industrial estate in Shoreham-by-Sea was playing host to one of the most eagerly anticipated theatre events of the year.

The staid image conjured up by the name might deceive you into thinking that the Wine Society is some fusty Victorian institution of claret tipplers. In fact, this no-frills company delivers on all the features you could want from a dynamic wine merchant: consistent quality, great value, adventurous range and unparalleled service. Last month I came away from the spring tasting itching to put together a delicious dozen at around a tenner each.

Makes 8 buns

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

1. Baker's Seven-Year-Old

'Glasgow has a great spirit and music scene'

Terry Kirby selects the best bottles to buy

Couch potato

You can't blame Mitt Romney. It may be easy to be beastly to the unloved Republican presidential frontrunner. He may well look like "the guy who laid you off," as one former conservative rival quipped. He may well have spent the last four years and as many millions (with the help of anonymous supporters) going nowhere in Iowa: he gained almost exactly the same number of votes yesterday as he did in 2008.

1. Cherrygood Premium Cherry

£2.29, cherrygood.com

Each glass contains 200 cherries and nothing else. Perfect after your New Year's Eve party.

The Christmases of my youth were quite traditional British ones, but endured in sweltering-hot Melbourne, with my grandmother sweating in the kitchen over roasting meats, vegetables and a perpetually steaming plum pudding on the hob.

1. Cockburn's Special Reserve