Vineyard trip up for grabs in fiendish quiz

As you get ready for the Christmas festivities, at home or away, make sure you have reserved your copy of next Saturday’s Yorkshire Post. This year the prize for the winner of the Fiendish Wine Quiz is a trip to the spectacular vineyards of South Africa, courtesy of the people behind the excellent range of wines from Flagstone, Fish Hoek and Kumala. There will be 30 difficult questions, and your research programme should give you a good excuse to escape from the family all next weekend. Meanwhile it is worth sharpening your pencil and your brain cells, and it might be worthwhile checking your passport is up to date.

It's Christmas. Time to crack open the champagne.

Rum boosts charity

The last 16 bottles of historic rum discovered in the cellars at Harewood House have been sold at Christie’s in London, raising an astonishing £115,500. Dating from 1780, the rum was shipped to Yorkshire from the Lascelles family’s former plantation in Barbados. It was tucked away on a high shelf in the cellars and left for over 200 years until the dense mass of accumulated cobwebs was cleared and the bottles re-discovered. The money raised from the sale of the rum, in addition to the £66,000 raised by an earlier sale, will go to The Geraldine Connor Foundation which helps promote Caribbean culture and arts activities in Yorkshire. With this injection of funds there will be a recital, a summer school and other projects.

Ideal dessert wine

Ch. Roumieu 2009, Sauternes is down from £12.99 to £7.99 for 37.5cl at the Co-op. This is a lovely, concentrated, apricot and honey dessert wine, suitable to pour alongside a fruit-based dessert or with Yorkshire Blue cheese.