Unfortunately if you like alcohol, hangovers are part of the deal. I prefer drinking real ale, especially ’session’ beers with an alcoholic strength of around 3.7%.  These beers are weak enough to avoid bad hangovers, (unless you consume vast quantities of course)!

Recently my brother arranged a ‘Risk and Rioja’ night at his house; Playing the Waddington’s board game Risk, while drinking Spanish red wine. We had a few pints of Timothy Taylor Landlord bitter first which was really lovely, then we hit the red wine.

Tony had everything well organised with a gaming table all set up and a bottle of Rioja for each of us. The game went well when I formed an alliance with my brother to take over the world. Unfortunately he broke the alliance at a crucial moment, which resulted in us BOTH losing!

The wine tasted nice, but when I examined the bottle it had an alcoholic strength of 12.5%!  The consequence next day was inevitable, a headache and a queasy sick feeling. As a drinker I accept headaches as a price worth paying, but the queasy stomach was a new unpleasant experience.

My brother however seemed right as rain. He confirmed that he didn’t have a hangover and felt fine. It was at this moment he revealed his cunning plan. He gave everyone their own personal bottle of Rioja, however his own bottle had been filled with Vimto!

I had to admire the ingenuity of his idea, and the preparation it entailed, but the experience has confirmed one thing – wine is not for me, it’s far too strong.

John McNally