So you’ve decided that going away isn’t worth the pfaff and anyway you live in the best place in the country and the weather’s perf… OK, scrub that last bit. The weather’s variable. Today, it’s lovely. Tomorrow…

So what to do? Well, head down to the beach – that bit just to the east of the pier next to the Volks Railway Aquarium Station, The Warren On The Beach is doing another few weeks of theatre, cabaret, comedy and family shows, alongside an outdoor stage, street food and bars till August 30.

The indoor-outdoor site is free to enter, which means it’s there for a quick drink, and there’s a Happy Hour, where you get 20% off all drinks, Monday to Thursday before 6pm.

Shitfaced Shakespeare (23 – 30 August) will be treading the boards on the beach once again with Much Ado About Nothing. Featuring the finest classically-trained professional performers and one fully Shitfaced cast member, we guarantee that no two nights are ever the same. Having toured the world, broken America and sold-out the West End, they’re back on Brighton beach for one week only.

Lost in Translation Circus Present: Cabaret Paradiso (12 – 22 August) a phenomenal show for all the family featuring cabaret, burlesque, circus, sideshow and contemporary variety. Created in a moment where the world of arts stood still, Cabaret Paradiso celebrates performers from different arts forms and backgrounds, bringing back all the joy, celebration, hilarity, cheekiness, and irreverence that is a great night out. Indulge in fabulous fun for everyone in Brighton’s quirkiest new venue down on the beachfront and featuring Circus Abyssinia stars Bibi and Bichu.

The Snail and the Whale (13 – 30 August) continue their national tour with a string of sea-side shows. The Olivier award-winning cast bring Julia Donaldson’s much-loved picture-book to life.

For full line up and tickets head to warrenonthebeach.co.uk

If you prefer your wine to be powerful rather than elegant, you’re in luck.
Andrew Polmear tells all 

What’s the next big discovery among European wines? People talk about Hungary and Croatia, but my money is on Portugal. It’s a country that’s always made wines for its own consumption but, under the dead hand of President Salazar, there wasn’t much incentive to make quality wines. The British shippers had been buying wine from the Douro valley in the north east of Portugal since the late 17th century. They added brandy to the wine to preserve it during shipping and so port was born. But less and less port is drunk now in Britain and the growers are turning back to unfortified wine, but using modern wine-making methods. The result is a revelation.

I’ve been drinking two Portuguese reds: ‘Animus’ from the Douro made by  Vicente Faria Vinhos, selling at Aldi for the extraordinary price of £5.49; and The Society’s Portuguese Red from the Setubal Peninsula, made by Casa Ermelinda Freitas, and sold at £6.50 by The Wine Society. They are both 2019 but they come from very different ‘terroirs’. 

The Douro is high altitude, sharply drained, stony and mountainous, while the Setubal peninsular is low lying, with sandy soil, exposed to cooling ocean breezes. Both areas get hot. But despite the different ‘terroirs’ both are instantly recognisable as Portuguese. It’s the huge mouth-feel they have – what the wine trade calls ‘structure’. It’s the opposite of watery – a feeling of wine in the mouth that is so satisfying that flavour comes a mere second. It’s like velvet on the tongue. But there is flavour: black plums and dark cherries with a hint of perfume. Is that Turkish delight? Is it woodsmoke?

How do they do it? Conditions are right: plenty of sun, but enough cloud and cool ocean breezes to avoid the wine tasting like jam. Then they have marvellous local grapes. The star is Touriga National, a powerful grape with dark rich fruit and a leathery taste reminiscent of Cabernet Sauvignon. And there’s Tinta Roriz (which the Spanish call Tempranillo) – another big-flavoured grape. The wine from Setubal is from the Castelao grape plus a little Alicante Bouschet, a rich combination.

Then there’s the wine-making. EU funding in the 1990s enabled a lot of wine-makers to move to temperature-controlled, stainless steel vats. At the same time, higher educational institutes in Lisbon and Vila Real taught modern methods to a whole generation of wine-makers.

Now family wine-makers are producing their own wine, like the Freitas family, or, like Vicente Faria, are branching out so they can bottle enough wine to interest supermarkets like Aldi. They must soon rumble the fact that wine lovers are prepared to pay more for wine this good and prices will go up.

If you prefer wines that are elegant rather than powerful, if you like Burgundy with its Pinot Noir, rather than Bordeaux with its Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, then Portuguese reds are not for you. But if you share my love of power, my enjoyment of wine that lets you know you’ve got a real mouthful, then Portuguese reds do the job wonderfully.

We’re all about getting the best out of a good old British summer as we keep calm and holiday at home. And what’s a #staycation without a spot of lunch and some English heritage thrown in? Gilly Smith finds out

Just an hour and a half out of Brighton in Chatham is a bit of a treasure, a family-owned English distillery making not just a rather lovely whisky out of local barley, wheat and rye, but vodkas and gins too. A tour of the distillery, complete with tastings, followed by lunch overlooking the River Medway is a lovely reminder of the skill, craftsmanship and history to be found on our doorstep.

Copper Rivet Distillery, perched on the dry dock at Chatham’s Royal Dockyards is a Victorian Grade II listed pump, until recently a relic from the industrial revolution, watching this corner of Kent follow its demise. 

It took the vision (and family cash) of Matthew Russell who was picnicking one day at Upnor Castle on the other side of the Medway to reinvent it and build it into an icon of 21st century innovation. His father, Bob, had built up the coffers over 30 years in the gift box drinks industry, and together, they built the family company. Four years on and recruiting only from British universities, the Russells have put together a team led by Abhishek “Abhi” Banik from Heriot-Watt University, Copper Rivet has  become the only spirit maker in Kent, and one of just a few in the UK to create them all the way from grain to glass. 

Its Dockyard spirits include a sweet pink gin made with Kent strawberries.  The vodkas are so packed with flavour that you could drink them neat on the rocks and dream of Russia. And the whiskies, initially a by-product of the gin and vodka are already raising eyebrows among the cognoscenti.

After the tour and tasting, lunch overlooking the river is a local, seasonal treat with two courses for £23 and three for £28. Try the scallop, treacle cured trout, sesame and Sussex tomato ponzu to start followed by saddle of lamb, aubergine caviar, kale chimichurri, goats curd, lamb scrumpet and Jersey Royals. And of course, all those strawberries macerating in gin are repurposed by chef, Will Freeman for dessert, a choux bun and rice pudding patisserie.

For more information, https://www.copperrivetdistillery.com