My eight-year-old son’s eyes widened when I unwrapped a Christmas present I got from my parents: a bottle of cherry brandy from the Lyme Bay winery in Axminster. ‘Can I have some?’ Humphrey asked, for he had been hitting the cherry brandy hard over the summer. Not the alcoholic kind, of course, but the cherry brandy-flavoured lollies sold by the ice-cream van that parks outside his school on a hot afternoon. The sale of cherry brandy lollies to schoolchildren – brace yourself, the van sells apple cider lollies too – will surely go on the list next. Taking your son wine-tasting may be a gateway, but it can be a gateway to heaven – when the time is right.