Our wine reviewer Nathan Lane uncovers a supermarket steal from the Barossa Valley and finds solace in a richly textured Mediterranean blend from Stellenbosch that proved the perfect antidote to an Edinburgh winter.

In February thoughts often turn to romance with messages about Valentine’s Day circulating everywhere on social media and in every shop on the high street. It’s easy to be drawn into the hype and see our own relationships or potential relationships through the lens of what the marketing tells us love should be like.

As the prospect of snow, howling winds and sheeting rain continuing to batter the UK, the lure of sunshine, stunning beaches and stimulating new cultures beckons. With a myriad of destinations from Mauritius to Mexico offering long haul packages and, closer to home, the Canaries, the Algarve and Cyprus vying for business, choices are driven by time and budget constraints.

York Science Park tenant secures UK-first bioscience tech York Science Park tenant Swift Analytical Ltd has installed the UK’s first CytoStellar spectral flow cytometer at the University of York’s Bioscience Technology Facility. Swift Analytical, which has seen significant growth over the past 12 months, is the exclusive UK distributor for the manufacturer, Challenbio Ltd.

The LSO showcases superb strings and exceptional wind playing throughout. Due to Noseda, we get sumptuous playing and excellent phrasing that makes each movement compelling, with all concerned creating a truly dramatic narrative full of colour and aching vulnerability.

Winter can be a difficult time when caring for pigs, not least because they need a lot of care and attention when it comes to keeping them warm and comfortable. Pigs have difficulty regulating their body temperature and are unable to sweat, hence why you often see them ‘wallowing’ in mud baths in the summer months.

There is also an emotional narrative running through the album. Beethoven is recorded on the 1708 'Huggins' Stradivarius that accompanied Chen after her Queen Elisabeth Competition win, while the Barber introduces the 1720 'General Kyd' Stradivarius, marking both a farewell and a beginning. You can hear that sense of transition in the playing, contemplative but forward-looking.

To Sleep O soft embalmer of the still midnight,       Shutting, with careful fingers and benign, Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,       Enshaded in forgetfulness divine: O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close       In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes, Or wait the ‘Amen’, ere thy poppy throws       Around my bed its lulling charities.

There comes a time when a family outgrows their regular five-seat hatchback. What next then? If the budget is generous, then a Land Rover Defender is a popular choice, as witnessed on the school run to my local independent school. The shift to fully electric motoring has seen manufacturers such as Hyundai step up and offer the perfect car for the larger family in the form of the IONIQ 9.

Large automatic glass doors open onto a spacious vestibule, and a sign says it all – ‘Welcome to Thorpe Park Hotel’ – and nothing could be further from the truth, as a warm welcome awaits from the moment you set foot in this modern spa hotel.

By turning virtuosic, lyrical, and irrepressibly playful, ContraDANCE reveals an astonishing expressive range. This is a partnership that has clearly captivated audiences across Europe, and the evidence here suggests that acclaim is thoroughly merited. The fusion of these distinctive timbres makes for consistently engaging listening, demonstrating that unusual instrumental combinations, handled with this degree of artistry and imagination, can yield genuinely illuminating musical insights.

This decade was the period in popular music when the synthesiser and electronic drums replaced the electric guitar and traditional drums, respectively. If some of the 7” versions now sound like their time, then the 12” versions only go to exemplify the point even further.

In this superbly curated programme, Mesa creates a timeless evocation of the cello's expressive possibilities, conveying an emotional intensity that will appeal well beyond the instrument's devotees.

Capri Holdings: More pressure on Michael Kors to deliver a turnaround after Versace sales; Michael Kors has been slow to respond to trends, but there are opportunities in Asia outside the North American market. LSEG hit by Anthropic’s launch: proprietary data is difficult to replicate via AI alone; pricing power may shift from platforms to data.

With the spring planting season beginning in March and the cost of living still at the forefront of people’s minds, British Garden Centres is here to help families grow their own potatoes, the nation's most consumed vegetable, and reduce household food costs.

A pioneering survey led by the RSPB has confirmed that Dunlin – a rare and declining upland wading bird – are breeding across large areas of suitable habitat in the Cumbrian Pennines, part of the North Pennines National Landscape, offering fresh hope for the species’ future in England.

Lizzie McLaughlin is a passionate advocate for bridging the gap between the public and the farming community. Growing up in Middlesbrough, Teesside, she proudly identifies as a townie who has carved out a remarkable career as an award-winning food and farming podcaster, despite coming from a non-farming background.

A tiny, button-sized snail once thought lost forever has been declared safe from extinction. The greater Bermuda snail was thought to have disappeared until being rediscovered in an alleyway in Bermuda a decade ago. Numbers were boosted through a pioneering breed-to-release programme led by international experts including Chester Zoo conservationists.

AA urges drivers to slow down as wet roads increase stopping distances. Surface water and hidden potholes raise risks for road users. “Taking a cautious approach is key in prolonged wet weather” – AA expert patrol

A successful nature recovery project is branching out into new landscapes, creating and restoring vital wildlife corridors in two of the North York Moors’ most distinctive valleys. GrubsUp! is extending its work into Bransdale and Farndale, thanks to new funding secured through the National Parks Partnerships, supported by global hospitality partner Levy.

A personal safety expert has warned that employers must put workplace safety back at the top of the agenda in 2026, as offices across the UK move back towards pre-pandemic levels of attendance.

An estate planner who went from selling windows to producing wills says too many people are “putting their lives in the hands of a robot”. Estate planning expert Steve Bish lost one of his closest friends, Carl, in a scooter accident in 2001. Carl had not left a will and Steve helped his widow deal with the estate.

Playing legendary detective Hercule Poirot in the European premiere of a new stage version of Death on the Nile, Mark Hadfield has the approval of none other than Sir Kenneth Branagh. The two actors are friends. "And he's been incredibly encouraging," Marks says about chats he's had with Branagh, who has played Poirot himself in three big-screen outings.

Governments are constantly tempted to push flexible working because it allows them to support a popular social change without having to pay for it themselves. The new, stronger “right to request” flexible working in the Employment Rights Act will be much harder for managers to resist, and even dealing with such requests will impose costs on companies. While private businesses may be able to control some of these costs, the widespread strengthening of flexible working rights is likely to damage productivity, slow growth, and undermine wages and employment. This will be all the more true if unions or workplace rules stop wages adjusting, for example to reflect whether particular jobs can in practice be done remotely. This is likely to be a particular problem in the public sector, reinforcing its existing poor productivity record.

The second largest train operator in the UK has launched a recruitment drive, as it looks to hire up to 18 apprentices who are ready to develop the mechanical and electrical engineering skills needed to fix and maintain trains.

Campaigners are demanding a vote in Parliament on compensating WASPI women, after ministers dodged calls to deliver payouts to 1950s-born women for the second time. The new letter campaign, led by WASPI, calls on the Government to enable all MPs to have their say on delivering financial redress to women affected by the DWP’s failure to communicate increases to their state pension age.

Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro is a comic opera that first premiered on May 1, 1786, in Vienna, but is brought bang up to date in this witty, fizzing production directed by Louisa Miller. Performed in its original Italian, with highly amusing modern translations in the surtitles by Lydia French, Figaro is as accessible and entertaining as a Brian Rix bedroom farce.

Dior: Anderson Designs to Take Two Collections to Drive Sales; Leather Goods Key to Margins. T-glass as a potential AI chip supply chain bottleneck; Nitto Boseki’s near-monopoly is supported by decades of expertise in platinum bushing efficiency and strong supply chain relationships.

Surinam toads - a species that carries its developing young beneath the skin of the female’s back - have bred at Chester Zoo for the first time. The aquatic toads, which are native to South America and rarely seen in UK zoos, are famous for their distinctive reproductive process.

Gardeners don’t expect much in winter but there is not much to be dissatisfied over in recent weeks. Recent rainfall has recharged the soil water levels after they hit a low point in the very hot, dry summer last year. There is still some winter left and therefore time to add more water butts to capture and store rainfall.

When news broke recently of two Chinese spies who were caught but then allowed to walk away on legal grounds, followed by MI5’s warning that a proposed super-embassy could conceal a nest of intelligence operatives, it felt like an echo from another age. Espionage had slipped back into public view.

I have four dogs living on the smallholding. Two border terriers, Basil and Barney, and two border collies, Watson and Holmes. Watson and Holmes are brothers, and at seven years old, they are set in their ways and enjoy life with the animals.

“Wow” was the only word I could utter when I stepped into the foyer of the freshly renovated and fabulously reimagined Hotel Metropole, now known as The Met. My last visit to the hotel was as a small child in the 60s when, along with my mother, I was a guest at a relative’s silver wedding party.

This Children’s Mental Health Week (9th-15th February), I am taking a look at the core aspects of a child’s life that are important from a mental health perspective and offer advice on how families can help improve their children’s health and wellbeing.