Provence, Spinningfields’ new all-day wine bar and coffee house has revealed its new one-of-a-kind festive tipple, spiced mulled orange wine, guaranteed to be the hottest trend (and drink on the menu) this winter.
The summer go to, has been reimagined and is now served piping hot, with an infusion of classic festive flavours like star anise, clove, cinnamon and orange zest, for £6 per glass.
Accompanying the new tipple is the launch of a brand-new bottomless festive wine brunch priced at £35 per person, available to book from 12pm – 3pm every Saturday throughout December and January.
With 90 minutes of unlimited wine (bonus: there’s a selection of up to eight wines to choose from), prosecco, beer and orange mulled wine, in addition to sharing charcuterie boards complete with a variety of cheese, meats and vegetarian options – as well as mince pies from local artisan bakery, The Flat Baker.
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
If you fancy singing whilst sipping, the new wine bar, which launched with a fun approach to wine, is also offering private festive bottomless ‘wine-oke’ experiences for 6 to 11 people in the bar’s secret downstairs space, ‘The Cellar’, with the unlimited bottomless drinks offering and grazing boards for 90 minutes and you guessed it – karaoke for £35 per person.
ADVERTISEMENT
And for those who fancy a night in, from Wednesday 14 December, Provence, is launching ‘wine on wheels’ via Deliveroo, where you can select from 80 bottled wines and ‘store items’ including cocktails, beers, olives, crisps, chocolate and Northern Cure charcuterie, as well as festive wine hampers delivered straight to your door.
Equally, if Christmas gifting is on your mind, ‘top-up’ cards for Provence’s in-house ‘wine jukebox’ are available to purchase in-store, where you can gift loved ones the opportunity to sample eight rotational premium wines by the glass (normally available only by the bottle), in addition to digital vouchers which can be purchased online to spend on all Provence experiences.
ADVERTISEMENT
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
Anthony Ellis, founder of Provence said:“We have a slightly different approach to wine at Provence, we like to bring fun to what we do, through our no-nonsense style.
“Which is why we’ve created our one-of-a-kind orange mulled wine and taken a festive fun approach to reinvent Christmas classics.
“Our wine-oke experience which launch in October, has been extremely popular, and what’s not to love than wine and karaoke with good friends this Christmas.”
This Manchester suburb has just been named one of the UK’s ‘happiest’ places to live in 2024
Thomas Melia
An annual poll has named the Manchester suburb of Didsbury spot among 70 locations said to be the ‘happiest’ places to live in the UK.
Greater Manchester has got lots to say for itself, especially with its diverse and unique cultural landscapes, as well as various vibrant communities, so it comes as no surprise that one of our beautiful suburbs has been voted in a list of the UK’s happiest places to live for this year.
The survey included submissions from 5,000 people and there’s a lot of love being shown to the neighbouring areas of Yorkshire like Doncaster, Bingley, and Harrogate – the lattermost placed in second in the entire country.
But, ranking 62nd out of a possible 70 places, the distinct and vibrant area of Didsbury has been noticed by Furniturebox as one of the ‘happiest’ places to live in the UK.
Credit: The Manc Group
The results took into consideration good state schools, affordable housing, as well as accessibility to pubs, bars, restaurants, independent shops, retailers and more.
With multiple parks, walking destinations, and top-notch travel links with Bee Network trams and buses easily taking you back into the city centre and out to other boroughs, East, West and Didsbury Village all remain some of the most sought-after areas in the region.
There’s a whole host of indie retailers to enjoy, especially on the likes of the main high street and Burton Road, which effectively serves as its own cultural district, home to vintage clothing shops like Steranko, tailored styling opticians Fox Brothers and much more.
Burton Rd also boasts countless fantastic food and drink spots like The Great Kathmandu, SANTÉ, Volta and Proove Pizza, just to name a few; we’ve spent plenty of time just on this stretch of Didsbury alone.
If you’ve spent even a little time in Dids, you’ll know there’s plenty going on and it’s certainly one our happiest places in all of Greater Manchester and therefore the UK.
You can also enjoy the famous ‘Didsbury Dozen’ right on your doorstep.
Elsewhere, and somewhat unsurprisingly, Shakespeare’s ever-romanticised hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon once again reigned supreme at the top of this list.
That being said, it’s refreshing to see that these locations weren’t entirely related to wealth and similar factors, the survey took affordability into careful consideration.
Cheshire was destined for success with its cracking views and grand properties, as the North West county made waves for the region managing to place in fifth position, holding up against Falmouth in Cornwall which placed in sixth.
Although not nabbing that all-important top spot, Didsbury is carrying the flag for 0161 and showing what all know to be true: Northerners do it best.
Blossoms at O2 Ritz Manchester – five-night hometown residency is already a triumph
Daisy Jackson
Blossoms are a band who were born and forged here in Greater Manchester, and now they’re back retracing their steps with a five-night residency across the venues that launched them into the big leagues.
Their star has risen all the way to arena level and headline shows at Wythenshawe Park at this point, especially here in their hometown, so the chance to see them back in these cosy-ish little venues is special, and a little bizarre.
For night two of their landmark sold-out gig series, it was the turn of the O2 Ritz, that sweaty spot off Oxford Road where the floor bounces downstairs and you stick to the carpets upstairs.
Poetically, the first time I ever saw Blossoms was in this very room in 2016, when they had the mid-afternoon slot at Neighbourhood festival and the queue to get in went all the way back to St Peter’s Square.
Since those days, Blossoms have come a long, long way, and their live show has evolved and matured from five lads thrashing on their instruments to this well-oiled, hip-swaying, flares-wearing, chart-topping machine.
There’s even choreography now – how fancy!
A stand-out moment from the show is actually a song from their new, fifth studio album Gary, which is still barely eight weeks old.
A spoof recording of legendary Manchester indie club 42s rings out, then all five band members abandon their stations, slinging keytars and marching drums around their necks so that they can dance together in front of neon signs.
Blossoms have just done their second of five shows in Manchester, this time at the O2 Ritz. Credit: The Manc GroupBlossoms on stage at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
Blossoms promised more disco with this album and they bloody meant it. It’s not just the flares and the blow-dries and the moustaches (though those do help) – it’s in the funk and groove that’s gradually crept into their music exponentially with each album release.
This is still indie rock but it’s the most danceable of its genre. Good luck keeping your shoulders from wiggling and jiggling in here. Good luck keeping that grin off your face.
And Gary is one of the most unexpectedly fun albums to be released in the last year – the fact they called it Gary, named after a giant fibreglass garden centre Gorilla, should’ve been our clue. It could border on silly were it not such a masterpiece.
It seems like the only thing Blossoms are trying to prove is that you can be wildly successful without taking yourself too seriously. They just seem like a group who want to have a good time and it’s totally infectious.
Case in point – when each band member is introduced, keyboardist Myles Kellock plays the riff of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi and The Biz. Unexpected.
Blossoms also clearly give a sh*t about their live shows and graft at it – I’ve seen these guys an awful lot and it’s because their tour dates are plentiful and consistently worth the ticket price.
This is definitely the biggest era of their career so far, but have they peaked? Not even close.
Georgina Pellant -
12th December 2022 
