Sliema2,
Are you going to reveal your secret sources in Sliema or am I going to have to go searching around every shop, bar and veggie van in Sliema? My dad had a friend who used to give us bottles of his homemade wine made from parsnips, rharbarb, dandilions, blackberries etc, never grapes, but it was wonderful.
alan,
Nice to hear there is someone on here from my neck of the woods! I haven't been to the Royal Standard for years as I don't often go back to the UK, but what a great pub it is. Uneven floors, doorways that tall people had to duck their head to get through, old bottles stuck between the brickwork. The Owd Roger was served at room temperature and was as murky as a muddy puddle. I am from a tiny village about 10 miles from there, do you know where Pinewood Studios or Black Park are? We also had a village wine shop there of the sort you describe, wonder if EU regulations allow that sort of trade these days.