Everything about this cocktail feels authentically Dickensian, from a name that evokes the rain-slicked streets of Victorian London, to the fortified wines that number among its ingredients.

When summer feels like a distant memory, there’s plenty of enjoyment to be found in sampling the epicurean pleasures of this ‘season of mellow mists and fruitfulness’.

In many ways, the Cobbler is the epitome of an old-fashioned cocktail. It uses very few ingredients – wine, fruit, sugar and ice – and is incredibly flexible. You can use whatever wine you like or substitute the wine with your choice of spirit.

Despite our national obsession with tea, its more chilled sibling, iced tea, keeps a fairly low profile on most British drinks menus, being much more closely associated with the US, particularly in the humid southern states.

There’s nothing more perfect for a party than a big bowl of punch, although it’s sadly fallen out of favour in recent years, only occasionally being pressed into service as a welcome drink at a Christmas gathering.

In many ways, punch can be regarded as the original proto-cocktail, an essential precursor to the bittered sling which, in turn, launched a thousand spin-off cocktails.