Frankie Colston had been dating her boyfriend for almost a year when they were invited to a dinner party that would give her a welcome opportunity to meet some of his good friends.

It started out as a very civilised affair: smoked salmon for starters followed by chicken and dauphinoise potatoes, accompanied by a dry chablis.

However, by the time the plates were cleared, Frankie, 33, had changed from the polite, friendly young woman who had initially charmed other guests, into an insulting and aggressive loudmouth.

The reason? Frankie insists she wasn’t drunk — but, instead, had suffered a bad physical reaction to the white wine. And, like a growing band of women, she has sworn off it ever since.

‘My recollections of the night are very hazy, thank God, because I cringe from head to toe whenever I think about it,’ says Frankie, a restaurant manager. ‘My boyfriend filled me in the following day, telling me I’d been rude about the views and opinions of the other guests, shouting them down and insisting mine was the only take on any given subject worth listening to.

‘When his friends tried to chat I was so argumentative they backed off and went to find someone more reasonable to speak to.