Granite rocks, granite sand, twigs, forest bark, wooden blocks, planks, soft raked earth, pebbles, deep puddles and cold, cold mud, underfoot: lovely.

Friends ask if we have been struck by the strikes.

Cancer has taken Marcel Lapierre. It is no respecter of form: I remember him as energetic and vital, strong and fit.

We have a garden: rough earth and weeds circumscribed by a fence.

Webmaster Mick has convinced me.

I am greatly honoured. The judges of the Louis Roederer Awards 2010 have been kind enough to name me 'International Wine Columnist of the Year'.

Ken Payton was kind enough to ask me a few questions towards the end of our Australian sojourn, and I tried his patience with, I think, five months of (action-packed) vacillation.

Gulp!

I know I'm in mortal danger of becoming the Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez among wine hacks, but for the sake of completeness h

Professor Kym Anderson asked me to speak on Monday 8th February at a wine workshop entitled 'The world's wine markets by 203