This week at the vineyard I witnessed two remarkable things. The first was a cunning piece of viticultural technology called a leaf-blower. The second was my boss's boots. Let me first address the latter. The aforementioned boss is Jon, a Plumpton graduate whom I have known since we were green-sleeved young vines working together at Majestic Wine many vintages ago. He was always a diligent and hard-working man, blessed with ingrained Yorkshire pragmatism that got the job done. Jon was never afraid of getting his hands dirty. It was therefore with stupefaction that I noticed this week that his work boots were absolutely...