Laithwaites , the best-known face of the world's dominant mail-order wine merchant – or direct-sales specialist, as I should perhaps call them – held their second big wine tasting for the UK press in London recently. You can read a report of the first one here . Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, who was drafted in from Waitrose to head up the tentacular buying team (see here ), was very much in evidence. There were a number of interesting wines here - especially the American selection, which is stronger and more varied than that of most British merchants, thanks to the parent company's strong presence in the US, not least via their wine...