Sitting here in my Singapore hotel room, jaw agape at all the news flooding in – and not just the curious UK election results.
My native Carlisle swings from Labour to the Tories but there is nothing definitive except the surprising lack of Lib Dem support so far, and the shocking complacency of the guy in charge of running the voting process in the face of all those polling stations which had to turn away voters because they were overwhelmed by their number.
I am distracted by this fascinating account of a blackmailer's attempt to extort money from DRC by threatening to poison the vines. I'm much looking forward to hearing more at the dinner in London next week to celebrate Aubert de Villaine's election as Decanter Man of the Year.
And, just delivered to my hotel room, are four samples of a special bottling of wine called Fledgling from the San Francisco custom crush facility Crushpad in aid of Room to Read (pictured). May I commend this neat way of mailing samples to all wine producers – so much less energy- and time-consuming than sending whole bottles around the globe, the way that most producers still do.
Talking of San Francisco, the Chronicle there has just published my article Harnessing academe which has elicited this response from Timothy E Martinson, Senior Extension Associate at Cornell:
'Please let Ms Robinson know that at Cornell University we're trying to do just what she suggests. I want to make her aware of a quarterly newsletter that we just started to provide more insight to cool climate viticulture in NY and Eastern US – and our research about it. Appellation Cornell is written for a general audience and subscription is free. Here are the first two issues:
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First issue