A report in yesterday's edition of the redoutable trade weekly Off Licence News (never far from my bedside) highlights the fact that a second large grape harvest in a row in South Africa means that some fruit, especially that of the flood of red grapes planted there recently, have been left shrivelling on the vine because the 2003 harvest is still sitting in tank in some wineries awaiting a buyer.
This is apparently particularly true of the most popular varieties Cabernet and Shiraz which the sheep tended to plant most enthusiastically. There is now a serious glut of these varieties...