More news from Down Under

All the talk between wine people has been of the exceptional Australian heatwave that has been ravaging the country and the devastating bushfires that have killed and destroyed, as reported over the weekend in Fires rage in Yarra Valley.  Victoria is supposed to be Australia’s coolest mainland state, where the temperature only occasionally gets into the 30s ºC. Last week, however, Melbourne suffered no fewer than four consecutive days in the 40s (as tennis fans may remember) for the first time.

Grapes, mainly pre-veraison here, have literally been shrivelled, burnt and left incapable of ripening (like the Chardonnay bunches...