March maundering.

[El Gordo]

I could give you all the gory details of the weekend, but you'd just be jealous. But in summary, we did the wineries, discovering one or two outstanding gems, honoured St. Patrick appropriately, drank some superb wine ('93 Penfolds Grange being the highlight) with equally superb food, and even unearthed a couple of single malt gems, viz the nicely-priced Ardbeg 10 y.o. and the superlative Bruichladdic 15 y.o. Mmmm.

Wow, is Grange Hermitage still affordable over there then? One of the finest wine experiences I ever had was a small Grange tasting tutored by Don Ditter, the then head winemaker at Penfolds. I was working in the trade at the time so I didn't have to pay for it either. The wines were just incredibly good.

Ah, I just did a search and realise that I've mentioned this event before. It reminded me of something that Ditter said: "Just one glass of Grange is like a three course meal and a bloody fine cigar..."

Great guy, very down to earth. The funniest bit was when he tried to show us a video of how the wine is made, but it turned out he'd brought his Dad's Army collection over by mistake.

But anyway, my local supermarket stocks Grange occasionally in its fine wine section. But at about £120 a bottle, it's destined to remain just a memory.