Jefford on Monday

And on they roll, the solemn market-analysis reports from the data crunchers. Since these reports are priced for the corporate market and are thus prohibitively expensive for individuals, we demotic wine commentators rarely get a chance to look beyond the press release.

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Is the electronic word suffocating the printed word? 2012’s surprisingly prolific harvest of wine books would suggest not. Self-publishers are indeed lifting the tide, but it’s encouraging that mainstream publishers are finding reasons not to abandon the subject entirely. The global wine boom just might, it seems, be provoking a quiet wine-book echo.

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If, like Prince Charles and I, you regard any established tree specimen with reverence and wonder, you will know that these are troubling times.

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It came rather late in the year (on 12.12.12, ominously enough), but there was one press release last year which I read twice. The first reading was accompanied with growing incredulity; the second was to lay my disbelief to rest.

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