Look out, John Hickey of NSW’s Waterways Authority. You are about to receive a postal irrigation of an essentially dryland central Victorian wine from Passing Clouds, one of my favourite small vineyards. Responding to my plea for appropriate medication to alleviate the trauma of three consecutive blows to sensibility, each of which struck close to the core, John ably delivered the goods. The blows, you may recall, concerned the Grollo-inspired penifice (my word for an edifice clearly suggestive of a particular male part) in Melbourne, the Warne-Waugh bookie scandal and the alleged and imminent covering of the MCG with an artificial surface. Recalling the not-so-distant deeds of Australia’s current premier spin bowler, Stuart MacGill, he brilliantly nominated Penfolds Magill Estate as the appropriate tonic and as a not entirely undesirable artificial covering of the ‘G in question. Thanks, John. It worked wonders. The answers to OnWine Quiz, #11 will doubtless be of great assistance to any contemporary wine marketer. There’s not a single wine drinker in the world without an opinion about wine labels, some of which we like, some of which we abhor. I’d like to find the label you think is the worst ever and print it in the next issue. So, simply send me your choice of the worst wine label of all time and three reasons for your selection. The deadline for replies is April 23 and the prize for the entry I determine to be the very worst of a bad lot will receive a first-rate bottle of wine whose qualities are blushfully submerged beneath a third-rate label. Post your answer to Reply Paid 243, OnWine Quiz #11, Jeremy Oliver OnWine, 565 Burwood Rd, Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122, Australia. Please only send labels which are sufficiently intact to be reproduced.
