The wine business is full of traps which confuse your ability to think clearly. The greatest wine show on Earth is currently underway in Australia and it’s hard to believe that even with our low exchange rate Australian wine only sells well in Australia. This good fortune allows you to drink at a quality level way above the global average and at far lower prices.

One day this will change as global drinkers, meaning the huge U.S. and U.K. markets and perhaps the E.U. market, realise their lack of clear thinking, pretending they know wine, means they pay up for wine which is not as good as Australian.

Recent bottlings of Crayford Barossa Valley Shiraz Durif 2022 and Glug The Regions Clare Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 have a quality and price ratio that is not found in the U.S. or the U.K.

I know the Worlds wines and when our currency is weak, they are not good buying. And can I remind you of another truism. There is no such thing as a magical new taste which will transport you. The flavours of wine are created by the global weather, then enhanced or messed up by humans. So basically, all wines are only modest changes of each other. I ask you to understand the implications in your buying decisions.

They say about a poker game that if you cannot work out who the patsy is, it is you. Feels a bit like the modern wine business where you have been brainwashed to believe that high prices are associated with the best wines.

The connection is weakly true, yet you are not a patsy by missing out. Because you baulk at the prices of the best will you forever miss out on one of the World’s greatest experiences? No you won’t-and instead you get to pocket the money while developing the talent to become the best common-sense wine drinker.

The wine writer for The Australian from the early 1980s James Halliday has passed the baton to Nick Ryan and do not expect a change as Ryans second article reveals all and is titled ‘From Piedmont to Perth: Linea Retta is making its mark’. That a national newspaper provides a free advert for the W.A. winemaker Larry Cherubino in his joint venture with the Italian wine maker Giorgio Rivetti brings me to despair as I have read this story many times.

On cue I read, Linea Retta.. ‘intriguingly, brings to Australian shores one of the few examples of the once close to extinction timorasso variety’. Good grief, who cares and yours for $60. Buckle up as this article will be repeated for the next 30 years. Expect an article about wine bargains, or the good work of Aldi-not is your sweet nelly.

Then a scientific report arrived explaining the use of an MRI machine to measure our brains pleasure centres when drinking an expensive wine. The problem is they light up even when the expensive wine is deceptively switched for a cheaper wine. Alas we are doomed as the only interpretation I can give is that the wine con of price being linked to quality will go on and on.

You have been brainwashed. The victim becomes the bandit though at least you know how hard it is to be clear thinker about wine.

One answer is to join Glug and drink wines which will genuinely light up your pleasure centres and do not cost much. Two I like are Crayford Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz Mataro 2023 and Old Moppa Road Barossa Valley Durif 2020.

So, Drink Widely Drink Well

David Farmer