I am told of many doctors, hedge fund managers and lawyers who have made a million dollars in a winery by starting with 2 million and losing it. The myth of pottering around some vines in the Tuscan sun like some sort of well tailored viticultural pensioner out of a Henry James novel, is a widely subscribed and costly fantasy - it is sheer hard work by all accounts, with clearly not enough time in the day to enjoy the fruits of one`s labours.

Wynns lays claim to having some of the oldest vines in Coonawarra, with the Black Label having launched it`s first vintage back in 1954. I have been lucky enough to taste a 1956 vintage and although it`s time had clearly past, the basic framework and body of the wine was still evident and this was exciting and encouraging to see.

There is no doubt that there is a global obsession for all things organic. The fact that the chickens gave themselves up for the greater good whilst sunning their collective buns in an agricultural day-spa someplace, means that we can be expected to pay upwards of 150% and more for our conscience-free Sunday roast chook is just one of those crazy but necessary aspects of living in the 21^st century.

I was at dinner the other night in Malaysia where the taitai hostess was being more than usually anal about food and wine matching. I am sure that the only reason why I was there was to provide a line of defence should somebody raise objection to the "overtly flintiness" of the Hungarian Riesling when being consumed with an entree made from the produce of a wayward Russian sturgeon.

There`s  a group of people who I hang out with quite regularly – and as with most ex-pat communities, one gets to know them quite well – be it what they like to eat or  if the missus is happy with her current group of ladies-who-latte; and  mainly  if you are like me, you  get  a feel  for what sort of wine they prefer to drink.

The trend of high quality wines now being offered at amazingly low prices is definitely with us for the moment. As my grandmother always said "Time is money" so I will keep  it short and sweet today as we only have access to this parcel for 48 hours.

As the internet continues to popularise wine opinion and bring out into the open massive numbers of amateur ratings via sites like www.cellartracker.com , there are some amazing rating spreads developing  between what a pro writing for the Wine Advocate in the USA may think about a bottle of pinot vs. what Joe Bloggs in Serangoon Gardens thinks about the same wine.

The Old World v.s. New World debate will no doubt rage on for as long as grapes are turned into wine, and it takes quite savage turns from people who are often firmly entrenched in one or the other camp.

These wines in Singapore have been carefully acquired by this collector from a single negotiant with an impeccable reputation.

One can be so easily seduced by the allure of Pinot Noir. It is a sexy wine in most people’s books, with luscious spicy curves and a velvet embrace. Problem is - like most curvaceous pleasures; it tends to cost a fair bit.

This parcel of wine is from a collector who needs to liquidate his wine holdings and has therefore drastically reduced his asking price for both.

News from the UK is that one of the fastest growing wine trends right now is the sale of wine in pre-filled plastic cups - a concept for  me which is about as civilised  as T.V. dinners and nuclear missiles.

Rose wine gets a really bad rap - it has about as much cred as Lindsay Lohan at an AA meeting and if it were a person, it would be the porky faced schoolboy who gets beaten up after school because his clothes are too neat or because he constantly kicks own-goals at football matches. Simply put, the stuff is just not seen as a cool option amongst the general population of wine swillers.

There I was minding my own business last week in a packed elevator - holding two cases of impossibly heavy wine cases, whilst trying to take up less space and avoid dripping sweat into the egg salad sandwich of the lady standing next to me - when I heard out of the depths of the elevator, in an accent which would put Crocodile Dundee to shame:-