Ken Payton was kind enough to ask me a few questions towards the end of our Australian sojourn, and I tried his patience with, I think, five months of (action-packed) vacillation. He was still there at the end, though, ready to catch the ball, and the result is now up on his excellent website, Reign of Terroir (http://reignofterroir.com/), where you will find much beyond a few words from me to entertain and enlighten.

Look out, too, as August unravels into September for a new blog feature on the World of Fine Wine website (http://www.finewinemag.com/). A small team of writers, AJ included, will be contributing a blog per week on a rota basis, and David Williams asked me to begin the process, our inspiration being the London Review of Books blog. I don't know what the others have in store, but my initial effort begins with some economic reflections and ends in confessional mode.

Following on from my last blog entry on this site, I can report that we now have settled up among the pine trees on the road to Pic St Loup, and I have been thrashing my way through assorted backlogs (epistolary, administrative and physical) and begun work on the Australia book: a great relief. There have been three wine articles in the Financial Times while Jancis Robinson took her well-earned summer break (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/795fba50-a0ea-11df-badd-00144feabdc0.html, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/366b8606-a668-11df-8767-00144feabdc0.html and http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0700508c-abe9-11df-bfa7-00144feabdc0.html) with a fourth this Saturday, as well as round-up articles on the Australian experience in Decanter, The World of Fine Wine and the excellent Gourmet Traveller Wine in Australia. The Australian article isn't up on the GTW website -- but if anyone is contemplating a trip to Bordeaux, then http://gourmettraveller.com.au/the-beauty-of-bordeaux.htm might offer a few useful tips. My columns continue in Decanter and World of Fine Wine ... but I do hope to get this blog out of Rip-Van-Winkle mode before long. (But not before five days in Burgundy next week.)