What a great morning in the chilly confines of the old Melbourne City Watchouse — tastes from 16 north and northeastern Victorian wineries.
And I didn’t have to bail him out this time.

Mercy!
Swans downed by 44 points; Eagles by 49; Lions by 66; Bombers by 93; Crows by 98; Roos by 101!!
Call the War Crimes Tribunal, it’s been a round of massacres.
#afl

A perfect addition to a relaxed Saturday afternoon.
#AFLGiantsDogs #Sardinia

And PS: never forget that in 1939 our fathers and grandfathers went to war to kill fascists and Nazis like that shouting, sieg-heiling piece of shit.

Waking up in Sardinia to read about the Nazis disrupting the Dawn Service and Dutton’s “condemnation”. Lest we forget this hypocrite boycotted the Apology; led the hateful No campaign; refuses to stand in front of the Aboriginal Flag; and whose party wants to end Welcome To Country. He owns this.

Congratulations to our highly commended journalists, Ed Gannon at Stock & Land for his reporting on crime within agriculture giant Elders, and Harrison Tippet at ABC News on the conviction of two of the most infamous murderers in Victoria which happened in Geelong.

Hang on, wasn’t it only weeks ago that he wanted to BE Trump?

Yep, even the Spuds are toxic.

Sure, if you chew really slowly.

The next day, Xitter goes offline and Musk blames Ukraine. Personally I’d be looking hard at “small man.” Seriously, he’s gods own idjit. Tanked Twitter, his rockets blow up, Tesla stock tanking and Starlink about to lose many nations’ business.

Now do Netanyahu.

I hope RoCo is right, but I’m not confident.

Watched George Miller’s Furiosa again last night — and was intrigued & delighted to finally switch on that he’d named a character Rizzdale Pell.
He was an awful prick, like his rockspider inspirations.
Pick that up @milliganreports.bsky.social ?
#movies #predators #cardinalpell

If Donald Trump spoke his mind, he’d be mute.

Just when you think Krasnov couldn’t sink any lower.

Listening to this great album reminded me I hadn’t caught up with Willy Vlautin’s latest book, The Horse.
I have now and just ate it up. It’s up there with his best, a musing on the perils and pleasures of the musician’s life and a heartbreaker.

Hmmm. Thank you for that dear.

Yes. Absolutely love this album.

Rack another one up for good taste. After my raving at the weekend about @emmaswiftsings.bsky.social and Blonde On The Tracks, a mate has just gone out and bought one.

If you haven’t already done so, be like Neil folks and do yourselves a favour.

Wine merchant, wine importer, author and CIA spy, Peter Sichel, has died, aged 102. He enjoyed an incredible life which he captured so evocatively in his 2016 autobiography, The Secrets of My Life. It needed clearance from the CIA before it could be published. RIP

Wine nerds alert: you simply have to love the information on the back label of Parker Estate wines. This is how you do it! Love the labels and the wines reflect the same degree of detail.

Haven’t bought it in years.

A shameful surrender, but did you really expect anything else?

Washington Post opinion editor departs as Bezos pushes to promote ‘personal liberties and free markets’ Opinion editor leaves as Amazon executive and newspaper owner says ‘viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others’

And here’s the darkness.

I’m here to tell you from Australia, that Mr Rather is on the money.

Yeah, well, this is about standard for this time of year with just four days to go until the deadline for all tasting notes for the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion book. .. it’s not quite as chaotic as it looks, believe me.
Thanks to the talented winemakers in the regions I taste for sending in wines.

“In disguise”?

That’s Trump/Putin’s plan.

It’ll have to be microsurgery.

And here’s an excerpt from The Emperor of Wine . . .

Day 12: Women wine writers/ authors - The Emperor of Wine, The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr by Elin McCoy ( Harper Perennial, 2005). Elin McCoy captured the talent, work ethic and ego of Parker in this excellent book through long-running, diligent research. It offers quite an insight into the man.