‘Good afternoon to you,’ says the email I recently received from Mr Dowling of Berry Bros & Rudd, ‘and thank you for your recent order no. 884095, placed through our website, for delivery to Spain.
‘There will be a shipping charge of £66.00 for the case of Wickham Vineyards Vintage Selection Dry White, Hampshire, England, which will bring the total order value to £162.60.’
A triumph. After many hours on consecutive days spent on the internet, I’ve succeeded at last in my mad plan for the equivalent of shipping coals to Newcastle, coconuts to Fiji, or herring to Reykjavik. My plan has been to send English wine to Spain.
‘I do realise,’ I had written in an earlier email to Mr Dowling, ‘that it makes no sense in practical terms to ship cheapish wine in this direction, but it’s a gift I wanted to send.’
And indeed it was.
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