Mourning Julia Gillard with the greatest wine ever to come out of Australia

My Australian friend was in mourning over the removal of Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister. She had been everything a leftist politician ought to be: ineffectual and un-electable. I concurred; sacking Labour leaders just because they could not win an election sets a very bad example to the rest of the world.

For solace, he had decanted a bottle. Something in the nonchalance with which the glass was poured aroused my suspicions, which were strengthened when the nose reached halfway across the room (he is, shall we say, well off). I sipped, savoured splendour, and speculated. ‘I think I’ve had this before, to celebrate when a girl called Mary Wakefield joined The Spectator. It wasn’t quite ready then. It is now.’ Robert Parker said that once mature, the ’76 Grange Hermitage would rival the ’61 Pétrus, which I have never tasted. It is possible to question Mr Parker’s judgment on Cab Sauvs grown in gravelly soil, but he is at ease with more instantly accessible wines.