I was chatting with another barfly about the controversy, currently raging in Melbourne, regarding safe injecting rooms for heroin users. We were in a safe ingesting room for alcohol, also known as "that stylish bar down the road." My drug of choice for the day was Tennessee whisky, with ice. "Forget about heroin addicts," said the barfly, a reformed lawyer, "Aren't all you wine writers alcoholics?"

"A few, but not me." I replied. "Habituated maybe. But as long as I get at least one bottle of red into me every day, I don't have a craving. In fact, really, I can take it or leave it. Just don't call me an addict. Are you having another drink?"

"Yeah." he said, puffing on a cigarette (a rollie). "It's a bit like these. I've cut down, only twenty a day... but I could stop, just like that!" Snapping his fingers. "What's all that crap about lung cancer, anyway?"

The bar was quite comfortable, if you ignored the obligatory passive smoking. Carpet not too sticky, toilets cleanish and only slightly malodorous, it was early in the evening, so there were no drunks writhing on the floor. Our conversation turned to the days of the prohibition of alcohol in the US.

Prohibition, pictured in endless documentaries and movies, resulting in innumerable deaths from adulterated booze manufactured and sold by criminals in illegal speakeasies. Creating corruption at all levels of society, with all levels indulging in the usage of the fashionable and then illegal drug, alcohol.

The scenario sounded quite familiar so I lifted the tone of the conversation by offering a quote of Santayana's to my temporary friend. "Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it." "Whatever." he muttered into his glass. Depressed, I ordered another double Jack Daniels, on the rocks. "You want coke with that?" asked the barman. "Nope."

Wine waffle

"The glass of Bordeaux is in front of me, posing like a size-6 model. My eyes touch it but do not go through it. The glass creates a certain sensuousness. One might even say it imbues taste with sexuality. I watch the wine as its [sic] swirls. I taste it, taste it again. I wait for it to oxygenate. I await that state of ecstasy. I am no longer the same, nor completely another. I love Bordeaux wine - I understand it." Fashion designer Olivier Lapidus, from an interview in Bordeaux International Magazine, May 2000. Sacre bleu!

Tastings

Hardys La Baume Viognier 1999
Light yellow. Generous almost tropical nose with a hint of citrus. Flavour-packed, full and broad in the mouth, clean finish. A robust white, from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. Rating: silver. Cellar: to 2004. Price: RRP $AUD15.

Ryan Free Run Chardonnay 2000
Pale, light green hue. Unwooded chardonnay from the Hunter Valley, ripe and sweet on the nose. The palate immediately approachable, soft and velvety, mid-weighted with peach-like flavour and mild acidity at the finish. Rating: gold. Cellar: to 2003. Price: about $AUD12.

Normans Riverina Botrytis Semillon 1999
Mid-gold. Aromatic almost perfumed bouquet of honey and orange marmalade. Light (9.4 per cent alcohol) and rich palate with nicely balanced acid, subdued at the finish. Rating: silver. Cellar: to 2005. Price: RRP $AUD25.00 the 500ml bottle.

Campbells Bobbie Burns Shiraz 1998
Crimson. Lifted and youthful, ripe fruit bouquet. Dry and fruity with soft tannic astringency. Noticeable alcohol (14.6 per cent), oak well in the background, the finish firm and tight. Well suited to main course food. Rating: gold. Cellar: to 2008. Price: about $AUD18.

Gralaine Merlot 1998
Mid-red, touch of purple. From Mt. Duneed near Geelong comes this leafy, cool-climate style, made by Hanging Rock's John Ellis. The nose shows concentrated fruit and integrated oak. Concentrated flavours continue on the palate with assertive tannins and slightly under-ripe fruit acids. Will mellow in the cellar. Rating: silver. Cellar: to 2009. Price: $AUD30.

© Martin Field