An interesting suggestion from a leading SA retailer: are producers using local sales to subsidize exports? The conspiracy theory behind this is real Alice Through the Looking Glass stuff:

1. One Stellenbosch Cheninista with a Tesco’s contract is selling wine cheaper in the UK than in SA to maintain his listing. Hard to credit, given the swingeing taxes in Blighty plus transport to the sceptered isle.

2. With exports beating local consumption by a 4:3 margin and squeaky wheels getting the most oil, UK retailers use their financial muscle to get keener deals than local yokels.

3. Foreign sales are seen as more prestigious than local turnover, echoing the bias shown to foreign wine competitions at the launch of the SA Superior Wine Rating Index at Bilton yesterday. A show of shows, the SASWRI seeks to amalgamate show results and in one of the most cynical manifestations of cultural cringe to date, rates foreign shows higher than local ones. Quite how wines are rated that do not enter into competitions (yet have their own section in the system) has set the angels pirouetting on the tip of my pins into a frenzy.

How else do you credit KWV Café Culture retailing at half the prize of Meerlust Rubicon in Singapore? Either Meerlust is being dumped in the east or KWV is cashing in, big time or Chinese traders have gone mad.

Warning to those whose sense of humour has failed, Uncorked was not physically present at the SASWRI launch yesterday.