Is the wine industry infested with a plague of thirsty mosquitoes or did I get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning? Read the press release from Capevin Investments and flew into a tiny rage. Capevin Investments is a holding company for shares in Distell and while Mighty Merwe Botha did a sterling job and held the interim dividend in a tight market, Capevin, whose only function is to pass on Distell lolly to its shareholders, cut the interim by half a cent, from R1.73 to R1.725. To rub salt into the wound, Distell paid out R1.24 and since one Capevin = 1.397 Distell shares, I was expecting at least R1.73. Time to unbundle Capevin manne, which should send the price up from the current R87.50 to R100.

But some good news for Peter Finlayson whose 2009 Bouchard Finlayson Pinot Noir has just been rated 92 points by Wine Spectator. Everyone knows that 2009 is a spectacular vintage for BPF PN, so imagine my surprise when I saw the usual 4.5* accolade had been downgraded to 3.5 stars in Platter 2011. Quelle scandale! And done sighted by a leading importer of pricey Burgundy, too.