Lunch time chat at Tokara yesterday among wine hacks was not the usual round of gossip and discussion of freebees but a comparing of notes on how much writers are owed by Classic Wine magazine, now defunct. We ran out of fingers at R250,000. Several creditors are combining their claims and have hired the services of Messrs. Sue, Grabbit and Runne who will endeavor to reclaim cash for a modest charge of 15%. Letters of demand should reach assorted e-mail in boxes in short order.

What about auctioning off all the tasting stock of wines and brandies at the Panniers warehouse at Cape Town International for category tastings that never happened? someone suggested. But it seems that much, if not all of this valuable stock has “been donated to charity.” With premium brands retailing for many hundreds of rand, lucky charities!

But an auction remains a good idea as I hear that when Diners Club forgot to put the Bartho Eksteen Wine Academy in the budget (or perhaps it was tossed out by Standard Bank), finances were assured by a “charity auction” of wines donated by previous winners of the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Competition. Which expands the concept of a charity auction somewhat. But then Diners Club are nothing if not innovators in the field of wine.