With just over a month to go to the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles which this year goes down in Plovdiv, the capital of Thrace, one’s thoughts turn naturally to Stanimir Stoykov, the star of Boylesque and the only Bulgarian I know.

The Concours definitely gets around with Bratislava one recent highlight for me. Gender confusion is a common problem in Eastern Europe with CC Shlonka the star of the Concours dinner a couple of years ago. All very Boylesque, I’m sure.

I’m looking forward to meeting up with Jean Smullen, Anibal Coutinho and Liam Campbell in particular, as well as all the other fabulous judges. Certainly the Concours is far more exotic than those dreary London-based competitions which choose the same old dreary wines year after year. Could it be that they’ve succumbed to the Master of Wine infection which is like Zika in reverse. Instead of a pinhead, the infected develop massively swollen bonces which makes them look ridiculous, especially when posing with their selfie sticks.