Being the great city that it is, a dinner party I went to in London brought together three Italians, two Australians and a Brazilian of Italian parentage. All of us were in the wine trade. While enough English was spoken to hold jobs in London any conversation that moved into more abstract areas of wine or other matters soon caused problems. The Italians turned out to be very proud of their wines and I'm not sure why this surprised me.

At one stage I mentioned that I was now in my 37th year as a wine merchant though shortly after the lady to my left asked if I had ever tried or knew about grappa. How do you explain that after such a long time all drinks on planet earth have disappeared down my throat at one time or another? How do you tell someone that a visit to Griffith, N.S.W. to buy wine means cutting deals with Italian-Australian families and this means drinking local or imported grappa in great volumes while eating fabulous home cooked food.

Shortly after I was asked by another if I had tried spumante. I explained that I found it difficult to answer the question as I honestly thought there was some nuance I was too dopey to understand. As the conversation continued about super Tuscans, the greatness of Barolo and Barbaresco, the pleasure of sauvignons from Fruili and how they made Marlborough wines look ordinary and other nonsense, I decided I had had enough.

I related a story told to me by the great Len Evans thirty years ago. Len was asked to entertain a group of visiting Japanese wine buyers and as was his way they assembled at his Bulletin Place, Sydney to get a summary of the local wine business. At any time of the day Evans would open Champagne and as this group was special Krug was called for. With his best imitation of Japanese speaking English, Evans imitated their appreciation of this wines excellence. Lunch was at his old mate, Peter Doyle's place where a seafood banquet was ready. Doyle knew better than Evans that the majesty of Krug was a trifle advanced and served masked an Asti Spumante. The Japanese burst into smiles and while thanking Evans for his hospitality observed that 'this Klug better than last Klug'. This story still gives me as much merriment as when it was first told to me and I thought I retold it very well. I was flattened when an Italian lady pointed out to me that indeed many Spumante's are very great indeed and she was not surprised by the Japanese reaction.

I had to move quickly at this point and explained that of course the very great contributions of the Italians to the world of wine were not super Tuscans or indeed the gnarled, dried out, fruitless wines from Barolo but were in order Lambrusco, Asti Spumante and Moscato. We finished with a glass of grappa.