Sherry, particularly dry sherry, should be more popular here than it is. In Spain, which has a climate similar to ours, it’s drunk all the time everywhere. What is needed in this time of financial mayhem is for some courageous and far-sighted winemaker to start a campaign for this new wine “with a style similar to the very best Spanish sherries” and name it after his own region, providing the region has a suitable name. This, after all, is how European wines are usually named. Sherry comes from Jerez, port from Porto. Calling it Margaret probably wouldn’t be good, Swan maybe, Barossa good, MacLaren good, Hunter dubious. Winemakers from other areas would be allowed to use the name – the area that started it would have the advantage that for ever after people would feel that the REAL MacLaren came from MacLaren Vale, and anything else was an imitation.