Otherwise known as an announcement that I’m going on holiday for three weeks. If I blog during that period, it will probably be a bad sign indicating either:

a) There is a global crisis of such enormity that I feel compelled to comment.

b) The children are being really annoying – and I need an excuse to get out of the house and drive to the nearest town with an internet cafe (Caussade).

Otherwise, I will resurface at the Democratic convention in Denver.

 PS I do realise that my absence may come as a blow to those of you who are gradually turning this blog into a social-networking site. My apologies for that. But I hope that you can find other ways to maintain your budding friendships and enmities.

Last time I was in Brussels I was approached by a red-faced Eurocrat, with an Irish accent, who spluttered – “Why did you do it? Why did you give that idiot his job back?”

I was a little taken aback by this – and asked which idiot ( in fact, “eejit”) he had in mind. “Tyler Brule”, he spluttered.

I replied that I have no influence over hiring decisions at the FT. And I pointed out that Tyler has many fans – me included. In fact, just to prove my it, I am going to devote this post to a Brule-style exercise: a list of my favourite wine stores around the world.

Of course, if it was a proper Tyler Brule article, at least one of the stores would be in Tokyo and another would be on a Swedish island. My own top five are in London, Paris, Reims, San Francisco and Brussels. And I would like to encourage people to send me their own recommendations.