She's Keeping Me Busy

No, I've not taken to playing for the other team. I still like boys as much as ever.

The "she" in question is actually an "it" but it is industry convention to refer to "it" as "she". If you've not already cottoned on to what I'm rambling about, I'm referring to ships.

Unless you've been living on another planet or otherwise not paying attention to international news, you will no doubt have heard/seen/read about the recent storms in northern NSW resulting in the PASHA BULKER being grounded just off the cost of Newcastle.

Because of my fiduciary obligations, I'm not at liberty to say much about what's going on except that salvage continues to be a concern and that the reports of the grounding as published in Tradewinds and Lloyds List are about 90% accurate.

While this grounding is keeping my professionally busy, on a personal front, I am very concerned about the grape harvest in Hunter Valley. Two of my favourite Hunter Valley wineries, Tyrrell's and McGuigan's are located in Pokolbin/Cessnock and I hope the storms will not have affected production too much or that their owners will have had the foresight to buy business interruption insurance.

Outside of Alsace, I have not drunk better Gerwurztraminers than the ones from Hunter Valley. McGuigan's makes a particularly good one, perfect for drinking in the summer with very pronounced varietal characteristics of lychee and floral frangrances with just the right balance of acidity and residual sugar. It's truly summer in a wine glass.

It might not feel much like summer in Hunter Valley at the moment, seeing as it's winter in Oz but it's starting to feel summery in the northern hemisphere. I was told that it was quite rainy in London the last couple of weeks but the weather's expected to clear up and hopefully it will be sunny by the time I'm back at the end of this month.