A New Year Dawns

Here at H.Q. a new year dawns, and Management and Staff brace themselves as best they can for the challenges ahead. But first it might be timely to learn from the past year, and hope that lessons have been learnt.

Let us hope for no repeats of:

The Great Ram Fiasco  (See 3 May 2007) -- An update:

• Manky ram interlopers: 27 lambs
• Thoroughbred rams (Mel and Jimmy) 7 lambs
• Result: an overwhelming defeat for breeding and refinement.

The Car-eating Dog Affair  (See 6 Jan 2007) -- The Dog in question is still silent on her crimes, but the car, now Cooper-intacta again, is parked more discretely away from the predations of canine omnivores.

The Sad Pig Breeding Anticlimax (See 4 Sept 2007) -- Peggy and Polly’s long pregnancies unfortunately have, after a time of wonder, turned out to be just phantoms. They were it seems, simply (let’s be blunt here) just bloody fat. Boris, their boyfriend from down the road, despite weeks of red hot lurve-action in the bottom paddock has sired absolutely zero piglets. All are baffled – it’s not as if our girls are unattractive (see winsome shot of Peggy 2 April 2007). Boris may be, well, only half the pig he seems….

On the upside:

Vintage -- This last year we released our 2006’s – Another remarkable vintage and one we were delighted with. Angry scenes however as the Proprietor selfishly attempted to put it all in his own cellar. Physical restraint necessary.

2007’s in the barrel as we speak and looking excellent – Proprietor spotted lurking around winery with enormous pipette…

International Success -- Here at T.P. we never enter our wine into competitions. This last year however we were flattered to be asked to the Stoniers International Pinot Event in Sydney, and were delighted with how well we showed beside some of the worlds very best Pinots. Modesty forfends, etc…

Proprietor Otherwise Occupied -- Things tick along absolutely fine at H.Q. and around the vineyards when the Boss is away. Last year, 2007, he was away for about 9 months on 5 different movies; it is to be hoped that various strikes do not keep him too much at home and pretending to run things.

Incidentally he worked twice last year with the great Peter O’Toole, a source of a thousand grand stories about actors, movies and so on. The Proprietor has stored these in the back of his undertaxed brain, and is happy to pass on the less salacious of these for a very large fee.