Jago shows who's boss

This, however, is a fragile feeling. It will not take long for the Aussies to revert to their previous self-hating and Pom-hating attitudes. In late autumn 2007, when Dan Jago, Tesco's chief wine salesman, gave a speech to an audience composed of members of the Australian wine industry in Melbourne, he ticked his hosts off for high alcohol levels and over-reliance on heavy fruit and how concerned he was that the "energy" had gone out of the Australian wine offering.

"Make no mistake," the ebullient Jago threw out, "there are queues of people outside my office with wines from countries that have no drought, no water problems and no supply problems."

In other words: stop whining, do it the way I'm telling you, or I'll go elsewhere. Good on yer, Dan baby. That's showing those whinging colonial b******s who's boss.

Malcolm Gluck has written 36 books on wine and is wine critic of The Oldie magazine.

• Harpers Says...