How the electronic age has changed things! Even non-cricket fans will find this exchange of e-mails fascinating. When I spent a day at the fourth test between England and Pakistan a week ago, I thought it was a rather dull game that would end rather predictably. Not so. The ramifications will be felt in international cricket for some time yet.

Tonight I found three bottles tucked away that I'd forgotten about. I'm drinking one now. Elian Daros' Clos Baquey 1999 is an ambitious, tannic, extracted red wine that will never resolve. It's still tannic with high acidity, huge extraction and a dry mouthfeel (I have had several bottles of this wine and I wonder about the corks - they've all shown a lot of wine egress [is that the right term?] and seem rather hard). But despite this, it's an intense, aggressively savoury wine that works very well with food. It has a gravelly sort of finish. I'm always happy to drink a wine where the winemaker has tried really hard to make something interesting, even if it hasn't worked out brilliantly. I've got a few more of these tucked away, bought at advantageous prices from Grand Cru Wines. I'm sure I'll find occasion to drink them, aven though it's not a wine I can really recommend.