Historically, the marketing budgets of wine producers were always too small to permit buying adverts, but social media has made advertising not only affordable but much more effectively targeted. Instagram is reputedly one of the cheapest platforms, starting at around $5 for 1,000 impressions, and allowing detailed targeting to ensure your adverts reach the most receptive audience.

So over the last month, I have been screen-grabbing the adverts that appear in my Instagram feed to consider their effectiveness. (Click on any of these images to expand them.)

Firstly, I collected a few non-wine adverts, which are presumably in my feed because I meet general criteria based on age, gender and location, possibly targeted because I've shared posts about food and music.

These all have a straightforward message, a simple image, a clear call to action and a financial incentive for clicking.

Next, I collected a few non-wine alcohol adverts.

These are already a bit more vague, with no financial incentive to click and messages that seem a bit 'so what'. While the lager image is clear enough, the gin bottle is too small to see the branding, and the saké photograph is too busy. For both those adverts, the call to action is to 'view Instagram profile' - but what's the benefit of that? Why would I want to see more uninteresting photos, and what benefit does the advertiser really get from increased profile views?

So, can the wine industry do any better? Here's what I found.

Wanderlust are clearly trying to steal customers from Naked Wines for their own online retail business which, incidentally, seems to offer a very similar ethos:

“We only source directly from winemakers [...] we passionately believe that producers should get a fair price for the hard work and commitment they put in [...] we believe in connecting you to our winemakers so that you can understand their stories [...] we invite them to the UK 4 or 5 times a year so you can meet them in person.”

— wanderlustwine.co.uk

While their logo is very visible, the background image is rather generic, and the call to 'sign up' without any explanation of the benefits or a financial incentive seems premature.

Next come three different approaches from individual wine brands.

The Blossom Hill advert, clearly targeted for Wednesdays, gets the social media style right, with a few hashtags, a clear, appealing image and a straightforward message about their new cuvée. Dark Horse Wine is a Gallo brand with an advert timed to coincide with National Barbecue week - hence the hashtag. The message is clear but both this and the Blossom Hill advert are missing an opportunity to offer some kind of tangible engagement, such as a discount voucher.

The third advert is a much smaller scale, more 'homemade' style which represents the reality for many wineries without large marketing budgets. The photo is a backlit, badly composed image without clear label visibility and the text is advertising their appearance at a trade fair in London. The relevance of this is very limited, although at least the 'learn more' link does at least redirect to their website.

Then there were three adverts for wine-related services.

These clearly demonstrate the importance of getting the level of information right. The Wine Butler advert has an image that appears to be promoting a wine delivery service, but there's no text to entice anyone to press the learn more button. Fuse Concierge is much more targeted, with a tempting message for the engaged wine consumer and a slick, professional photograph. Winecdote perhaps suffers from providing too much information - especially with the hashtags, the sheer length of text is not conducive to the fast-scrolling style that most people practice with social media.

It may be that there are restrictions on offering financial incentives on alcoholic products via social media, but it seems to me that the wine adverts I've captured from Instagram could make more of the opportunity. The best adverts combine a single, eye-catching image, a brief and enticing message with a few targeted hashtags and some kind of immediate incentive to click.

But at least these wine companies are already taking advantage of the opportunity that Instagram offers to reach thousands of potential customers for a relatively low price.

After a night experiencing wine culture in Mumbai, the following morning we hit the road and headed for Nashik, one of India's main wine-producing regions.

8:30 and time for my first Vada Pav ... and chai. 25 rupees (20 pence approx.)

A post shared by Richard Hemming MW (@richardhemming) on Apr 22, 2018 at 8:04pm PDT

Nashik is a three-hour drive north-east of Mumbai, and home to several important brands which we visited over a two-day period. For an industry that is still so relatively young and small, this is sufficient time to get a good overall impression of winemaking in India, and it left me with two principal thoughts. The first concerns the challenges of subtropical viticulture, and the second concerns a particular flavour characteristic - and the two are very possibly related.

Our first visit to Grover Zampa illustrated the viticultural challenges. The land here is dry and hot for much of the year, and vines rely on irrigation to grow. That's not so unusual, and needn't be deleterious to quality, but the nature of the seasons means that the vines produce a crop twice a year. One harvest is vinified while the second, lower-quality crop is discarded - but the impact of this strenuous growing pattern may be manifesting itself in the wines themselves.

Across many different producers, grape varieties and styles, a feature common to the Indian wines we tasted was a strong smoky, rubbery scent. Until quite recently, this was something often found in South African reds, although nowadays it seems to have diminished. While preference for this flavour might be a matter of personal opinion, if this rubberiness dominates the flavour profile and obscures varietal character then it must be classed as a fault. 

Hillside vineyards at Grover Zampa, Nashik.

Vineyards at Grover Zampa, Nashik.

The problem is worsened by the fact that nobody agrees on what causes this problem (and some seem to deny it exists at all). At Grover Zampa, they blamed red pigmentation on Shiraz leaves as the cause, while at York Winery it was attributed to the lack of dormancy experienced by all grapevines in Nashik. Elsewhere, people suggested viral infections, underripeness in grape bunches, insufficient nutrients within fermentations, or even smoke from roadside fires as the cause - all of which just goes to show how much there is still to be learned.

And learn they must, if Indian producers want to be taken seriously on international markets. Far too many of the reds exhibited this rubbery smoke flavour and in that condition, the wines would undoubtedly be rejected by the UK market.

Thankfully, we also tasted examples of well made, modern and tasty Indian wines. York Winery make a fragrant peppery Shiraz/Viognier, Vallonné's Anokhee Syrah is a richer, jammier style reminiscent of South Australia, while Grover Zampa's Vijay Amritaj Viognier is a faithful depiction of the variety with generous peach aromas.

All of them share a fruit-driven, New World style which could easily fit into the vinous mainstream. Of course, the next question is how to distinguish such wines from the myriad similar styles made around the world. The answer to that question is almost certainly 'marketing' although this is a costly and time-consuming exercise!

Which brings us to one of Nashik's newest additions, from those masters of marketing, LVMH: Chandon India.

The Chandon winery was built in 2016, although the first wines were made in 2014. They produce three sparkling wines: Rosé, Brut and Délice (a sweeter style, with 50 grams per litre of sugar) from Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Shiraz.

As you might expect from such an experienced and cash-rich company, the technical standards here are very high, without any smoke taint flavours. Lees age is limited to 12-15 months, resulting in a simple, clean, fruity style with well-integrated fizz. Again, distinguishing such a generic style from other champagne-method sparkling wines made around the world would be tricky - but interestingly, LVMH have absolutely no intention of doing so.

The Chandon brand is now produced in five countries: Argentina, Brazil, Australia, California and now India. Despite the vastly different origins and grape varieties used, the idea is that they effectively deliver the same experience wherever they come from - in a similar philosophy to the non-vintage model of champagne.

The labels are therefore virtually identical. Compare the bottle shot I took in India with those used in Argentina and Australia, for instance:

Investment from big, successful wine operations such as Chandon is a great endorsement of the Indian wine industry, but in many ways it is still suffering from serious teething problems. To develop winemaking standards to an internationally comparable level, the first challenge is to eradicate the smoke taint character and understand how to maximise quality in a climate that is not natural for grapevines. Once that happens, producers can then think about what makes their wines unique in a world where styles are so often identical.

The best wines from the likes of Sula, Fratelli (see part one), York, Vallonné and Grover Zampa show that the potential for quality already exists in India. But just as wine culture within Indian society is only just starting to develop, a full realisation of India's winemaking potential needs time.

Over the last month, I have managed to start rewriting my book in earnest. Most of this year so far has been spent coming to terms with just how much work is needed to make the book as good as it can be, which involves the painful process of deleting thousands of words, restructuring the plot and completely changing some of the characterisation. It has taken a long while to get accustomed to this, and I've only stopped resenting it since I've got back into the flow of writing.

I've now written about 6,000 new words for this latest draft - a prologue, chapter one and chapter two  - and it has started to feel gratifying to get the revised plan on paper. The most satisfying part of the change is emphasising the real core of the story - the romance between Chloe and Freddie. Previously, this didn't get started until the second half of the book; now the seeds are sown (no, that's not a euphemism) in the second chapter.

My other preoccupation is getting the bloody thing finished. In fact, that's been a preoccupation since I started. I have drafted various timetables which give me enough time - in theory - to finish the book by the autumn. But realistically, I'm pretty sure this won't go according to plan, and I'm now intent on giving myself an uninterrupted week of writing after the summer break to ensure that I get it absolutely, finally, totally finished.

Watch this space ...

When I landed in India, the first thing I noticed was a monkey roaming around the airport. That was eleven years ago in Delhi when I was going to volunteer in Dharamsala. Did I ever tell you that I'm SUCH a good guy? No? Well, here's a video I made to prove it, made when I was 28. Good grief.

Anyway, two months ago I landed in India for the second time ever and this time, the first thing I noticed was wine in the duty-free shop. Which was exactly why I was here: visiting Mumbai to get a taste of wine culture and winemaking in India, hosted by Sonal Holland - India's first and only Master of Wine, author of India Wine Insider, and a friend since we met on the James Busby tour of Australia in 2011.

This first article is all about wine culture in India; the second will be about the winemaking.

Indian wine journey begins.

A post shared by Richard Hemming MW (@richardhemming) on Apr 22, 2018 at 7:36pm PDT

Having seen a very rural, disadvantaged side of India eleven years earlier, I was curious to see the opposite end of the scale, which is exactly where we started. At Vetro, an Italian restaurant in the five-star Oberoi hotel, we tasted a range of Indian wines before a high-end dinner featuring the wines of Ornellaia.

This was luxury India, executed to the same high standards you find in every major global city. The Indian wines we tasted were similarly ambitious, made by Fratelli, a winery with 240 acres of vineyard near Akluj, about six hours drive south-east of Mumbai.

All these wines are made in conjunction with international wine professionals and they would turn out to be the most impressive Indian wines I tasted during my visit. Sette 2009 is the first vintage of a project blended by Piero Masi from Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon. Chewy, meaty and substantial, with firm tannins, it is more reminiscent of Bordeaux than anything Italian, and shows just how impressive wine from India can be. The current 2013 release is still full of primary fruit intensity and it would be interesting to see if it ages as well.

A collaboration with Jean-Claude Boisset has produced the J'Noon range, the first vintage of which was 2016. Both the Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc and the Cabernet Sauvignon/Marselan/Sangiovese blends showed purity, sophistication and complexity that goes far beyond the expectation that most people might have of Indian wine. Also of interest is the M/S blend made in partnership with Steven Spurrier (pictured above), and composed of 60% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Franc and 20% Syrah. It was similarly polished and ripe - although there was a distinct smoky note on the nose, reminiscent of the 'Cape rubber' aroma which was once common to South African reds, and which soon became a recurring theme of the trip.

Following the tasting was a wine dinner designed to showcase some of the finest drinking and dining available in India.

The wine dinner menu - click to expand

Much to my surprise, a group of high-flying Mumbai socialites had been gathered for the occasion, which featured three reds from the Ornellaia stable, plus Noble One Semillon from De Bortoli, as well as Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2013, which I had brought with me on the plane. 

As an introduction to Mumbai wine culture, it proved a worldly and sophisticated experience that owed much more to western fashions than local ones. The level of wine appreciation was the equal of any comparable dinner in London, as were the standards of cooking and service. Yet there was also the sense that such an occasion was still a distinct novelty - as confirmed by the coverage in the Mumbai Mirror gossip column a few days later.

The following morning we would drive to Nashik to see the other side of the wine world in India - the vineyards and wineries, including the biggest producer by volume, Sula. Most of the wines they produce are aimed squarely at the newcomer to wine - a very different proposition from the fine wine culture of the wine dinner. Their best-selling white is a Chenin Blanc with 15 grams of residual sugar, which is deliberately drinkable in a basic, easygoing way, but they also produce some impressive Shiraz under the Dindori and Rasa labels, which prove how accomplished their winemaking can be.

Sula provided an opportunity to see how wine is handled at a more everyday level: for many visitors to the Sula complex, this is their first-ever encounter with wine. Alcohol is generally much less mainstream in India. In the upmarket parts of Mumbai, wine is available in shops, supermarkets and restaurants in much the same way as it is in Europe - although the range, quality and condition of bottles can be something of a gamble, and the vast majority of staff know nothing about wine. 

But the concept of having a casual glass of wine with dinner at home, or popping out to a wine bar on a Friday night is anathema to the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Indians - and unaffordable to most of them too. In fact, cost is hugely prohibitive, thanks to national taxation of 150%, plus additional state taxation. By comparing average wages and average bottle prices, I reckon that wine is roughly four or five times more expensive than it is in the UK - so a cheap bottle of wine costs the equivalent of around £30 retail.

At Sula, however, it becomes much more affordable - hence the hundreds of people that visit every week. It reminded me very much of the kind of winery experience you'd get in Australia - with restaurants, shops and the all-important wine bar on a high terrace overlooking the vineyards. I was standing there when I saw the group below gathering for a photo - they saw me looking and struck a pose.

India is often described as a country of contrasts, and it's much the same with wine. Vetro and Sula proved that India is perfectly capable of doing wine well at both the elite and everyday level - what you have to remember is just how rare and foreign wine still is for the vast majority of the population.

Getting wine into the Indian mainstream is a formidable challenge - but with places like Vetro, Fratelli and Sula already thriving, plus an MW such as Sonal at the helm, it seems only a matter of time.

Following on from the hubbub about producers objecting to criticism of their wines, it's worth considering if there can be consensus about what makes a wine bad. There are ostensible quality factors which are allow us to agree, to a certain extent, on objectively good quality - so if those same factors are not present in a wine, can we agree that it is bad?

Let's take BLIC as the starting point: balance, length, intensity and complexity.

Balance is undoubtedly an important factor in wine, and received wisdom suggests that all the main structural elements of wine (acid, alcohol, body, sugar and/or tannin if present) should be well integrated. This sounds like a technical matter, but it almost immediately involves subjective opinion. Many wine professionals think English sparkling wine is too acidic, or that 15% Napa Valley Cabernet is too alcoholic - but others find them perfectly well balanced. In such cases, personal taste will therefore dictate quality assessment. But while the astringent tannins of young Barolo or Pauillac cannot be described as balanced, the best examples will achieve harmony with bottle age - so in this case, experience is vital to make the correct judgement.

Length is more straightforward: a wine without persistence is surely lacking one of the defining features of good quality wine. But it's not unusual for two experts to disagree on how lengthy a wine's finish might be - especially if you then consider the impact of bottle variation on older wines.

Intensity seems to suggest that the more intense a wine is, the better its quality. However, there can easily be too much of a good thing. Wines that are heavily over-extracted might be highly intense, but if the flavour is too powerful it becomes overwhelming and lacks nuance. Even so, while we might agree that dilute wines are poor quality, and that certain styles of wine (eg Chablis or Muscadet) have merit in their relative restraint, the best fine wines (eg Chablis Grand Cru or Muscadet Cru Communaux) do have intense flavour concentration.

Complexity, like length, seems a no-brainer: simple wines are not as good as complex ones. Yet personal preference inevitably plays a part here too. Are the animal aromas of wines with high levels of 4-EP from Brettanomyces a good thing or a bad thing? Again, it's entirely normal for experts to disagree as to whether the complex flavours of a wine contribute or detract to its quality level.

Added to these four factors, we might also consider typicality. Since wine is so varied according to its grape variety and origin, a sense of authenticity is part of what makes it great quality. This is immediately complicated by blind tasting, where atypical wines might be assessed favourably in their own right, but less favourably if they don't comply with their expected style - most people wouldn't want obviously oaked Riesling, for example (but it certainly exists, and could easily fit  the quality criteria stated above).

This debate has been triggered by wine producers objecting to the ability of critics, which inevitably includes their assessment of wine quality. But quality is not an objective, measurable component that everyone can or should agree on. Certain factors might seem unarguably 'bad' - a very short finish, dilute flavours or a total lack of complexity, for instance - but beyond that, it ultimately comes down to a matter of opinion.

Over the last week there have a couple of stories about wine producers fighting back against wine writers, both of which I read on wine-searcher. The first describes a producer's withering review of the ability of writers who judge en primeur in Bordeaux - read the piece here, with further detail on who's being called out here. The second concerns Domaine Huet of Vouvray, and how the owners apparently reacted badly against criticism from certain writers.

It is perfectly understandable why producers would resent negative reviews of their wines, of course; and there's no reason they shouldn't have the right to reply, even if that rarely seems to resolve the situation. 

What is unusual is how the uneasy relationship between wine producers and wine writers has been laid bare. At the heart of this relationship is a conflict: there's a large degree of co-dependence which requires mutual friendliness and collaboration, reinforced by the convivial and social nature of wine; but there's also a need for independence and integrity to eliminate (or at least, minimise) any bias.

For both parties, there is a lot to potentially gain or lose. Writers rely on the good will of producers in order to get access to wines for review (especially for the most expensive and famous examples). They also have their own reputation to consider, and how a positive or negative review might impact upon that: a low score for a first growth is a big risk, both for credibility (since the consensus is that these are great wines) and for their relationship with the producer themselves; on the other hand, excessively high scores might seem to betray a lack of critical faculty, but they are bound to curry greater favour with producers.

Whereas winemakers could lose sales if they get low scores, or be able to increase their prices and profitability based on high ones. They also have a reputation at stake, so might consider either changing their style to suit a certain critic - or simply refusing to allow them to taste in future.

From the perspective of someone that reviews wines, the primary commitment ought to be to the audience, therefore requiring complete freedom to comment as you wish about any wines - with the proviso that it is a personal opinion being expressed, and that unduly harsh comments are unnecessary.

But in reality, there's a reluctance to be explicitly negative. Sometimes that's because writers prefer to focus on the wines they enjoy, therefore keeping quiet about any wines they strongly dislike, but mostly it's because we are all aware of how fragile the tacit agreement is between those that make wine and those that write about it.

A winemaker must toil for twelve months to create a product on which their livelihood depends, while a wine writer might spend only one or two minutes to determine its fate. That might sound unfair, but it's the best system we've got. Good writers should have the skill and experience to taste wines and make their best, fair assessment in just a few moments. In an ideal world, they should also have the indemnity to pass judgement as they see fit. 

Yet as with all things wine, it's more complicated than that. This close-knit world is built on a foundation that usually allows just enough independence for writers and just enough benefit for producers. When that balance is upset, it reminds everyone involved uneasy the relationship between producers and writers can be.

Plenty going on in May, including the London Wine Fair, which kept me busy with three different masterclasses over two days, as well as more episodes of the podcast I produce with Olly Smith. In addition, I wrote the following:

• On JancisRobinson.com:
  • 24 tasting notes on the newly released Sélection Parcellaires range from Michel Chapoutier (subscription needed)
  • My monthly Spittoon column was on the maddening minutiae of wine (free to read)
  • 50 tasting notes on ports, including several from the promising 2016 vintage (subscription needed)
  • Another port was my wine of the week - Sandeman's 2013 LBV
  • And 56 tasting notes on some of the best English wines, mostly sparkling (subscription needed)
• My Living France column visited the wonderful Domaine Chave in the northern Rhône
• My Drinks Retailing News column urged us to keep our glasses half full
• While the blog got plenty of hits thanks to my summary of the most useful free online statistical resources for wine.

My 2017 collection of useful wine resources has become one of the most read blogs on this site, so here's an updated version containing all the latest wine stats and updated links.

Viti and vini reports - international

The OIV remains a vital repository of global stats relating to wine. The latest (2017) report on viticulture and viniculture can be found here. Their statistical analysis section include loads of other data, including for previous years and in multiple languages. See also the California Wine Institute's useful world statistics pdfs.

Which Winegrapes Are Grown Where? is now five years old, but there's no better free resource giving such detailed records of varieties and their hectarage.

Viti and vini reports - national

To get a more detailed breakdown of production data for specific countries isn't always straightforward. Some countries freely release official data (eg Germany), some require membership (eg Australia), while some don't seem to release any figures (eg Italy).

Here is a selection:

• Argentina: Wines of Argentina technical information (official; English and Spanish) - but not updated since 2011, seemingly
• Australia: most official data requires a subscription, although some freebies are available in the Wine Australia Market insights section
• Austria: Austrian Wine statistics report 2015 - and previous reports are available in their archive (official; English)
• Chile: Wines of Chile archive of wine production (official; English) - most recent edition is 2011
• England: reliable facts on English wine production are notoriously uncertain, but Wine GB has a basic selection here (official; English)
• France: AgriMer figures and balance sheets up to 2017 (official; French)
• Germany: Deutscher Wein Statistik 2017/18 - and lots of other stats (official; English and German)
• Italy:
  • Italian Wine Central 2011-17 (unofficial; English)
  • Wine monitor (unofficial; English)
• New Zealand: New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Report 2017 (official; English)
• Portugal: ViniPortugal statistics 2017 (official; English)
• South Africa: SAWIS statistics (official; English)
• Spain: MAPAMA wine balance  (official; Spanish)
• USA / California: Wine Institute 2015 (official; English)

Market data

Much official research data remains understandably expensive. But there are still good ways to get similar information for free.

Most of these links concern the UK market, but in many cases you can search within the website to find data for other markets.

• The WSTA facts & figures section comes from the UK wine trade's official body, providing a useful overview of the market.
• GAIN is the US governments Global Agricultural Information Network, which publishes detailed analyses of wine markets around the world. See all their reports here, and search for wine to find the relevant reports. For example, the UK Wine Market Report 2016 report contains a wealth of really detailed information about wine consumption and production trends.
• Sonal Holland MW has produced the first-ever report profiling Indian wine consumers - download the pdf.

Other resources

Here are a few other resources I have found useful:

• Ablegrape, the wine search engine, now seems to be defunct.
• Complete list of wine appellations around the world (click 'European GIs) in sidebar
• The INAO search engine (French) allows you to find the technical sheets for every French wine appellation
• Regional wine websites on JancisRobinson.com - a list of all official webpages for wine regions around the world
• Wine duty rates for every country in the EU
• I numeri del vino (Italian) has a big archive of statistical analysis on lots of wine-related matters
• My article on JancisRobinson.com about useful figures and calculations relating to wine, including loads of examples

Let me know if you have any additional suggestions to add to these!

Being as I decided last month that I needed to rewrite 90% of what I've done so far, I should probably have been working twice as hard on my novel over the last few months - but the reverse has been true. While workload has accounted for part of that slackness, the real reason is a decided lapse in motivation.

My original intention to finish the book by my 40th birthday in late July is now entirely unrealistic, and that lack of a deadline (albeit an arbitrary one) means there's nothing to aim at. The re-write that I'm about to embark on could take months or years, even, judging by my average rate of progress so far.

However, the revised synopsis which I have been tinkering with will make a much stronger book - and I'm determined not to give up. Next week, I plan to force myself to start writing again, even though the revised synopsis is still a little rough around the edges. Once I've got back into the swing of things, I should be able to estimate how much longer this project will drag on for.

With only 30-40 minutes available to work on the book each weekday morning, progress is necessarily slow. So I may well try and devote some full days to writing the book across the summer, in order to blitz the work and get a final draft finished and ready for the autumn.

So, tune in next month to hear exactly how much that plan has changed!

April was another busy month for travel (including a visit to India - pictured above) and other projects, with plenty of writing to go with it! In addition to the below writing, I also released series three of A Glass With ... which you can listen to here.

• On JancisRobinson.com:
  • A round-up of recent wine documentaries (free to read)
  • 20 tasting notes on a vertical of Clos L'Eglise (subscription required)
  • My Spittoon column was one of the most popular articles on the site, considering the roles of faith versus fact in wine (free to read)
  • In-depth profiles of some top dry white bordeaux (subscription required)
  • The first taste of a Champagne Pommery's debut English sparkling wine (free to read)
• My Living France column was a paean to Didier Dagueneau
• My Drinks Retailing News column considered why wine is like crack cocaine
• While the blog only had two posts

Last month, following the advice of a professional within the book trade, I resolved to write a synopsis to help me see where I could add more to the book, which needs to be longer by around 50% of its current length.

As part of this, I sent the manuscript as it stands to my very close friend Will, who also writes for a living and has particular expertise in television. As a result, I now have developed a much stronger plot - but it is significantly different from the current story, and involves a complete rethink of one of the main supporting characters.

In fact, it is so different that it feels a bit like starting from scratch - and I've seriously considered abandoning all the writing so far and literally opening a new blank document. Hardly the most encouraging thought, and such thoughts are usually swiftly followed by a strong urge to forget the whole thing. Which is swiftly followed by a large glass of wine.

A core problem that Will pointed out is that the main storyline - the love story between Chloe and Freddie - doesn't really work. It happens too late, too incidentally, and too un-satisfyingly. There is not enough emotional investment in their relationship, and not enough at stake for readers to particularly care why they should be together.

Instead, there's an awful lot of stuff about wine - which confirms something I was trying to avoid. My intention was always to write a book in which wine was the context, rather than the story, but that's not what I've ended up with. 

However, I've continued working on the synopsis, and have designed a much better romance storyline, based on the story structure that Will told me about here. It feels a bit hackneyed and unoriginal to copy a formula for storytelling, but this is how so many great stories are structured, I'd be stupid to deny it.

The net result is that I don't quite need to start from scratch, but I will need to change something like 90% of the text as it stands - as well as writing at least 20,000 new words.

Over the Easter holidays I was on holiday for two weeks (as pictured), so here's a late round-up of everything I wrote last month.

• On JancisRobinson.com, I wrote:
  • 35 tasting notes on Oregon wine (subscription required)
  • My Spittoon column rated the top ten UK wine brands (free to read) - and it was the second-most read article on JancisRobinson.com that month!
  • 37 tasting notes on miscellaneous American wines (subscription required)
  • 44 tasting notes on Californian wines (subscription required)
  • A wine of the week from a top producer in the northern Rhône (free to read)
  • A picture report of the JancisRobinson.com Riesling Night (free to read)
• My Living France column paid homage to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti
• My Drinks Retailing News column questioned the value of fine wine
• The blog featured three posts, including a tip on the best BYO restaurant in London

Finding a needle in a haystack might be hard, but finding a good quality yet affordable needle in a haystack is even harder. Likewise for BYO restaurants in London.

There are plenty of lists of BYO options in London (see these Google results), but when you look closer there is usually a catch. Many of them only offer corkage on a Monday night, which is a logical policy to encourage custom on the quietest night of the week, but for the same reason it's the least appealing night of the week to go out for dinner.

Others have prohibitive corkage charges (above £50 per bottle in some cases) or are located in distant parts of the city, or cook a particular style of food which might not be the most wine-friendly cuisine. Sometimes these places can work out perfectly - but in my experience, they are often not quite right.

Which is why I was so delighted to discover Foxlow. It's a small chain of casual restaurants with branches in Balham, Clerkenwell and best of all, Soho. It's an offshoot of Hawksmoor (itself a popular Monday-night BYO option, though the menu isn't cheap) and therefore has a good pedigree of well-sourced ingredients. The Foxlow menu is basic and the cooking is straightforward - and that's a very good thing. They have a choice of good steak, burgers and fried chicken plus one or two more fancy items, such as whole fried bream and smoked mackerel salad.

It's a relaxed room with good acoustics, friendly young staff and quick service. But the real kicker is unlimited, free corkage every Tuesday. I've been twice with a large group - most recently the bill came to £24 each, which bought us more food that we could finish, plus unlimited BYO.

BYO Tuesday with #thethirst11 - a Rioja from my birth year, courtesy of @mattwallswine, and an anonymous 1950s Carinena, courtesy of @RichardHemming, and apparently from the cellar of Hardy Rodenstock. My Campo Viejo Crianza 2016 is up next... pic.twitter.com/ILaffITMYA

— Guy Woodward (@guyawoodward) March 13, 2018

Win some, lose some, it’s all the same to me. https://t.co/mXZPjRVKyf pic.twitter.com/26Wl9nm8w4

— Richard Hemming (@RichardHemming) March 13, 2018

Other underrated stars of tonight’s show, not including the 1973 El Coto Rioja reserva, this gracious dusty botella de garnacha from Cariñena circa 1950 made for a celebration that never happened (both still drinkable, tea leaf in essence, but still with great fruit considering, the latter particularly-bergamot and (non aromatic) incense spice, an experimental skin contact white Grenache from @herencialteswines, a @boroughwines Casa de la borracha, a delightful priorat from @alimann2001 and this Faustino 1994, thanks @guywoodward whose aroma was iodine and intense bar none... and a quality Verdejo from @berrybrosrudd #wine #byo #spain #foxlow #nosherryinsight #outrageous #txacolineither #andwedidntcrackthecava #priorat #garnaxta #grenache #carinena #faustino #rioja #vino #winechums #brilliant #Tuesday #yum🍷

A post shared by Sophie McLean (@sophievmclean) on Mar 13, 2018 at 5:05pm PDT

It's not a Michelin-starred affair, and not trying to be. But for a good-quality casual dining option it is incredibly good value. Quite how they can stay profitable for £24/head I don't know, especially with the squeeze that so many restaurants are feeling right now. (In fact, their Chiswick branch has recently closed down, which I hope is a one-off.)

But there's no other restaurant in central London I know of that offers free mid-week corkage with good quality crowd-pleasing food. For the wine trade, this is a godsend - and we should make maximum use of it so that it doesn't get lost back in the haystack.

Last month, I attended a City Lit course entitled 'How to impress a publisher', which promised to reveal all about how to get a novel from your hard disk to a shop shelf. The good news is that it delivered exactly that insight. The bad news is that I'm now faced with much more work to do.

One of the main shortcomings of my novel is its length. At around 60,000 words, it falls short of the standard 90-100k length. This is important for an entirely pragmatic reason: there is an expected standard width for paperback novels, all of which retail for around £8 each. A shorter novel will have a thinner shelf profile and that is enough to discourage publishers, because potential buyers will be put off at the smaller size - and having to pay the same price for it.

It was made very clear to us that publishers and agents are looking for any excuse to reject submissions. The top agents can apparently receive 300 manuscripts every week but might only take on three or four new clients in an entire year. The importance of fulfilling the standard industry expectations is essential to give yourself the best possible chance. Submitting a short novel is a fast track to getting a rejection letter.

That means I need to extend the length of my novel by at least 25%, which is more than six months' work at my current rate. Therefore I won't get it finished before my 40th birthday in July - which was my original ambition. But an arbitrary date is no good reason to undermine whatever (slim) chances I have.

So now I have to figure out how to add more to my novel. Once I've finished my current round of revisions, I intend to write a single-page synopsis of the book as it stands. There are already some bits that I know could be fleshed out. In addition, I will probably need an additional subplot - and I have some initial ideas about how that could work.

The rewrites I am doing at the moment are going quite well, and are making the book stronger, I think. Something else we were told on the course was that you had to make the submission as good as it can possibly be, rather than sending in an imperfect version and implying there's room for improvement.

They also told us that a £5,000 advance would be considered very generous for a first novel, and that a bestselling debut is only sells around 20,000 copies, with a royalty of only 3% of the cover price. Evidently nobody is in this for the money ...

It was an unexpectedly busy month for me in February, which included two days in Amsterdam being filmed for the forthcoming Wine Masters documentary (as pictured). That meant things were a little quiet here on the blog - though I did manage to write something to mark my tenth anniversary as a fully fledged wine writer. Here's everything else I wrote, plus a short appearance on America's National Public Radio network (at 2:38).

• On JancisRobinson.com, I wrote:
  • A wine of the week from Bourgeuil (free to read)
  • 60 tasting notes on various wines from Rioja (subscription required)
  • 23 tasting notes from an extraordinary vertical of Royal Tokaji's sweet treasures (subscription required)
  • A provocative Spittoon column about the bottom end of Prosecco (free to read)
  • 75 tasting notes on top red bordeaux from the 2008 vintage (subscription required)
  • 57 tasting notes on some classic whites from Austria (subscription required)
  • 51 tasting notes praising the value of the Douro (subscription required)
  • 50 tasting notes reviewing the current state of McLaren Vale (subscription required)
• My Living France column basked in the glory of Coche-Dury's Corton-Charlemagne
• My Drinks Retailing News column examined how the wine trade needs an outsider's perspective
• I contributed a piece on Burgundian grapes in America for FICOFI magazine (see below)
• And there were merely three blog posts here, the most popular of gave the ten golden rules of wine writing

Or more accurately, 'how I write about wine'. Ten years ago today, my first ever piece was published on JancisRobinson.com, which is my self-indulgent excuse to cobble together the rules of writing I've set myself over the last decade.

I don't claim any of these as original or radical, nor do I always stick to them, but I would like to think they have helped develop my AWARD-WINNING (once) style. So for what they're worth, here are my ...

Ten golden rules of wine writing

1. Entertain first and foremost
   The world of wine takes itself far too seriously. Even the most technical article should be entertaining to read. That doesn't mean cracking jokes every second sentence (see rule three), it means writing in a way which is enjoyable to read using wit, creativity, storytelling and levity.
2. Write about something else
   This was always one of my favourite rules, originally inspired by reading Giles Coren's restaurant reviews in The Times. He routinely writes at least half an article on a completely different topic before even mentioning the restaurant he's reviewing. This has an important function, and it's not simply eating up word count: it gives an insight into the personality of the writer, providing useful context to the subsequent review. Even a few opening sentences on an apparently random topic can do the trick.
3. Don't try to be funny
   Trying to be funny is one of the most painful faults in writing of any kind. Granted, everyone has a different sense of humour, but forcing it never comes across well. Effective humour tends to be thrown away and understated rather than shoehorned and overworked. Funny, or funny not. There is no try.
4. Don't repeat yourself
   A nice simple one: avoid repetition. I try not to use unusual words more than once in the same article - or possibly ever. There's always another way of saying something. Forcing yourself to begin paragraphs with interesting words is a good exercise in creativity. 
5. Kill your babies
   Literally. No, not literally. But ruthless cutting is essential to develop better writing. This can be particularly gutting when you've laboured over a passage and it still isn't working - but it's these moments which usually sound exactly that: laboured. If I'm doubtful about something I've written, I grit my teeth and delete it. I heard somewhere that the writing team on Blackadder would only include a joke if it made everyone laugh. One stony face, and it was cut.
6. Get the basics right
   Practice makes perfect. Or is it practise? Getting the basics of grammar and spelling right should be non-negotiable, but there's still lots of shoddy writing out there. Having an editor makes an enormous difference, but for self-editing try reading your writing out loud. This is a great way of checking typos, clarity and comprehensibility. And if you grimace while reading any of it, refer to rule five.
7. Avoid school reports
   It was a [insert weather] morning when we arrived in [wine region] for a [duration] trip to discover its wonderful wines - and have a lot of fun along the way!
   NO NO NO NO NO.
8. Don't be wrong
   This is less about style and more about basic professionalism. Spell names correctly, never miss a deadline, get your facts right, fulfil the remit, hit the word count, trust your editor.
9. Don't swear
   Not through any oversensitive sense of decorum, but because profanity is cheap. It's nearly always more effective to achieve emphasis through more creative wordplay rather than resorting to default swear words.
10. The callback and the rug-pull
    These can sometimes be clichéd, but are two of my favourite techniques when used effectively. The callback simply picks up on an earlier funny comment and it's a useful way of rounding off an AWARD-WINNING article. The rug-pull is when you set something up but then go somewhere totally unexpected, like that time I was writing the ten golden rules of wine writing while completely naked.

After denying the inevitable for the last few months, I now realise how necessary significant rewrites are for my book. I had hoped that small re-writes for specific passages would suffice, and I planned a timetable that would mean I finished these by March.

That included a full re-write of chapter six, because it simply wasn't good enough. It's no coincidence that this was the first thing I started writing back in January 2016 (when it was chapter seven, in fact). Over the last fortnight, I have rewritten the chapter from scratch and it feels like much better quality writing. Now that I've finally written the rest of it, I inevitably have much better confidence with the tone, characterisation and style of the book.

Unfortunately, this means that large parts of the other chapters I started with will need the same treatment. So I'm faced with effectively having to rewrite the entire first half of the book. 

Groan.

This is exactly what I hoped to avoid, but I can't ignore the fact that the quality of the earliest writing is so much worse than what comes later. My absolute deadline for finishing the book was always going to be my 40th birthday on 25th July. I'm still working on the book for 30 minutes each normal work day. There are 79 of those between now and my birthday, which should allow me to rewrite around 24,000 words. 

So I'd better get on with it.

January was a busy month of tastings, with the Burgundy 2016 en primeur campaign dominating proceedings. In total, I published 785 tasting notes this month - so here's a round-up of those, and everything else:

• On JancisRobinson.com:
  • 482 tasting notes on the 2016 vintage in Burgundy (subscription needed)
  • My Spittoon column considered painkillers, headaches and cleanskins (free to read)
  • 81 tasting notes on mature Rhône wines, as far back as 1979 (subscription needed)
  • 222 tasting notes on the best of British Columbia - where I was also photographed playing the piano at Mission Hill winery, as pictured (subscription needed)
• My Living France column continued a new series on iconic French wines by focusing on Petrus
• My Drinks Retailing News column was a sobering look at the anti-alcohol brigade
• And there were four blog posts, the most popular of which was a comparison of subscription prices for wine writing websites

This week, I bought wine en primeur for the first time. Or rather, I've applied to. My application for an allocation of the wines won't be officially confirmed for several weeks yet.

I've gone for four half-cases of Rhône 2016, all of which I tasted as part of my en primeur coverage for JancisRobinson.com last year. I had no intention of buying, but The Wine Society sent a flyer this week and I happened to have some money to spend. So, after a bit of research I went for the following:

• 6 bottles x Ch de Beaucastel, Coudoulet de Beaucastel 2016 Côtes du Rhône
• 6 bottles x Delas, Dom de Grands Chemins 2016 Crozes-Hermitage
• 6 bottles x Pierre Gaillard 2016 Côte-Rôtie
• 6 bottles x Yves Cuilleron, Bassenon 2016 Côte-Rôtie

The en primeur prices per bottle are £12, £15.33, £25.83 and £28.33. However, when you add on five years of storage, plus duty and VAT, the prices will work out more like £20.60, £24.59, £37.19 and £40.19.

So the question is, will the 2016 vintage of these wines be cheaper to buy at retail in five years' time? Wine-Searcher led me to the following retail prices for older vintages of these same wines, available to buy now:

• Coudoulet de Beaucastel 2011 @ £21.98
• Delas, Dom de Grands Chemins 2010 @ £20.99
• Gaillard 2009 Côte-Rôtie @ £40
• Cuilleron, Bassenon 2011 Côte-Rôtie £42

For close to the same price, I could buy mature vintages of these wines right now, and have them to drink today. So why didn't I do that?

Seriously, why didn't I? Sort of wish I'd written this blog before placing the order.

But in fact, there is a reason, and it explains exactly why en primeur works. Firstly, the 2016 vintage is particularly good, and the en primeur prices I'm paying are at least not inflated. It is highly unlikely that these wines will be cheaper at retail in five years time (which can't be said for some red Bordeaux).

Secondly, I'm guaranteeing my share (assuming I get the allocation requested). I've tasted these wines, I know how good they are, and I don't want to miss out.

Finally, and most importantly of all, is the romance of buying en primeur. The reason wine is so compelling isn't about cold economics or rational thinking - it's about embracing the emotional pull of wine. Not just the endlessly intriguing flavours, but the personal connections to the producer, the place, the vintage.

Until this week, I've never been able to afford to buy en primeur. Frankly, I could probably have spent the £500 I'm paying for these 24 bottles on much wiser things. But the connection that I get for that purchase is worth more than the money. Years from now, I will take delivery of these cases and feel a much greater sense of connection and anticipation than if I'd bought older vintages found online via a search engine. Wine, after all, is not about objective quality of flavour, but what particular bottles subjectively signify to us as individuals.

That's the real lure of en primeur.

By the end of this week, I should have worked through my first draft making all the changes I annotated in the hard copy. The cuts and edits mean the length is now below 60,000 words, which is painful because it means I almost certainly need to write additional new material. There's nothing wrong with a short novel in itself, but I think mine will need more to build up the shortcomings in plot and characterisation.

Of which there are plenty. Once I've finished the first edits, I intend to print and read the whole thing in one sitting so that I get a good impression of where most work is needed. I already have an inkling as to what the weak points are, as follows:

• certain similes and imagery and repeated too often
• using magazine articles (written by one of the characters) to explain plot details is probably too obvious and clunky
• the relationship between two of the supporting characters doesn't really serve any purpose
• the courtship between the two main characters probably needs to be longer
• the characterisation is inconsistent, including speech patterns

This potentially involves significant rewriting and additions, and I'm not sure yet whether to do this before sending it to agents and publishers. That ultimately depends on whether it's good enough to send out as it stands. It might be more useful to get feedback from publishing professionals about what changes are most important rather than spending another six months writing. 

Besides, I'm keen to get the book into other people's hands and have started thinking about how to do that. I've signed up for a one-day course at City Lit called How to impress a publisher, and I'm also thinking about what genre it fits into - probably romantic fiction. I wish it was literary fiction, but it really isn't. And I definitely don't want to call it wine fiction. Hopefully the course will help me figure out this sort of thing.