The red, the white and the read all over

Marketing and fine wine go together quite naturally, so it should come as little surprise to learn that The Value Engineers development director Graham Harding has followed up his co-written book The Bluffers Guide to Marketing with one about the pleasures of the vino.

A Wine Miscellany is less about whether you should opt for Blue Nun or Lambrini with your chicken nuggets, and more about the wines enjoyed by James Bond, the intriguing story behind “Fat Bastard” wine and how Osama Bin Laden made life difficult for one would-be importer of Portuguese wine in the US. The book also tries to get away from subjects such as grape types and tasting notes, which Graham claims is only of interest to “cork dorks”.

The official launch party for the book will be held on November 29 at El Vino in London, where we are promised “a few words from Graham, but only a few”. And depending how far on we are into proceedings, those words may well be indecipherable.