The world recession is bitten deep. The signs have been everywhere, especially in UK charity shops where finding interesting shirts has become extraordinarily difficult. Not quite as difficult as finding a banker who is prepared to forego their bonus but not far off!

Over the past two or three years I have made many a fruitless foray into charity shops and emerged a few seconds later empty-handed – rejecting the rows of drab and tedious shirts on offer.

Finally last Friday I struck lucky in London's Forest Hill with the shirt above. Moreover it's a shirt that expresses a terroir and its associated grape variety: Carignan planted on friable blue schist in Roussillon's interior. Sadly I don't have the expertise to narrow it down to a particular commune, so I'll leave that to our experts – Michel and Luc.

Disappointingly the price of these shirts has rocketed during the recession. I paid £5.50, when they used to be around £3. 

To come very shortly a review of two recently published books.

Jim