Gentle Reader, the fates have conspired against the Prick. Where once I was supposed to touch down in Sydney in the early evening and have several hours of blogging bliss to give a full account of travels in the Yarra Valley and points north, the weather has conspired to bring me home sometime after 10 and it’s all I can do to make a tuna sandwich, have a slug of Glenmorangie, and steel myself for a return to the dark Satanic mills.

But watch this space! Full accounts of great wineries known (Yarra Yering, I’m looking in your direction) and unknown (lay in as much Madden’s Rise as you can, especially the reserve shiraz, before it goes all cult-ey and unobtainable) as well a bizarre experience at the most over-rated, hard-to-leave hotel this side of The Shining over the coming days.