It’s 2 in the morning and I’m still up. Why? Partly because I’ve had a great and stimulating day. It began with a talk from a Kiwi called Bob Franklyn that touched on many things, but that gave major prods about what it means to be community. Now whether we like it or not, we’re all part of some community or other – geographical, work-related, hobby-related etc.

Then this evening, I’ve been talking with my sister Stella who lives in Melbourne, but is over to see what the Aussies call The Olds – and of course to be pressed into babysitting duty by my immediate clan. Stella’s one of my favourite stimulators. At our worst, we bicker about irrelevancies, and at our best, we push each other onwards and upwards. And for someone like that, I want to pull out, not the trophy wines, but wines that move us (OK, a repetition) onwards and upwards.

She’s gone to bed now, as has Jill, leaving me alone with a BBC4 concert of Leonard Cohen and the remains of our last stimulating bottle. It’s from Corsica, the Domaine Saparale 2006 Corse Sartene. It’s a wine that started off shy and wispy, but which over a couple of hours has emerged to show a gentle, smoky plum and pomegranate flavour, pepped up with rather more ethereal kirsch-like fragrances. Like Leonard, it’s youth has passed, but it’s all the better for having passed into confident maturity. Expect more about both Stella and stimulating wines in the next few posts – while she’s over in Blighty, I’d be daft not to combine the two.