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“The message from Madiera was written in sparkling gold “Texta.”

“When all is lost

way out at sea

reach for the Madeira”

It was signed; Georgia Best (attorney at law.)

And addressed to; Mathew@Flinders, Fine Wine Merchants, Fairhaven, Victoria

It was posted from Funchal, Madiera.

And so starts the book, “The lost Wines Degustation Society.” A book about wine and the world of wine, written by a winemaker. A book about postcards, sent to Mathew & Flinders Fine Wine Merchants Fairhaven and displayed on a postcard wall directly above and corresponding to the wines racked below. A book about the customers, staff, family and friends of the shop. Wine folk all and all with tales to tell. Tales of places sun drenched in wine, Beach side cafe’s and the Languedoc hills. It is a story about love, all kinds of love and a story about Lost, all sorts of lost. It is a story about belonging, in this country, in this town, and in the “Lost Wines Degustation Society.

It’s all about the postcards.

They are the prompt especially so if they reflect the era, when the wines were at their zenith. This photo taken in the Herault, the region of France around Narbonne and Montpellier. Grenache vineyards, along with cinsaut, mouvedre, shiraz, some muscat a petit grains, around Frontignac, two themes of the book. Those wonderful regional wines which are slowly being lost to the lost to the “Standard Varieties” and the old desert wines, the Frontignacs, Muscat a Beune de Venice, Banyul, even Fino sherry and Portuguese Port. These are the wines on Mathew’s Postcard wall, the “Lost Wines of the World.”