Melanie Drane spoke with Adrian Bridge at Taylor's cellars in Vila Nova da Gaia, Portugal in April 1997.
MD: I wonder if you could describe the '94 vintage to me in your own words, and where the grapes came from, and so forth..
AB: 1994 was quite a sad year for us as a company because right in the middle of the harvest, our winemaker, David Guimaraen's wife, was diagnosed with cancer. He had to leave about two days after harvest had started and return to England with her. And a year later, she passed away, so it was a very sad time for us as a group.
But the 1994 harvest on a brighter note, will be remembered for the wine that we made. We had had a wonderful run of good years, '91, '92, excellent wines. We chose to declare '92 rather than '91. But in a Wine Spectator tasting of both vintages, we had 4 of the top 5 wines.
Then nature sought its revenge. 1993 was unbelievably disappointing. 1993 is the first year from which we won't make an LBV. For many many years, we've been able to make an LBV every year. 1993, it just started to rain and just did not stop throughout harvest, and we did not get the quality of grapes. That rain continued, and we had a very wet winter. It's always interesting when you look back thru the tasting notes and the viticultural side of things, to see what makes a great year vs. not a great year.
And there's very little that you can say, except that quite often, a very nice wet winter is a good prelude to a good year. Absence of rain in harvest helps. That's exactly what we had. The '93 harvest was wiped out by rain, but during the winter, a lot of rainfall replenished water levels, and then the year progressed as we would expect.
Then, unfortunately, we did have quite a bit of rainfall in about May, in the middle of flowering. And the rainfall then actually caught the vineyards right in the middle of flowering. It's very interesting, because normally, if you go to somewhere like Vargellas, where you've got vineyards right by the river, and vineyards a thousand foot up, it's a two-week difference between when things start at the bottom, and when things start at the top.
The rainfall came right in the middle. Near the river, the bottom part of the vineyard had flowered and was all right, and the top hadn't started. But the middle part was right in the middle and got hit by heavy rain. And of course that probably had the worst, most devastating effect, so in parts of the Douro, the yield was down by as much as 40 percent.
But like all these things, nature sort of repays you. And the fact that a lot of the bunches were set didn't happen because of the rainfall. We ended up with a much more intense harvest, and I think that it was very clear when we were bringing it in in 1994 that we were dealing with some very wonderful wines. The grapes were coming in, in some places, at close to 14 degrees Beaume, so quite rich in sugar. We'd had a lovely hot summer, just a couple of day of rainfall at the end August, which was quite useful to just finish it off.
We then spent the entire vintage-I was up there the entire time-with the threat of rain every day, clouds would come over, it would cool down. And you'd think, Oh my God, it's going to rain this afternoon. But it wouldn't, it would go off to Spain or do whatever it did. And that continued for the two weeks. The important thing about that was that it allowed us, with the cooler conditions, to get slightly longer fermentation, slightly more skin contact.
So you're already bringing in absolutely superb fruit, where because of the reduction of the rainfall at a very critical time, all the vines' power has gone into less bunches, producing wonderful, concentrated fruit, where all good wines start. Then we had this period of much cooler weather during the harvest which allowed us to get very good fermentation periods. It makes a big difference. Fermenting port is a three-day process, thirty, thirty-six hours, and an extra six hours is, in percentage of time, quite big.
The wines themselves-so we produced these wonderful, big, powerful wines. And as we always do them in seperate lots. In fact with a number of different parts of vineyards at Terra Feita, we vinify them seperately, and Vargellas...we vinify them seperately and then bring the bins back together (the same at Cruzeros, Santa Antonio and Panascal). We were looking at those in early '95, it was very obvious that we were dealing with big powerful wines.
We went on to declare, as is our tradition, on St. George's Day, 23 April 1996. But a lot of people had already made comments-it was very generally accepted-that the '94 harvest was exceptional. I think it's been probably the first uniform declaration since 1985.
In the case of our wines, in the case of the blends, obviously for Fonseca, it comes from the 3 properties, Panascal, Cruzeros, and Santa Antonio. In the case of Taylor, from Terra Feita and Vargellas. The exact mix is always slightly difficult to determine. What is, I think, unique, and one of the great things about vintage port, is that each of these properties and vineyards is bringing different things, different characteristics to it.
It's very difficult for us to say, a Taylor classic, oh, well, it's half Terra Feita, half Vargellas, because it does depend on the weather. That's because Terra Feita and Cruzero, which are actually next door to each other, sit in the Pinhao Valley, quite low down, and get very hot, and produce big, structured wines. Whereas at Vargellas which is north-facing, you tend to get much more floral, very aromatic wines, very delicate flavors. It's the combination of bringin those two together which really makes the blend.
We felt we'd made a great wine. We actually, in our own opinion, felt that the '94s are probably better wines than the '92s. That's not to decry the 1992s. There are some observers around the world, who have rated our 1992 as a perfect wine. How do you treat that, how do you do an encore to something that's been considered the perfect wine?
I think it comes down to the individual characteristics of the year. Big wines from '94, wines that have got tremendous fruit, structure, and longevity. But the '92s were glorious wines that are perhaps a little more forward, which for some people is a preferred style. We feel that '94s have got greater longevity. In a sense how we look at things quite often, longevity becomes a quite important factor.
MD: This raises an issue that many wine writers have addressed recently. The vintage port boom in the US has been accompanied by a predilection for grapey, young vintage ports. People seem to really like the upfront, fruity lush style of young port. Some wine writers, particularily in the UK, are a bit taken aback at this sort of infanticide.
I've heard among other port producers the reaction that "Well, we can't dictate to people when and how they should consume their wines." How do you personally view this trend, at least among American consumers? Do you hope that this is maybe a stage in the evolution of the American port market, and people will move on to appreciate the wines in a more mature stage of development?
AB: You raise a number of questions there. I can certainly remember before I joined this business even, having a-- how should I put it-- a "discussion" with my mother-in-law on exactly this issue. And I rather feel that once you've sold it to people, it's up to them to do what they want. One can only sit and advise, I don't think one can dictate.
But I think that there are several issues here. Certainly, the American market likes to consume these wines young. But I think that's because the American market likes to discover these wines. When they read in the paper, here is the Taylor '94 has been rated 100 points from Wine Spectator--wonderful, rich, berry fruit--what does it taste like? They can read about it and say, right, well, I'll put this article aside, and I'll dust it off in 20 years time, and I'll taste it. Of course the wine would be different.
They want to taste it, and that's perfectly fair, because I think a lot of people are learning about wines in America. That's not specifically unique to port, that ranges from the reserve Cabernets in California, to whatever. They want to learn and discover and to do that, you've got to taste it.
But I think one also has to remember that the US market is also a very good consumer of mature vintage ports. What has happened in the last several years is that they haven't been able to source those mature vintage ports so easily as before. That is because of a number of factors that came together in the early '90s, when Americans were getting into wine in a serious sort of way, with" 60 Minutes" and "The French Paradox," and so on, and wine was booming. Port was increasing--led of course, by aficionados, people who knew a little about wine, and therefore were interested to discover port. We are a small industry--10 1/2 million cases is nothing by Californian standards of production--if you consider that only 1% of that is vintage port, you're actually talking about a very small amount of wine.
You don't need many consumers to make the consumption figures look good. But what was interesting at that stage was that Britain, in the middle of its recession, was undergoing a couple of critical key forces or factors.
In a recession, consumption of vintage port was down and a lot of traditional wine merchants were going out of business, for two reasons. First, it's tougher, as a small independent, to stay in business in the middle of a recession. But second, the power of the British supermarket was really being felt with regards to wine distribution. If you go back 10 years ago, supermarkets accounted for maybe 20-30% of the distribution network. Now they're well in excess of 50-60%. So as that was happening, it was driving independents out of business. Those independents were people who traditionally sit on vintage port. That vintage port came up for sale; there wasn't the domestic demand within England in the middle of a recession....so it found other markets, being the Far East and the United States.
At the same time, we also saw restructuring in the hotel trade. For example, the Savoy sold its cellar which included some wonderful clarets and some wonderful vintage port. A lot of those found their way by brokers to the US.
There was another key factor that came on top of that, which, if you like, pushed it over the edge. Lloyds of London came in difficulty. Lloyds of London is this unlimited liability insurance market that is predominantly the domain of the upper-middle class of Britain, i.e. the purchaser of vintage port. They were going through their crisis. It meant that a number of those names were being asked to sum up cash and not unreasonably, some of them were choosing to sell their ports before they sold their houses. That was creating an additional source of supply, but at the same time, it was also taking out the one consumer that could have been absorbing the supply coming from hotels and merchants going out of business.
So where did that vintage port go? It got packaged by the brokers and sold into America. So I think that in the early '90s, what you've seen has been a huge consumption of mature vintage ports. Yes, young vintage ports, because the industry has been able to supply it, but they've also been a huge consumer of old vintage ports. So I think that to me points more to a market that was experimenting and learning, consuming a number of different styles of vintage port.
If you just look at the Portuguese side of the story, you get a slightly different picture. When I travel around the US, I see a lot of restaurants that have got '63s, '66s, and so on, on the back bar. I always say, when I see a restaurateur that the one thing they should try not to do with these wines, which are very delicate wines, best consumed within 24 or 48 hours after being opened-don't keep it on the back bar for amonth, because it isn't going to taste the same. You're asking people to pay $30, 40, 50 for a glass, you ought to be delivering it to them in top condition. And that part of the message is catching on. The American port market has changed enormously.
It's been a market that's been in a classic development cycle. You've had vintage port, from the people who know about wines, love wines, buying here, people who've got the disposable income to source wines from around the world, who understand wines from around the world. And you've had vintage character, entry-level wines, for people who're discovering what it's all about. And there hasn't really been much in between. What you're seeing now is explosive growth with the LBVs and the aged tawnies. In 1996, aged tawnies were up 79% in the US, a huge growth-granted, off a fairly low base, but it's a huge growth.
America is an entree market. Over 50% of port is consumed in restaurant environments, which is purely because of the state that the market is in, a development state. A year ago, I said that America would be a million-case market within five years. Fortunately, now, one year on, having seen it go from 200,000 cases to 310,000 cases, it's nudging that way. But I really do think it's going that way. But the market's not going to just be young vintage ports, I think it's going to be very broad.
MD: I wonder what role you see for the development of the single-quinta ports, particularily considering the consumer appeal of being able to associate a particular wine with a piece of land, the way one does with other great wines of the world.
AB: In most wine-regions of the world, you deal with a property. Champagne is probably the only other region where you get this sort of blending of different properties to produce a vintage blend.
Single quintas have got a very important role to play. We were very early on with Quinta da Vargellas [QdV]. In fact QdV was selling very well in the middle of the last century, and more recently, and very consistently since the mid-fifties. One also thinks of properties like Quinta do Noval, which is in itself a single quinta, although they are also shippers., so it's a somewhat different situation
But those single quintas have always historically offered people a chance to enjoy a vintage port probably at a slightly lower price point. I think that we will see a quite considerable increase in those. But I think there's certainly an element of understanding that's got to go on. You see, they're often described by the press as being the second wine. When you use that term, one tends to think of Bordeaux, where the second wines come from younger vines, or their less good wine that ends up going into, say, Fort de Latour. It has a wonderful reputation, but it is a second wine.
Whereas when you think of port, you have a vintage, maybe 3 times a decade--9-10,000 cases; it's tiny by comparison to Bordeaux production. The years we're not declaring, we make a single quinta. I think when people understandi that it's not a second wine of a great year, but actually, a wine on its own, then I think it helps to understand it. So there's an education process that has to take place.
But I think it's also important, another trend that's happening, if you like, is that people have historically gone by the year; it didn't matter who shipped it, it went by the year. And certainly there's been reassessment of things like '85, one of the great, if not the best, vintage of the '80s. Wine Spectator has recently downgraded their assessment of 1985. Why? Well, a lot of the wines have got volatile acidity. Well, they've had that for a while, it's just that commentators didn't get 'round to writing about it. Now the WS is recognizing about it, and good for them to stand up and be counted.
But what's happening in the port world is that people are starting to sort out the houses, between those who are genuinely first-growth, those who are genuinely and consistently producing top wines. I think consistency is a word that should be used; it's a strong word. And those houses who were hopping in on the back of a good call: "'94 is a great year-- let's make a wine, sell it, we can sell it-- the market's there." Yes it is, but how will those wines be in 20 years?
People are much more willing to follow the house. And I think therefore that the role for single quintas from top houses becomes much, much more important because I am absolutely convinced that people would rather have QdV from a year that we didn't declar than other people's declared wines. And that seems to be the situation with '91, '92. That is the situation when you talk of Bordeaux, the Le Pins, the Petruses, the first growths, wines that people follow slavishly-- that's the wrong word-- enthusiastically, rather than buy third-growths from what's considered a top year. Follow the house, not the year. And that's beginning to happen in port.
And single quintas begin to do that. yes, there's the characteristic of the different property. When you think of something like Fonseca Guimaraens, it get lumped into that single-quinta bracket, but in fact, our description of it as a non-classic is a more accurate description because it actually is blended from the same three properties that we blend Fonseca vintage from.
MD: I wonder if what you've just described perhaps suggests-- and I'm just throwing this out into the open for your reaction-- whether the concept of vintage is in fact in flux in the port industry. If there is a reinforcement of the single-quinta vintage ports, perhaps people will come to perceive "vintage" as they do with other great wines outside the port industry, where a vintage means a particular year.
AB: That suggests that we would make it more frequently than we do, and I'm not sure that we will. We're dealing with a long-lived wine, we're dealing with people-production, and reputations. Indeed a number of port companies have made superb wines over the years that are still drinking tremendously well today, despite the fact that the ownership of those companies may have changed twenty years ago.
What we're seeing now is the consolidation of the industry of the early '70s beginning to catch up with the production in the industry. Think of people like Cockburns-- wonderful company, had a stunning reputation for their vintage ports. But in the early '70s, the ownership changed, and the focus of the business changed. That's not to say that it is wrong; what they do, they certainly do very well. But they focus on making vintage character. It's no secret that if you go and talk to them that they didn't make 1977 because they needed to use the wine to up the level of the vintage character. That's fine. In one sense, one looks back and says, "What a loss." But for them, no, it was the right decision for their business. That's not wrong. But it means that when you accept that people have a different business focus, then I think you can accept what's happening in the industry.
Seagrams and Sandemans-- Seagrams owns distribution thru-out the world. Seagram want to have 600,000 cases of Founders' Reserve that they can put through that distribution system. What are they going to do with 6000 cases of Sandeman vintage? Tough. So it's not surprising: they don't make it anymore. They might tell you, well, you know, it's only a temporary things, and la di da, because everyone knows that their reputation was made on vintage port, perhaps, but the business focus has changed.
So the sensible thing is: is it that we're going to end up making a vintage every year? No. Our vintage will always remain special. Less houses perhaps will be making it, or will be making it as seriously. Consumers will be following the house more than the year, following the people with a reputation for making wines at that end of the market. And I think in the long term-- you are seeing it already in the price-- that consumers reward consistency.
You were staying yesterday with a firm that in fact, in the '70s, made some very indifferent wines. That's the problem. If you make a bad vintage, you know, it's around for a whole generation. You can't shake it off. And in a sense that's why we pay as much attention as we do, and go through the agonies that we do-- do we declare it or not-- because my son will be saying to me, "Thanks Dad,"-- it'll either be genuinely "Thanks, that was good," or "Oh my God, why did you make that decision thirty years ago." It's a long business, this.
MD: One or two last questions. How do you see the character of the port trade changing now, given the number of family business that have been taken over by large corporations in recent years?
AB: Just recent years-- I think a lot of that change actually took place in the early seventies. We are the last family-owned company. Even what we consider our great competitors in terms of vintage port, like the Symington family who own Dows, Warres, Grahams, they're 20% owned by Pernod-Ricard, and they have been for 20 years, with a very heavy focus on the French market, which is fine.
But they're family controlled, and of course, in any family business you tend to have a long-term horizon, and this is a business of long-term horizons.
How is it changing? I think I'd go back again to the point I was making earlier about how this business is structured and the sheer fact that 82% of all port is that young wine. That is a very legitimate business for people to go after. It is not wrong. The houses that perhaps once, when they were family-owned companies focused on vintage port now focus on what is the biggest part of the market. Indeed, if one is in the investment banking world, you know, think of a company that is limiting its horizons by just focusing on one small sector. How big can we grow, if we're only actually dealing at the top end of the market, that top 6%?
In a sense, you're never going to get quite the volume growth, the only thing you're going to find is price will move. So, the multinationals have brought different dimensions undoubtedly, and perhaps will change the character of the business. They're not wrong in terms of what they do. It's meant that less firms are focused on what were drinking now, which is a 20-year-old tawny, because the multinationals long-term is 6 months or a year maybe in really long term. It's not 20 years, they don't put wine aside.
You know last year, we put wine aside which my son will sell. I'll probably be dead by the time he's selling it. You know, 40-year-old tawnies. You can only do that in a family business. So that's the end of the business that will change. You won't find companies putting wine aside for those old tawnies, that will shrink.
But in terms of the basic business, and in terms of vintage port and everything else, I think we'll be playing the vintage at the premium end of the market. The multinationals will be playing the bigger end of the market. And we'll be living alongside each other, perfectly happy.
MD: If I might change the subject slightly, I'd like to ask about table wines. We've had some at Ramos-Pinto, and again last night at Quinta do Noval, which is apparently going ot be released soon...
AB: ...and you just had a white wine today at lunch that we make, Fonseca's Dom Prior '95, extremely fine wine, light, fresh, goes very well with food! [laughs]
I think the Douro region, if you look at it, the demarcated region, we're probably one of the most controlled businesses in the world: where we plant the vines, how we do it, how much we can make into port, where we can store it, where it's aged, how much we can sell it at. Every aspect of our business is controlled. But if you get to that very basic aspect of how much port is made, in the demarcated region, you've probably got the capacity to make 20 million cases of port.
But we only make as much port as was sold the previous year, so there's only about 10.5 million made. Therefore you've got 10 million-odd cases of wine that goes where? And of course it goes into the local market, as sort of rough red wine. Historically, a lot of it went into the distillate market for distillation. With the advent of modern winemaking systems in the Douro-- where you know controlling temperature is critical-- a lot more people are paying more attention to the table wine business. They've got the grapes; they're having to make the wine anyway, because by making port with their license, we have to make red wine anyway, but why sell it for distillate? Why not make it more carefully and use more controlled methods that we can use, we've got all sorts of things we can do now with stainless steel and God knows what, that can really produce wonderful wine that's easy, light and easy to drink when it's young.
So all the port companies are focusing on this and thinking, well, if we're going to make this anyway, let's actually make something decent and let's sell it. Can we sell it for more than if we sell it as distillate, and will it get in the way of our core business? And that second aspect is probably the more important one. Will it get in the way?
Because when you make a red wine, there's a lot more control required, in terms of racking, the malolactic fermentation, and so on-than with port, which tends to be made simple and then put aside. You can't do that with red table wine. So that's happening. The region can undoubtedly produce some wonderful wines. Grape varieties like Roriz can make big, Rjoja-style wines. that people are doing very successfully.
You've got companies like Fereira, a Portuguese company, who have been doing it successfully for many years. In fact, Fereira demonstrate extremely well the potential and the conflict. They had many years ago grade-A grapes with which they couldn't make port for one reason or another and they ended up making it into red table wine. They thave this thing called Barcavelha. It is probably the most expensive Portuguese table wine and indeed, it's a stunning table wine. In fact I served it to an English writer called Clive Coates some years ago. He has a palate that I very much respect, and it was the Baracavelha '66. He thought he was dealing with first-growth '61. [...]
The only problem that the region will have in the longer term with this regard is the cost. Because of the quality, because of the inability to mechanize as efficiently like other parts of the world, like Chile, or the Central Valley in California, or Australia, or whatever, we are going to be limited in terms of cost. So therfore it's always going to be a little more expensive.
That is the negative side. What we have very much on the positive side for table wines of the Douro is that Portuguese grape varieties are unique, very unique flavors. There is a certain part of the world that doesn't want to drink another glass of Merlot, another Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay; they want to drink something different.
Malvase Fino, Malvesia Rei, which we make, that rather nice white wine, we've been making that since the late '80s, cold-fermented at Vargellas-a lovely wine, much a food wine rather than perhaps a general drinking wine. I'm sure that Noval's wine is the same, goes terribly well with food. It's an interesting grape variety, it's something that you don't get from other parts of the world.
That is very much on the positive side and I think that looking down the next few years, you're going to see more companies focusing on it; it's going to become a much more lucrartive business. And I think that some of the perceptions that exist in the world toward Portuguese wines, perceptions that were borne from the really the first successful, branded, commercial wine around the globe, which was and still is, Sogrape's Mateus Rose-that has been an overhang for the Portuguese wine industry, a sucess, but it's meant that people have categorized Portugal's table wines in a certain way. I think people are overcoming that, and I think people are seeing just how interesting they are-the diversity, the number of different grape varieties, the extraordinary different regions. The Douro is producing great wines, but you go down to Colas [sounds like "collage"] just outside Lisbon and you get these grapes that are grown in the sand qith the Atlantic howling on them; you can actually taste the saltiness in the grapes. Extraordinary. You go inland a bit, Perquita, the Alentejo. You've got a huge gambit...
Port companies and people involved in the Douro will undoubtedly seek to release that potential.
Quinta do Craxto has got an Australian wine maker and they are principally marketing their table wines and selling their port behind them, whereas as most people do the opposite.
MD: That's David Baverstock, isn't it?
AB: Yes, he joined them about a year or so ago. And you know, good luck to them. I think they're making good wine...You will also find smaller people doing it. Quinta de la Rosa owned by the Bergovitz family, they're making port but also marketing their table wine.
For some of the bigger companies like ourselves, you'll see perhaps production from us, but you won't see branded production in the same way. In other words, unless we can make table wine that would equal the wine market stature that our ports equal, we're unlikely to sell it as a Taylor-branded table wine. It's time.
Now, there's only Fonseca Dom Prior. Within our group, there is some wine, but I don't think you'll see Taylor-branded wines.
Dom Prior is a lovely wine. We feel if we're going to make a red that has our name on it, though, that it absolutely has to be top, top, top. You don't spend 300 years building a reputation as one of the world's greatest wines in the sense of our port, and then go and produce something that's nice but not a stunner. So people like ourselves will do it more overtly, or quite the opposite, we'll take a round-about way of doing it. We'll also spend an awful lot of time making something that's absolutely stunning before we release it. With the Dom Prior, having done that work, I think we now have a wine that is extremely good and extremely drinkable. The next phase on that will be to increase production.
MD: I suppose that it's impossible, or at least highly unlikely, that you'll ever move more wine production to the Douro, as Quinta do Noval has done.
AB: The thing about Quinta do Noval is that it is a single property. The combined production out of Vargellas-- there's a modern winery there-- is bigger than Noval, but it happens to be just a part of our group. In a sense, they've always been in the Douro. Companies like ourselves, I mean, we would dearly love to go to the Douro, in a sense, if we could. We here have lodges right in the middle of the historic zone. There's no other use for these properties. You cannot sell them for what they would otherwise normally be worth as central city properties. So, the payback is well over 20 years, to try to move all this to the Douro, because we own it all. Noval didn't; they were renting lodges down here, so it was fairly easy for them to go back to the Douro when the law was changed. I don't see it for us, I don't see it for any major shippers, because of the assets that we have tied up here.
That's not to say that we may not store wines in the Douro; I'm sure we will. We already do, but I'm sure it will be more. That's not to say that we won't focus different parts of our business more on the Douro. But I don't see us leaving these sites, because you'd never, never get the value for it. It just doesn;t stack up. For Noval it was easy. That's money; it's money more than anything else. When you see the lodges we've got here, with these ancient roofs that you have to keep up, the floors-- that if we could build flat-sided industrial shed, humidity-controlled and air-conditioned, with cement floors, you could run forklifts around, have less people, less costs, we could run it far more efficiently and we could make great wines. But it wouldn't be quite the same character as this. But you don't make that sort of level of investment unless there is a very significant payback. And the only way that could occur would be if we could sell these properties for other uses, and I don't see it.
So no one is going to do it, not from here, unless you change the zoning laws.
MD: It's pretty remote up there.
AB: Yeah, it's remote up there. But I can assure you. Porto is a lovely place, but I would dearly love to live full time in the Douro. You can imagine, it's stunningly beautiful, you can have a lovely house in this country. You can go out your door and go out for a walk for 3 or 4 hours...But I don't see it happening, not in my lifetime. I just don't, because the zoning laws aren't going to change. Because where you are now, right in the heart of the Vila Nova da Gaia, with the stunning views of the Old City, which is now actually World Heritage site, this is so ancient, so full of culture, so much a part of the city, so much apart of the tourism, and what Oporto is all about. This isn't going to change; people aren't going to throw all this away and put tower blocks over where we're sitting. It just isn't going to happen. But if they did, yeah, sure, that would give us an awful lot of money. We could go and build air-conditioned things in the Douro. And probably spend 6 months sitting on the beach in the Bahamas......
MD: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today.
(c) Copyright Melanie Campbell Drane, 1997