Careful with your AVAs

[Joe Schmoe]

Well said, Tom!

Potentially the best regional policing system in the world is Australia's self-governing Label Integrity Programme. With all relativiely young systems, there are bound to be teething problems, but I think, on the whole, Australia has got it write. The very nature of the way that international journalists have tackled Australian wine articles, using an increasingly terroirist approach, shows that it is a success, surely. As you stipulated, Tom, policing is money wasted. Self-government is the way forward. As long as the consumer knows exactly what he is buying from what is written in the label, and a healthy show/competition circuit is in place, wines will find their own level on the quality ladder. Rules will always be bent and broken to the consumer's detriment so don't impose any!

Joe Wadsack