The Jimmy rumour mill
The Jimmy Watson Wine Bar still stands in Lygon Street, Melbourne. It was on this site that Jimmy Watson, before his death in 1962, would himself bottle his favourite red wine of the previous vintage to sell to his customers. The selection process was simple: he would taste barrel samples from a number of producers and order hogsheads of his favourite for delivery six months later once the maturation was complete.
These were early days for Australian dry reds, and earlier still for a proto-en-primeur system. Jimmy Watson’s wine became legendary among Melbournians. So on this death, his son...