Wine, women and summits…

The EU commission, we are told by yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph is convening an emergency wine summit to tackle the European Union's surplus of four billion bottles, which swallows up €1.2 billion to €1.6 billion (£810 million to £1 billion) of taxpayers' money each year.

Brussels officials have summoned 150 senior figures from Europe's wine industry for talks this week on how to reduce the surplus. They will be asked to present options to the unpopular practice of distilling millions of litres of cheap table wine into industrial alcohol, to keep it off the drinks market and to shore up prices.

Of course, if they follow normal commission practice and indulge in a number of long, liquid lunches, that should make a serious dent in the problem. And, by the way, how do you have wine "summits"? I thought EU wine came in lakes. Perhaps they should have their meetings in rowing boats.

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