Get it while the going's good! Or buy it this weekend when it's reduced to clear

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of tasting the 2001 Morgan Chardonnay from Monterey, California. It was passed its peak and I was thrilled. Finally a wine in decline that didn't originate from my own stock or my friends' cache. If you are a big fan of this oaky and modern wine, picking it up for about $34 instead of the usual $45 might interest you. Sorry to turn my review into a disclaimer, but this as well as most of the products in the SAQ's Inventory Sale seem to come with a little bit of an asterisk. They are not marking them down for nothing. But the range of items that are being cleared out is so vast and varying that the sale is worth checking out before Sunday, when it ends. He who hesitates though. This morning I arrived the Beaubien SAQ Sélection right at 9.30 am, when the store opens its doors. Before I could survey all the marked-down bottles, a couple of priced-to-sell racks were already bare. Some people really know what they like. Why not get out there and be one of them, sale or no sale.

Backwash
I predicted it, but I had no idea it would be so dramatic. All the Wolf Blass flowing in Melbourne must have gotten Nicolas Kiefer into the rallying fury that won him this amazing five-set encounter with Sébastien Grosjean during the quaterfinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday. Kiefer, 28, is from Holzminden, a town in East Germany, which is where the legendary Wolf Blass migrated from before launching into his successful career in the Australian wine industry. Now the Blass brand is the official wine of the Open, along with many other glittering events. If Blass is at the pinnacle of his career, Kiefer is nearing the top of his. A Grand Slam semifinal is likely the best result in Kiefer's history. Beating Roger Federer to enter this weekend's championship match would beyond a doubt be his greatest achievement ever. The semi starts in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow, so I wish him luck now. Go Nicolas!