And so, macerating gently away, are two five litre buckets of Vin de Noix, one a mixture of shop Alcohol, Crushed Green Walnuts, Red St. Chinian and Sugar and exactly the same in the other except the alcohol was bottled in 1940, nine years before I was born, and had already yielded about one quarter to the angels.

Still it was with true humility that I pulled the cork, it did resist slightly but then slid out, really astounding that the person who had handled it last and hammered it home did so 74 years ago.

Maruration is forty days until the 21st July….. If I last…….