Spectator wine club.(Product/Service Evaluation)

Last week someone published a, list of the best-selling 'brands of wine in the UK, and depressing reading it made. At No. 1, Blossom Hill, from California; at 2, Australia's Jacob's Creek; 3, Gallo of California; and at 4, heaven help us, Stowells of Chelsea.

I don't want to be snobbish, and some of these companies make a few half-decent wines. But mostly they are mass-produced, heavily promoted rubbish, put together by chemists to fill the gap in the market created by the admen. People buy them because they are a little afraid of wine; these must be OK, they think, because they sponsor fashionable shows such as Will and Grace and Frasier.

This is sad, …