Don' call in the heavies for the wrong consumer types.

(From Off Licence News)

I nearly sprained my wrist lifting a bottle of Tuscan red off the table last night. It was so heavy that, even emptied of the 75cl of wine it contained, it could still pass muster as a reasonably challenging dumb bell. Nor was this an isolated incident. I may be getting older (or just feebler), but I reckon an increasingly significant number of fine or wannabe fine wines are packaged in this way.

This used to be almost exclusively an Italian thing. But now it's spreading like a particularly nasty virus. In recent weeks, I've opened heavyweight bottles from France, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal and South Africa. It's almost as if there's a direct correlation between the ambitions of the wine, not always realised it must be said, and the amount of calories you expend pouring it into your glass.