I have been lax in sending out this newsletter, in fact it is almost two months since the last issue. I hope a change in my work arrangements will mean that I am able to give Vinodiversity more time such that I can get the Newsletter out more regularly. Don't worry, I won't stuff you inbox.

Welcome especially to all of the new subscribers. The growing list of subscribers and increasing traffic through the website is very encouraging for me. The statistics confirm that there is considerable interest in what Vinodiversity has to say. I would love to get more feedback from readers but I realise that everyone is working flat out keeping up with all of their labour saving devices.

Some new content on Vinodiversity. I have written a page on Chenin blanc, which is a much mistreated grape outside its favoured habitat of the Loire Valley. There are good chenins available in Australia, I recently had a superb one from St Leonards in Rutherglen.

John Vale of Vale Wines in Balnarring on the Mornington Peninsula has written a great article on growing Durif in a cool climate.

My friend Jennifer Rosen's book a Waiter There's a Horse in my Wine is now available in Australia or you can read a chapter here.

For those of you living in the World's Most Liveable City you will find a guide to the Food and Wine Festival that is kicking off this weekend.

A challenge - how many wine varieties have you tried? Instead of counting them on your fingers and toes you can keep track by using the chart published by the Wine Century Club to tally them up. The chart is available from Delong company who also make a wonderful Wine Varieties Table.

If you have followed some of the links above you will notice that they take you to the vinodiversity blog where all new materials to the site are announced. A blog is a computer nerdy name for a website structured like a log or journal with entries arranged in reverse chronological order. So between newsletters you can see what has been happening at Vinodiversity, and in the diverse wine world generally.