240. The long journey

Faced with overwhelming choice, our two modern heroes, Troy and Ulysses, stand transfixed. If speed is the essence of the transaction, they are up to it. A quick glance side-ways, and they mentally declare ‘game on’.

Ulysses is a reds man, a true inheritor of this father’s genome, who spent half his childhood bumping along the corrugated roads of the Barossa, sampling the Cabernets, the Shiraz, the lighter Merlots and the Grenache grapes that Richard so cherished. Troy is by nurture a beer drinker, along for the ride. He humours Uly’s obsession but is much happier with the end product of hops and yeast than he is grapes and barrels. His genetic inheritance is splashed against the walls of the ‘Tailor’s Needle’ down the end of Mason Street.

The lads rock back on their heels, savouring the bar laden with Manchego cheeses and bowls of quince paste. Game on, indeed.