Michael told us that he suspected that he knew exactly about whom the old vintner was telling the story and, when we I queried this, he outlined his suspicions. I also quickly twigged to the possible facts of the story and realized what a bombshell it could be if published. I asked Michael whether the elderly vintner who had told him the story had any evidence of its veracity or any corroboration of his nursing sister’s relating of events but he said no, there was no other evidence. However, there was no doubt that both the vintner and his sister, as well as the other participant in the discussion who had remained after the meeting, believed it implicitly.

We all sat for a while considering the implications of the story and the ramifications of publishing it. It was really just a piece of gossip that could be quite wrong or quite innocently explained, but it could also be true. If it did come out, either through their usual publishing conduit or through some other means, they would undoubtedly be linked to it, could well be sued for slander or libel, and would certainly be asked to provide evidence of its being true and also probably to provide some foundation as to why it would be “in the public interest” for it to be released. Importantly, I pointed out that it seemed unlikely that their publisher, Roger Calshaw, would be interested in having such an unverified piece of oral history appearing in his wine magazine, Bacchanalia – it was simply not his line of business and could place him in a difficult legal position. I also argued that verification would be almost impossible. It seemed unlikely that either the source of the story, or his sister, would be prepared to come forward into the glare of the world media. It also seemed extremely unlikely that any of those directly involved in the business would wish to confirm anything. Consequently, it would continue to be merely a piece of unverified gossip that would inflame those directly involved and lead to most undesirable consequences for Michael and Andrew. On all these grounds, I recommended that they not publish the story, but file it away and forget about it.

Andrew and Michael both sighed but acknowledged their agreement with this recommendation. I could see that they both saw a potential news coup being passed over but also saw the commonsense behind my advice. I could imagine how piqued they would be if, at some time in the future, the story came out and that they had missed out on the opportunity to break it first. However, the story may not even be true, although I believed it certainly could be, and there was really no purpose to be served in revealing such a very private matter. No-one had broken any law and no-one, to our knowledge, had been hurt in the business. It was a strange case, full of stereotypical Gallic behaviour, but it was essentially their business.

We had agreed on a course of no action on the matter and, as Martina had just returned home, we moved on to other things. Eventually, Michael returned home and I left with him to be dropped off in the city to catch up with an old friend before returning to Adelaide. It was a good story but, like many others, was simply not for public consumption. However, it had been good to catch up with Andrew and Michael again and to see that all was well with them, and that their lives were working out nicely. Although, I did resolve to do a little research myself on the background to the story and keep an eye out on any developments that might occur. One never knows about such things.