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The Best $30 Bottle of Wine on the Planet

What a neat little advertisement board told me about writing

Malky McEwan
4 min readAug 28, 2022
Author image — it was rather sumptuous

This, ladies and genteel-men, is the best $30 bottle of plonk on the planet — according to the advertising board outside a tiny liquor store in a delightful village in the Blue Mountains of Australia.

You wouldn’t normally get me to part with my money on a whim. I’m Scottish, you see. Not miserable with money, but I am value-conscious.

But I have a weakness. I like red wine and I like it to smack me in the face with flavour. Punchy blackberry, blueberry, and red plums — yummy.

I walked into that liquor store like I was on the last leg of a treasure hunt.

“Where is it?”

The owner of this liquor store was a genius. She had advertised the best $30 bottle of plonk on the planet but she didn’t have it on display. I wasn’t allowed to find it for myself. I had to ask.

“Follow me,” she said.

She took me by the hand to the back of the store. There was no arrow pointing to the wine. She reverently removed the bottle from the shelf, caressed it next to her bosom, and then super-enthused.

“… dark chocolate, complex savoury notes, black olives, fresh coffee, warm spices layered with…

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Malky McEwan
Malky McEwan

Written by Malky McEwan

Born storyteller. Born curious. Fascinated with what makes people tick and how the world works. https://malkymcewan.medium.com/subscribe

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