It had taken Euan longer than most to accept the change from cork to screw-cap technology and he still insisted on cork for his precious cabernet franc. The percentage of their wine lost to bad corks had increased in the last season and Flynn was keen to look at alternatives. He thought the idea of glass stoppers might enthuse his father. Hugh was definitely interested but, as always, their head man deferred to Euan and kept out of arguments between father and son. He always said his job was the vines and it was up to Euan and Flynn to come up with the finished product.

Today they were looking at some of the different styles of glass stoppers available as well as options for screw caps. The idea of a cap with Levallier Dell embossed in gold on it appealed to Flynn. They were also going to discuss some of the different varieties of wine other winemakers were experimenting with in Australia now and what might grow well in their region. He’d reminded his father about the presentation but he wasn’t really expecting him to come. Euan was locked in his ways and wasn’t ever in a hurry to change.

Flynn glanced again at the men and women gathered in the room. Some of them represented wineries that had formed a cooperative to produce bulk wines. It had been another major change for the area and had caused quite a stir at the time. The Margaret River region had always produced bottled wines and there were those, including Euan, who believed cask wines would spoil the region’s wine image. It hadn’t, and both bottled and bulk wine had survived. There were a few here from other long-established wineries and all of them had changed from cork.

Flynn and Euan had held several lively discussions about changing the cabernet franc to screw caps or glass stoppers before Euan had gone away. Flynn had brought it up again just the day before. He’d hoped Euan would be back from the east in time to meet the visiting promotion team. His father had shut off as usual, refusing to listen to Flynn’s research and getting angry when he’d suggested they both attend this presentation in town.

There was also the final decision to be made about what they were going to plant on the remaining free hectares at the Haystack Block. Flynn wanted to plant something new, Euan didn’t. There’d been no chance to discuss that since he’d returned home either.