Past Its Prime

I know I'm going to upset a lot of connoisseurs by saying this but there's an anomaly in our marketing system that needs to be addressed.

Go to a supermarket and take any item from the shelf. Examine the label. Somewhere on that label you're going to find a use-by date.

Quite right, too. After all, how would you like to pay good money for food that has been lying around for months because it was stacked behind fresher products? It might have lost its flavour or even carry some kind of bacterium that augurs ill for your health.

So how is it that one major group have managed for years to avoid putting use-by dates on their products?

They not only avoid the use-by date but also perpetuate the myth that their product gets better as time goes by.

I'm talking about wine producers.

Those of us in the know realise that nobody actually drinks old wine. They just store it in their cellar (or under the house) long enough to find another wine collector who is willing to take it off their hands at a profit.

Then they drink rough red like the rest of us.