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Archive: February 5, 2006 | This Week's WEST

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Feb. 5, 2006 12 AM PT

California vintners have been in a funk since Merrill Lynch reported a few weeks ago that their rivals Down Under have been stealing market share. We asked Randall Grahm, president of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, to offer up the five other things that annoy him about the Aussies:

1. Rupert Murdoch and the Fox network in general (“24” isn’t enough to redeem either of them).

2. Statements prefaced with the assurance: “I’m descended from free men y’know, mate.”

3. “Jammy” as a word to describe a wine rather than a garment you retire in.

4. The exploitation of wombats, koalas, cockatoos and other wildlife on wine labels.

5. Grown men biting one another’s ears, even if only during rugby scrums.