In the few years it owned Mountadam, the High Eden pinnacle of the late David Wynn’s life of magnificent achievement, LVMH showed a confounding refusal to grasp his brilliant vision, incredible attention to planning detail, and profound respect of the appearance of that rugged country. When they suddenly withdrew, they left tools on the ground. “They simply decided they had one too many wine properties in this part of the world”, Jordan told me at the time. “One had to go.”

The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation is the wine industry’s governing body. It exists to make and enforce wine legislation, promote Australian wine internationally, and deal with trade barriers and treaties and the like. It is funded by a levy on all winemakers and its board is recommended by the Winemakers Federation but finally appointed by the government. Its chair is former Liberal Defence Minister John Moore who seems content to play a quieter role than previous Chairmen. George Paciullo, Neville Wran’s colourful Police Minister, comes to mind. Now there was a man with lunch on his tie! More withdrawing was George Mackie, who died of a heart attack after the incredible stress of prosecuting Murray Tyrrell for illegally adding sorbitol to wine.

The new appointments, says Moore, “will beef up our selling side”. But these directors’ first responsibility is to their absentee landlords in Paris and Marseilles. How will they advise Australia to sell against the vast catalogue of premium French wine brands owned by LVMH, and the substantial wine and liquor assets of the Pernod and Ricard families? Of course they’ll sell – their bosses want money. That’s why they’re in it. But what will they do for the Australian countryside and the irrigating communities they manipulate?

At a time when environmental issues, and gross carbon debits are increasingly used as restrictive trade regulating factors by the EU, there are no environment experts on the new board of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. At a time when there is no water to feed the vast irrigated vineyards that have driven the most spectacular wine boom in modern history, there is no water expert. Is there a board member who can assist a French company avoid making such a mess of the estuary of our only river system? Nope. These guys are there to sell.

Maybe they’re aware that when the drought breaks, they’ll have to try and sell the fruit of utterly crazy new plantings like the investor-driven 1100 new acres one trellising contractor’s currently putting in the Barossa. The national vineyard continues to expand to a ridiculous extent, and the continuing oversupply of grapes – very handy for trans-nationals - is merely masked by the last two low drought vintages. When it rains, Australia will suddenly be back to a two million tonne crop, and by hell there’ll have to be some selling done then.

This new board is heavily laden with characters who have no personal investment in the wine industry. A few canny souls with their own money in the dirt and their families depending upon it would surely play a role in stemming the stupidity and wanton destruction wrought by these free market forces we keep hearing about.

“We’re very disappointed that they completely overlooked the two really solid viticulturers we nominated”, says Paul Clancy, chairman of Winegrape Council SA. “They didn’t even get an interview”.