"There is a beauty in laying down wine: a kind of faith in the future and in the perpetuity of manners and domestic life, which adds to the serene good humour with which the wine will eventually be poured from the bottle. But I don't need to remind you that such faith in the future finds precious little confirmation in the world today. With al-Qaeda undefeated, social mores crumbling and the madmen still in charge, what is there to say, save 'carpe diem'?"