Game Over – Wine Alert: Four Emus 2004 Shiraz

I will miss the young men that they used to be, the ones that hated their boring teacher, the ones that loved the entertainment but hated the subject; the pragmatic, idealist, insane, unusual, peculiar and distracted ones. I will miss the ones that somehow grew to enjoy the thinking, the sudden apprehension of nothingness, the extreme 'duhhhhh' moments, the photographic starkness of the meaning that eluded us all.

I have kept, as I always have, the name lists. I look at them, knowing exactly who was diffident, irritable, hostile, keen, engaged, epileptic, happy. I will remember the First and their precursors, the guinea-pig batch of Pribs. And while part of me is sad that I will now never see them lining the grey corridors again, most of me is glad that they have found their wings to a multitude of various places both near and far.

And I suppose I will not forget the young ladies who came along later in the course, who proved fearsomely competent and refused to be overshadowed by testosterone and blight. I will not forget their brittle strength which firmed into deep and enduring power. Yes, many lacked certainty, but so did we all; many were apprehensive, but so were we. And they were of a kind we have not yet seen again.

Tonight we are mellow. We look at wine which is somehow appropriate. The label says, "Four Emus. Deranged and intelligent. 2004 Shiraz, South Australia." It is exactly what I would drink to remember that batch, 2004-2007, the centre of my life although they never knew it. The wine is wonderful. It starts slightly raw, just a shade mellower than new. Then it unearths odd textures of fruit – the aroma of berries. And it ends in a blazing finish that stays with you.

I hereby name that wine, Four Emus 2004 Shiraz, the official wine of the First. Haha! I am so happy now.