It offers a vivid portrait of Ruskin as the precocious only child of a self-made wine merchant.

ECONOMIST: Art history

The tale is told as a journal kept by one Roderick Mackenzie, an ambitious climber employed by Edinburgh wine merchant "Claret"Colquhoun.

FORBES: When Scotland Lost Its Mind

In the town square were two gourmet restaurants as well as a local-wine merchant and a pet store specializing in tropical fish.

NEWYORKER: Waiting

Forget images of your local wine merchant visiting a vineyard and then ordering a van of cases to be driven to his shop.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: Conquering Your Fear of the Wine Aisle

The sales director at wine merchant Berry Brothers and Rudd calls the last six months "the most astonishing time for the market I have ever seen".

BBC: Wine sir? Best take out a mortgage

But Gary Boom, founder of London wine merchant Bordeaux Index, says that in order to give the general public a reason to buy this vintage, the prices will have to fall.

WSJ: Will Lyons on Wine: Unveiling Bordeaux's New Vintage

His talent to amuse had been noticed in Lichfield, and when he arrived in London his determination to act was driven only partly by the failure of the wine merchant's business he ran.

ECONOMIST: Theatre history

It turned out that Zachys, a wine merchant and auction house, was holding a live auction in New York with a simultaneous audio and video feed for its online bidders (something many other auction houses do as well.) The day I logged in, only the audio was working.

WSJ: A Guide to Bidding in Online Wine Auctions | On Wine by Lettie Teague