Leading article: A bridge too far

To some, the sight of a handful of British wine critics raising their glasses in a Chinese restaurant in protest against plans to build a bridge across the vineyards of the Mosel might seem somewhat incongruous. Ridiculous even.

But that is to underestimate the bibbers concerned. These are no ordinary critics. Hugh Johnson, Stuart Pigott and Jancis Robinson are the doyens and doyennes of their trade. The British may not understand food, but they do know their wines and the Riesling of the threatened Mosel slopes is among the finest whites of the world.

They also understand the environment. With climate change, Britain has every hope of becoming the Burgundy and Mosel of the next decades. We must, as Churchill famously declared, fight the menace of tyranny in the fields and in the hills. Today Germany, tomorrow Kent and Surrey. "Prost," as they say in Chinese restaurants in Germany.