Part of Château de Chenonceau on the Cher

I'm delighted to see that Jim's Loire has attracted just over 250,000 visits since September 2008. Our thanks to all of our readers, in particular those who visit these pages regularly.

As well as passing a significant milestone – next up 500,000! – today has seen the sentencing of Paul Craven and Oseghale Hayble for their part in defrauding investors who believed they were buying First Growth Bordeaux. Instead they were fuelling the fraudsters' coke-driven spending splurge.

See report on sentencing here.

Following today's stage in the Tour de France I have updated the list of all-time stage wins here.

There are a number of reasons why I'm delighted that Paul Craven, 'managing director' of the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd (BWTC) was found guilty of fraudulent trading on Monday at the second time of asking. 

The guilty verdict shows that you can't just take investors' money on the pretence that you are buying Bordeaux en primeur, and instead blow it on a succession of cars, expensive watches, almost continuous holidays, a flat and £100 a week cocaine habit.

Read the rest of the post here on my investdrinks' blog.

Report (part finished) on investdrinks blog here of Paul Craven's evidence at St Albans Crown Court (30th June and 1st July).