US Navy, wine and coke, Brazilian ice wine, Starbucks – sipped and spit

constablesSIPPED: raging keggerThe crew of a US Navy frigate “made history” by delivering wine to the Tower of London! Yes, check out the size of that barrel in the reduced sized crop of the AP photo to the right! The ship was the first foreign ship to participate in ceremonial festivities wherein all passing ships must render some cargo for protection from the Constable. The crew had the option of giving rum, oysters, mussels, cockles or rushes but opted for the wine instead. But which wine was it? [AP]

SPIT: wine and coke
Bulgarian authorities found bottles of Bolivian wine (yes, it exists!) to contain massive amounts of liquid cocaine! According to Decanter.com, all but 68 of 1,020 bottles of Bodegas Kohlberg wine were found to be liquid cocaine. Wow, that would have been a shocker to open one of those from your local store! More evidence that mixing wine and coke is never a good idea…

SIPPED: Department of What The…
Decanter also reports that a winery in Brazil (yes, there are some!) will be making its first ice wine. The Perico Winery is making the wine for export in 2010 from a vineyard 1,300 meters (4,265 ft) above sea level.

SIPPED: Grande Pinot
Starbucks is going local. In a store rolling out this week in Seattle, the chain will be trying out a “coffeehouse” format, eschewing the ‘Bucks name and logo. According to a story in the Seattle Times that includes tales of their local snooping, the location “will serve wine and beer, host live music and poetry readings and sell espresso from a manual machine.” But will they have grande nonfat Pinot?

7 Responses to “US Navy, wine and coke, Brazilian ice wine, Starbucks – sipped and spit”


  1. One of the secrets of new world wines is Brazilian wine. I discovered them on a few trips to Rio, where locals generally know little about the industry or just assume the wines cannot be good. All wrong. The sparkling wines are incredibly goodand there are enough Italians around especially in the colder south and a few valleys in the central area who know good wine growing country. The cabernets are very interesting and with vine age will get better. I suggest you try to hunt down some Brazilian sparkling as a starter. Leaves Cava looking simple.


  2. We just did a piece on Brazil in March–this place looks ripe to explode in the next ten years. There’s money (Rolland is doing some consulting there), government backing (Wines from Brazil), and as Chris pointed out, immigrants from Europe who know what they are doing. $5 million in exports from the group of wineries that forms Wines from Brazil (18) was a goal they were on track to reach last year. This org. accounts for 85% of Brazil’s exports at the moment.


  3. I’m not surprised about Starbucks, they own the coffee market and have started adding other breakfast options as well as better choices for lunch then their pre-made sandwiches which are awful.

    Anyone have a list of wineries from Brazil that we should be watching?


  4. Well, I can give you the list we published: Boscato Industria Vinicola, Casa Valduga, Coopertiva Vinicola Aurora, Dal Pizzol Vinhos Finos, Lidio Carraro, Vinhos Don Laurindo, Vinicola Miolo, Vinicola Perini, and Vinicola Salton. This wasn’t one of our free articles from that issue, so that’s probably about all I’d give away–I’m sure Chris probably has some additional thoughts.


  5. Albeit slightly old fashioned, I do enjoy seeing this tradition reenacted. There’s merit in the romance of the ceremony wouldn’t you say?


  6. Re: the cocaine wine,

    WA 99 points


  7. Yeah the cocaine wine might well get 99 points, if the tester was still able to function after using it.

    Pretty scary stuff though since you never really know what is in the bottle, be it fertilizer, coke etc


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