Dr Vino's wine blog

SPIT: pine nuts!
Losing your senses appears to be all the rage. First, it was Zicam, with it’s new FDA warning against possible anosmia (loss of smell). Now: pine nuts! According to Britain’s Daily Mail, increasing numbers of people have been left with a “foul, metallic taste” in their mouth after eating the nuts and that taste may linger for two weeks. Their columnist describes his experience with “pine mouth:” “Though I regained my taste after eight days, the only thing I could drink during that time was water, and the only food that was bearable was salad leaves smothered in strong balsamic vinegar. Drinking wine was like swallowing liquid metal.” Talk about an impossible food-wine pairing!

SIPPED: a whale tale
In a fascinating post that provides a look into the business of selling wine, Lyle Fass, formerly in high-end wine retail, posts to his blog about the death of “the whale,” namely, the big customer who orders $10,000 worth of wine with a single phone call. He describes his performance-based pay conundrum: “At my last retail job I was hired with the idea that I would get a cut of the profits from the whales I would bring to the store. I thought this was great. I made a lot of money and was happy selling wine to these whales. Never did I think in my wildest dreams that I would lose my job as the economy went in the tank. But I had a high salary and a high bonus structure and as a result, I was not bringing added value to the store anymore. I was a money vacuum. So I was rendered jobless.” He concludes by predicting that “the whale is not coming back for a long time, if ever.” [Rockss and Fruit]

SIPPED: Follow the leader
Web 2.0, user generated wine review, on sites such as cellartracker, theoretically shift the power of reviewing away from one critic and over to the masses. But using an illustration of one of his Tablas Creek wines, Jason Haas writes about the power of the first review as an “anchor,” which then can set a tone for subsequent reviews that’s hard to break.

SIPPED: hope
Vinexpo, the big wine trade show kicks off today in Bordeaux. AFP reports on a study from Vinexpo that forecasts worldwide wine sales rising to 390 billion euros in 2012 from the current 330 billion euros, citing increased demand from China and Russia. Global wine consumption softened last year.

SPIT: causation!
Does moderate alcohol consumption make people lead healthier lives? That’s what research has suggested since as early as 1924. But now some researchers are now suggesting that otherwise healthy people might just enjoy a glass of wine every night making it correlation not causation. Eegad! Time to pour a glass of wine to mull this over. [NYT]

SIPPED: Hannibal Lecter
A study of 2,000 US and 1,000 UK wine consumers found strong knowledge of Bordeaux, Champagne and Burgundy but recognition of the Barossa Valley in Australia and Marlborough in New Zealand was weak. When participants were asked to free associate when presented the name “Marlborough” most American respondents said “cigarettes.” And when shown “Chianti” many replied “Silence of the lambs.” Hannibal Lecter FTW! (See the full presentation here as pdf)

SIPPED: Canadian Chardonnay
Stephen Spurrier presided over a blind tasting in Montreal akin to the Paris Tasting of 1976 that pitted American wines against French wines. The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) organized the event, inviting “Quebec’s top wine writers and sommeliers” as judges to reenact the Paris tasting. But they threw in come ringer wines from Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the Chardonnay category–and the Canadian Chardonnay, Le Clos Jordanne from the Niagara Escarpment, came out on top. “The result may redraw the global wine map, just as the Judgment of Paris did 33 years earlier,” opines CNN/Fortune. Le Clos Jordanne is owned by Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ).

SPIT: Ladybug taint
Have you ever had the dreaded ladybug taint? Perhaps you know it as methoxypyrazines. Well, anyway. Scientists have now found that wine in Tetra Pak (aseptic cartons) can reduce that aroma. But, caution: the packaging is not good for aging! [NewScientist]

In Memorium: Johnny Hugel (Hugel) and Paul Avril (Clos des Papes)

SIPPED and SPIT: rosé! Controversy continues to swirl around the proposed changes in the EU to allow blending rather than bleeding. We’re talking rosé, of course, which has traditionally been bled off red grapes but may soon be allowed to have the lower cost method of red being blended with white. Francois Millo, head of the Provence vintners’ association, brings this intra-European fight to the pages of the NYT with an op-ed arguing that their local “achievement should not be drowned in a flood of cheap imitations.” AFP previously reported that France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland are opposed to the practice. But Decanter reported that José Bové, in full EU electoral mode, has called the French agricultural minister a liar, saying that he failed to vote against the reform as a part of a broader package in January.
UPDATE: The European Agricultural Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has withdrawn the rose reform. [Guardian]

SWIRLED: wine tax increase
The Senate finance committee considers raising the federal excise tax on wine (and beer)–and introducing a tax on other beverages, such as soda–in the name of funding health reform. The last increase in the federal excise tax on wine was 1991, when it was increased to $1.07 a gallon for still wine under 14% alcohol. Prior to that, the rate had been stable since 1951 at $0.17 a gallon.

SPIT and SIPPED: New Vine Logistics
New Vine Logistics, a Napa-based company that provides order fulfillment to 200 wineries and may have been involved in the back end of Amazon wine, startlingly ceased operations a week ago. But faster than you could say “Chrysler,” it found an apparent savior in Inertia Beverage Group. Follow the action over at wineindustryinsight.com.

SPIT: signs as a threat to the environment
The steep hillside vineyards of Hermitage may be preserved under an environmental heritage act. Such an action could jeopardize the signs of Chapoutier and Jaboulet on those hillsides (“one of the region’s most beloved landmarks” according to the Chapoutier web site), which may have to be removed as a result.

SIPPED: Stalinist architecture in St. Emilion!
A bottle of wine allegedly in Hitler’s cellar at the Berghof sold for $900 at Alexander Autographs recently. The label might have raised some questions since has only St. Emilion, Frankreich (German for France) emblazoned on the front with no producer name, a vintage of 1934, and what a blog at the NY Times describes as a “Stalinist-style structure towering over the church.” Donald and Petie Kladstrup, co-authors of Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure, told the NYT blog that Hitler “occasionally drank wine, though he preferred beer.” What ever happened to his being a teetotaler?

SPIT: translation
A lot of wine descriptors could be interpreted as bedroom talk. But Jim Boyce writes about a case worthy of Engrish.com, a Chinese back label that cuts to the chase: “Yellow flowers and a beautiful apricot color with a strong musk. Rich texture with sweet f*ck in sweet orange peel and apricot flavor at the end of a clean. Drink now.”

SPIT: Champagne corks
Champagne, perhaps the last regional holdout (ex-Portugal) from the assault of screwcaps, now has The Maestro. Although we mentioned it previously, details are now out: The new closure, which hides a crown cap (think: beer) under a plastic cover and lever, will soon adorn select bottles of Duval-Leroy champagne. TIME says that it is “far easier to use than a conventional stopper— no struggling to hold the heavy bottle as you twist, no worrying that you’ll take someone’s eye out with the cork.” But, really, a lever doesn’t add to the bottle’s aesthetics–get a grip! [see video of the Maestro in action]

SPIT: wine
In France, consumption continues to fall. So do exports. “French households drank almost 10 percent less wine last year than in 2007, and exports by French vintners sank 15 percent by volume and almost 30 percent by value in the first quarter of 2009, the agriculture ministry reported.” [AP]

SIPPED: ID
Equifax, a credit rating agency, is developing a service to strengthen online identities, which could be particularly useful to verifying the age of someone who wants to buy wine on the web. [Bits blog]

Photo: Alexander Autographs

SPIT: wine in France!
Over the past year, as the economy has been grinding down, some Parisians have decided to cash out of wine by pawning their wines to the Credit Municipal, who, in turn, just auctioned off 2,500 bottles. [AP]

SIPPED: wine the beverage
“Red wine patches? No thanks, I’ll take mine orally,” quips Mark Fisher about a resveratrol ad he saw in his Sunday paper. He continues, “What’s next? A suppository?” Hey-oh! [Uncorked]

SIPPED: haggling!
The NY Post delights in the fact that the recession brings the end of water sommeliers. And they point out that negotiating with the (wine) sommelier is now not only acceptable but encouraged at David Burke’s restaurants: diners are given a list of “auction selections” where they can bid. The sommelier has “never been insulted” by an opening bid.

SIPPED: change at the Times dining section
Come August, Frank Bruni will be pushing back from the restaurant reviewing table at the New York Times and heading over to the Magazine. [Diner's Journal]

SIPPED: the printed word
I’ll be signing copies of my book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season, this Saturday in New Canaan, CT. Although the event is in conjunction with Elm Street Books, it will be at a new wine store called The Respected Palate @ 21 South Ave., New Canaan, CT 06840. 12 – 2:30. And, yes, there will be free wines available to taste!

Stephen Colbert has a hilarious send-up of the dog food vs paté research paper we recently discussed. Check it out! (and see what he puts in his mouth–ack!)

In further canine wine news, also check out “Learning to sniff out corked wine” in the current issue of Food & Wine. Inspired in part by a grudge against a beagle from Customs and Border Protection, Ray Isle engages in a competition with a Sonoma winery dog (no dog food consumed by either party).

SPIT and SIPPED: Bordeaux 2008
After better-than-expected but still largely tepid reviews, Bordeaux 2008 took a shot in the arm form Robert Parker who raved about it. All the action is summed up nicely, with charts of price action, on FT.com’s Alphaville blog. Quotage from Simon Staples, aka BigSiTheWineGuy and a buyer at Berry Bros and Rudd in London: “He [Parker] went crazy about 2003 (all on his own) He missed 2005 (everyone else loved it) He’s now potty about 08(a few very nice wines)Plot?Lost?”

SIPPED: wine growing
Wine in London, yes. But vines? Apparently so. But a terroir de double decker diesel may be avoided: Decanter reports that a horticultural college about 10 miles north of St. Paul’s has planted 1,500 vines.

SPIT: red wine stains
A South African winery blog posts with the results of their tests on various red wine stain removers. The winner: hydrogen peroxide! It’s a cost-effective result considering hydrogen peroxide costs something like 99 cents a gallon at Duane Reade. [ht: Tasting Room]

SIPPED: plastique
Wolf Blass, an Australian producer, announced two new wines in plastic (PET) bottles that resemble a traditional glass bottle.

SIPPED: fighting garden thievery
The BBC reports that Hugh Johnson, renowned wine writer and avid gardener, had “a late 17th Century astronomical sphere and urns [stolen] from his historic garden.” He has posted a £1,000 reward for information leading to the return of the items.

SIPPED: wine
Bloomberg reports : “Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer.” Take that, resveratrol pill–a lot more fun!

SPIT: red meat
The New York Times reports on another study: “the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner.”

Maybe that’s why red meat needs wine–a net effect on mortality?

SPIT: corks in Champagne!
Champagne house Duval-Leroy has announced that they will be replacing the cork with a “revolutionary” metal cap. Full details will be announced next month. The BBC reports that it will “still produce the familiar “pop” and spray beloved of generations of racing drivers on the winner’s podium.” But how will this affect the Japanese corkslinger?

SIPPED: wine as a tax revenue source
New York State will raise the excise tax on wine sold or made in New York from $0.18 a gallon to $0.30 a gallon, effective May 1. This rate increase of roughly two cents a bottle may be too little to pass on to consumers thus may fall to producers or wholesalers. In order to avoid channel stuffing, there will be a “floor tax” levy imposed on warehouse inventory as of May 1. So will there be mega sales in NY wine stores between now and then to draw down said inventory? [NYT]

SIPPED: fraud
Fraudsters posing as buyers for British wine retailers have bilked French producers out of an apparently large amount of wine. Sad. [Decanter]

SIPPED, surprisingly: Bordeaux 2008
If in 2008 grapes were, in the words of Jancis Robinson, “swollen with summer rain,” vineyards are “ravaged by mildew and threatened by rot,” would that make for a good vintage in Bordeaux? Despite all odds, Robinson in the FT and Elin McCoy on Bloomberg attest to finding some surprisingly good wines. McCoy asks the money question: “But dropping prices dramatically in a good vintage? It’s not in the Bordelais DNA.” But some have gotten the message as she quotes Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou, owner Bruno Borie: “We have to go back to basics, go back to the consumer, instead of the speculators.” Subsequently, Decanter reports several releases down 20 – 40% from last year’s prices. What will happen ultimately to the weak and expensive 2007 vintage? A caution against buying wine as futures…