Dr Vino's wine blog

What would you think if I told you that an armed robbery was averted because of wine? No, not a broken bottle waving sort of thing. But a sipping leads to a change of heart sort of thing. Sound implausible?

One evening last month, just such an event occurred in Capitol Hill. Read the astounding and bizarre full story here in the Washington Post. Truth sometimes IS stranger than fiction.

Wouldn’t that be great if everyone kept a bottle of wine at home to foil would-be attackers? Too bad the story doesn’t state the vintage of this Malescot St-Exupéry.

It’s a tough week for fashionistas (and it’s only Monday!). Paris Hilton is in jail. And Tyra Banks doesn’t like wine but orders it to look sexy. Roll the tape from her personal website [via M&C]:

I recently went to Napa, California, and I learned how to pair wines with certain tastes, how red wine tastes good with salt and bitter things like lemon. So, every now and then I’ll order some wine at the table. I’ll only take two sips, but I’ll keep holding the glass cause it makes me feel sexy, but I still don’t drink it because it still tastes kind of nasty to me. (emphasis added)

Wow, the classic pairing of red wine and lemon–no wonder the former top model thinks wine’s nasty! Help her out with some newbie wine suggestions in the comments. I’d start her off with a sangria if she wants to give red wine with citrus another try.

Hey, can this magician do this with $2,000 bottles of Petrus? If so, he’s invited to my next party!

Winery trivia: which winery is this? (click to enlarge) First correct comment will win…I dunno, something! (Probably your name in lights and our admiration)

Photo sent in by reader Alastair. Send in your photos!

The following photo may be too gruesome from some readers (it’s still safe for work though, just not for the faint of heart). Thus I have put it after the jump. It awaits your captioning! Read more…

What’s your caption for this photo? Have your say in the comments below.

Thanks, Maureen!

5/2 UPDATE: Details now posted in the comments about the spa’s location–including two accounts from people who have been!

As if wine weren’t fun enough to drink with another person, a new set of glasses “forces” cooperation among couples. Hmm, I guess cooperation is another word for backwash?

The developer of the glasses, called “my other half,” describes them as two glasses as attached by a tube. If someone tries to drink alone then all the wine flows into the other person’s glass, hence “cooperation”–or frustration!–or the need to find someone taller than you are.

Photos of the glasses in action after the jump. Read more…

Look what my son, age 3 1/2, brought home from pre-school the other day–a train! Can’t you tell?!? Apparently the assignment was to pick some objects for an art project…and he gravitated toward a sparkling wine canister and a cork!

Bambino vino, doing his father proud.

A new wine bar, 90pluspoints, opens in New York City’s East Village neighborhood next Tuesday. The focus of the bar is, as the name implies, serving wines that have been rated 90 points and more by the influential wine review, Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate.

“Anything under 90 points is crap,” owner Joseph Coonawara told me last week. “The point score is all that matters. Grape variety, region, and especially vintage, even food pairings–the rest of it’s all noise.”

Known as “Run Rig” to his friends after the Torbreck wine awarded 99 points by Robert Parker, the Australian Coonawara has built a solid resume for launching his own wine bar. He rose in the ranks at New Jersey wine shop Wine Library and later became head of internet sales at Zachy’s. But he left because “they weren’t points oriented enough for me. There’s a great opportunity here to bring the pleasure of points to an on-premises establishment.”

Coonawara will have several flights of wine by the glass available. Most notably, there will be the five two-ounce shot glasses of Parker favorites from Spain and Australia that roll in at more than 16 percent alcohol.

“You don’t need to swirl and sniff, just toss it back,” Coonawara said. We’ll see if New Yorkers have a taste for it starting next week.

90pluspoints
131 e. 4th st
212-555-9463
click here for directions and other background information