"Bag-in-box wines are more likely than their bottled counterparts to develop unpleasant flavors, aromas and colors when stored at warm temperatures, a new study has found. Published in ACSʼ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, it emphasizes the importance of storing these popular, economical vintages at cool temperatures."
My joy at discovering wine salt, a combination of two of my favorite things in the world, salt and alcohol (I would experiment on creating a bourbon salt, but I don't want to waste any bourbon; someone out there take a crack at this and get back to me) is only tempered by the discovery of "liquor smoothies", which, really, aren't you people ashamed by yourselves?
"According to research, red wine may improve digestive health."
"The Trevi Aerating Wine Glass is made for those who take their wine seriously. It uses a unique aerating system to accentuate the taste and smell of the beverage. Inspired by the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy, it has a mini glass within a bigger one to siphon the wine through, just like a fountain."
"In a working paper for the American Association of Wine Economists, [Cornell University economist Brad] Rickard and his team start off by looking at the states that allow grocery stores to sell wine, versus those that limit such sales to liquor stores. The increased competition of grocery stores selling wine, unsurprisingly, correlates with both lower wine prices and higher rates of wine consumption. There’s a surprising, public health benefit that grows out of that: States where wine makes up a larger part of total alcohol consumption tend to have lower rates of traffic fatalities."
"Over the past 16 months, shipments in cork wine stoppers from Portugal – which supplies the majority of the material to the industry – grew by 19.4 per cent, mainly reclaiming market share from plastic 'corks' but also modestly gaining on screw caps. In the same period, the global wine industry expanded just 1.5 per cent." —Corks or screw-tops: Where do you stand? At the risk of shattering your image of me as New York's most urbane and elegant connoisseur, I have to tell you that I am totally pro screw-top these days. Although that may have to do with the fact that my hands shake so badly that [...]
When I first got into wine, I smelled terrible. You were never to shower beforehand: apparently your wine might taste too Zestfully clean. And you had to drink it out of special glasses. Reds were served at 56 degrees; whites at 48. You held it by the stem or the base—touching the bowl could destroy the thermodynamics, you know!
Then I saw it. The light peering into my plain white tasting room. I heard it. The music and laughter outside; the silence of no tasting notes. I slowly dug my way out of the dungeon. Outside? Grown Spanish women gravity bonging the local wine. Raw teak tables [...]
It's been a rough month. In one small bright spot, there is the fact that, right now, in November, after the hurricane, after the first snow, you can eat a better-tasting tomato than you have eaten all year. (Thanks, global warming.) Over in Park Slope, Scalino on 7th Avenue and 10 Street is still serving up a "Jersey Tomato Salad," but not for long. Go today or within the next week, because the guy who runs the place told me that's as long as he'll have this particularly fantastic batch of tomatoes he gets from a farmer he knows who probably likes Bruce Springsteen.
"I want wine that excites me, that feels so good to drink that one sip urges on the next and the next after that. I want a wine that tells a story of a place and a people and a culture, that is not the predictable equivalent of a franchise restaurant but more like a little mom-and-pop’s, where you’re not always sure what you’ll find but you know it can have the capacity to inspire." —Me, I want a wine that endrunkens me, that stifles the shakes and soothes the sour stomach. I want a wine that evens out the edges of the day and helps me to forget [...]
"Planting the vegetables when the moon was in different constellations, she discovered, resulted in their growing into different forms and sizes. Over years of research she concluded that root crops (including onions and leeks, which are not technically root crops) do best if sown when the moon is passing through constellations associated with the earth element; leafy crops do best when the moon is associated with water signs; flowering plants do best associated with air signs, and fruits did better with fire signs." —German gardener Maria Thun, who put the "biodynamics" theory of cosmic, occultist philosopher Rudolph Steiner to test in her garden and wrote a popular [...]
Attention wine drinkers: Scroll down here for a handy chart correlating alcohol content and blood alcohol concentration. [Via]
An upside to the potential collapse of the single European currency: cheaper wine! The downside is a worldwide financial crisis, but it probably won't hurt so much if you're drunk on a fine, newly-affordable Italian red. [Via]
Big night out last week for Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan! The three men were spotted ordering the $700 worth of wine at Bistro Bis on Capitol Hill by an associate professor of business at Rutgers University named Susan Feinberg. After dining in the same restaurant with her husband, Feinberg confronted Ryan and his pals about the high-end wine. The exchange became contentious. Ryan professed not to know the price of the wine, and one of his buddies responded to Feinberg's chastisement by loudly saying, "Fuck her."
He has fun friends! The mouthy one is Cliff Asness, who runs a hedge fun and used to work at Goldman Sachs [...]
Man, I hope this tainted association does not ruin the good name of one of nature's greatest beverages: "The rock band Train, known for 'Hey, Soul Sister' and other hit songs, has started a wine club, too. The Train Wine Club lives on a Web site where visitors can join the club, read blog posts, listen to music, find out about the 'wine of the month,' enter contests to win concert tickets, sign up for mobile applications and be connected to the band’s official Web site, Facebook pageand Twitter feed."
"Amazon.com Inc. is planning an online marketplace for wine sales directly to consumers, said executives for several California wineries, marking the Seattle Web giant’s second foray into the business in three years." —Oh, man, this is some seriously DEVIOUS strategy right here. You order a bunch of wine from Amazon, get drunk, and then order a bunch of other crap you would never buy when sober. Soon Jeff Bezos will own us all!
Photo by Yuri Arcurs, via Shutterstock
"The French are known to like their beef, and they also like their wine. In the southern village of Lunel-Viel, in the Hérault department in southern France, some farmers have taken the next step and are feeding wine to their beef cattle on the principle that if French beef tastes good now, it can only improve with a bottle of Saint-Geniès des Mourgues."
I guess I'd be fine drinking wine at White Castle, but I'll be damned if I'd go to Indiana to do it.
Would you drink wine made with meteorites? Assuming someone else is buying, I can tell you that my answer is a resounding sure, why the hell not.
"I can't drink a wine if it has an ugly label." —Bryan Ferry can't drink a wine if it has an ugly label.
"The US drank more wine than any other country in 2010! That includes France, which previously held the record. A record-breaking 330 million cases of wine were shipped within or to America last year; that's $30 billion worth of wine!"
