Wine, Pleasure, Beauty
Wine, happiness, a culture of pleasure. An exploration that roams from a local wine drinking community to a whole world of passion, beauty, and pleasure that awaits us out there. You know, eat, drink, and be merry-type stuff. Let's dive into wine and pleasure, but not take ourselves too seriously. After all, as a friend of mine likes to point out to beer geeks and wine freaks, "we're just talking about 10 minutes of pleasure, that's all."
To connect with me elsewhere, I can be found on Twitter @RonMarks, on Cork'd to share what we're drinking, or for my more personal mindcasting stuff, check out www.ronmarks.tumblr.com, or you can simply ask me a question here
Cheers!
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Wine in a canteen! Cool interview with @dirtysouthwine worth checking out. Sounds like this guy is part of making one of the cleanest and most natural wines around. We need to get more people thinking this way.
Gary Vaynerchuk and Hardy Wallace of The Natural Process Alliance Keep It Dirty « Cork’d Content
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Gene Makes Some Drink More When Other Boozers Are Around | Wired Science | Wired.com
Here’s some not-so-sobering news for party people, barhoppers and clubgoers. Individuals who inherit a particular gene variant that tweaks the brain’s reward system are especially likely to drink a lot of alcohol in the company of heavy-boozing peers.
That’s the preliminary indication of a new study directed by psychology graduate student Helle Larsen of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Adults carrying at least one copy of a long version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene, dubbed DRD4, imbibed substantially more alcohol around a heavy-drinking peer than did others who lacked that gene variant, Larsen’s group reports in a paper published online July 7 in Psychological Science.
“Carriers of the long gene may be more attuned to, and influenced by, another person’s heavy drinking than noncarriers are,” Larsen says.
Her study provides the first evidence that a gene influences human alcohol use in social situations.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/07/alcohol-social-gene/#ixzz0uhqWTbvb -
Using words with wine
There is a great article on the Wall Street Journal discussing how to “find the right words for wine”.
This illustration is beautiful representation of wine styles (notice the ‘corks’ too). The article talks about the linguistics of wine “prose”, how wine writers come up with new wine…
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”If you’re going to make gewürztraminer, you know you’re not going to make money on it,” Rebecca mused. “So why bother if you’re not going to do it right?
Wines of The Times - A Thin Field of American Gewürztraminers - Review - NYTimes.com
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”Paul Draper, the chief executive and winemaker of Ridge Vineyards, once described wine as the perfect beverage because the grapes contain all that is necessary to have wine. Beer needs the addition of water to grain and hops. Spirits require distilling. But grapes really require no more than time to become wine. Of course, to turn wine into a commercial product necessitates some degree of human intervention. The question is, how much?
from Eric Asimov, On Natural Wines, June 14 in the New York Times
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”Let’s be honest, “green” is a fabulous marketing term that doesn’t mean squat without context. I say this because I fear consumers are buying “green” because it absolves their conscious’ from making different choices in their lives. Rather than reduce their consumption, or choosing products that aren’t enveloped in plastic, heavy glass, or styrofoam, they’re simply spending more on products that laud their sustainable practices. Wine writers are no exception when falling pray to such practices. Regardless if we support “green” causes, we’re all victims of wine samples shipped by plane from around the world often enveloped in styrofoam: far from sustainable and “green”.
Absolving Guilt Through Uneducated “Green” Wine Consumption - Catavino
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The Confusion about Sulfites:
What seems to further complicate the subject of organic wine is the subject of sulfites. Sulfite or sulfur dioxide is used as a preservative in wines. It has strong antimicrobial properties and some antioxidant properties. The health effects or consequences of sulfites are debatable though a small percent of the population does suffer a sensitivity reaction to them. A wine can make the claim,“Sulfite Free” or “ No Added Sulfites – Contains Naturally Occurring Sulfites”, but if sulfites are added and the total sulfites in the wine are above 10 parts per million, it must make the statement, “Contains Sulfites.” A wine that makes the claim Sulfite Free must have no detectable sulfites. There is some controversy about whether it is really possible for a wine to have no sulfites, but no detectable sulfites means that current ATF analysis is not sensitive enough to detect the presence of sulfites at such low levels. No Added Sulfites means that the winery did not add sulfites to the wine but there may be naturally occurring sulfites in the wine that occur as a byproduct of fermentation.
According to the NOP labeling laws. Any of the NOP categories could claim to be Sulfite Free or have No Added Sulfites, but the 100% Organic and Organic categories must meet one of these criteria. The Made with Organic Ingredients and Some Organic Ingredients categories may or may not have added sulfites. -
Dogwood Cellars 2006 Zinfandel: I give it 100
Why 100? Well, because I’m not objective, and I have to let my enthusiasm show somehow while here. This is my favorite Zinfandel of all time. This is the second time I’ve had it. The first time was at the Fort Collins Wine Fest, so I was a little worried my judgment was clouded that night from the sheer volume of wines I tasted (and didn’t entirely spit). This was the standout of the night, and tonight proves that my judgment was spot on. As a friend of mine said that night while describing it, “this is sex in a bottle, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it.” It is, he of course didn’t, and neither should you b/c they ALWAYS end up being seen by people who are not their intended audience, and no I don’t know this from personal experience, I swear… but I digress. This wine KILLS. I’m not at all a Zinfandel fan in general, and I love it. Check it out is all I’m saying. Cheers.
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Healthy Wine – Organics, Biodynamic and Natural « GoodFoodRevolution
Another good article explaining these terms
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Sustainable: The latest word co-opted by corporate America
Interesting discussion on some key terms and meanings related to the environmental impact of wine
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”In fact, this is, in many ways, what great wine is all about: It is all about you. By allowing other people to ridicule any wine you like or criticize the way you enjoy it, or by allowing others to decide for you what is and is not a fine wine, you are genuinely missing the point of wine, which is this: Your enjoyment of any wine is an extension of yourself, your emotions, your experiences and your circumstances when you drink it. A truly fine wine is like a truly fine poem: It’s not just about what the poet thought or felt when he or she wrote it, but what you thought or felt when you read it. Different people will experience the same exact wine differently, and vive la différence.
John Brecher, Dorothy J. Gaiter on Delicious Wines - WSJ.com
