Archive | February, 2012

Why are Aromas So Hard to Describe

25 Feb

Smelling wine is one of the most important parts of enjoying it. The aromas of wine and the places they take our thoughts can be very pleasurable. They evoke memories and even generate emotions. Sadly, describing aromatics effectively to another person is very difficult. It turns out that aromas are so powerful for precisely the same reason they are hard to verbalize. The first session at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers at Meadowood in Napa Valley this week was by Sue Langstaff on Sensory Analytics and included a brief crash course on the physiology of smell. That was as eye-opening as the segment on wine faults was sinus clearing.

All of our senses — except smell — send information they collect through the thalamus. (more…)

Pawned Wines

23 Feb

Pawnshops Accepting Wine As Collateral

Some U.S. pawnbrokers are taking liquid assets – literally.
Along with family jewels and fine art they will accept wines as collateral for loans to help ease cash shortages of businesses and people on all rungs of the economic ladder.
“You’d be amazed by how many wealthy individuals have terrible credit ratings,” said Jordan Tabach-Bank, head of Beverly Loan Co. in Beverly Hills, California. (more…)

You are not allergic to sulfites.

20 Feb

You are not allergic to sulfites”Red wine gives me a headache. I must be allergic…?

No, you’re not.
Some people are allergic to sulfites; it can be a life-threatening condition. They can go into anaphylactic shock and die. Sulfite allergy can cause “labored breathing, wheezing, gas, diarrhea, bloating, vomiting, skin hives and a severe drop in blood pressure.” (Here’s a link.) But sulfites do not cause red wine headaches. And you know what? On average, white wines have more sulfites than red wines. So does dried fruit.
If you can eat raisins, you are not allergic to sulfites. If you can drink white wine, you are not allergic to sulfites.
So what causes your red wine headaches? (more…)

Cognac of Napoleon’s army for sale

18 Feb

A Dutch antique trader is selling his collection of over 5,000 unopened bottles of Cognac and other liquors, which he claims is the biggest of its kind. The most precious bottle in Bay van der Bunt’s collection, which is valued at 6 million euros ($7.84 million), dates back to 1795 and was a Cognac taken by Napoleon’s army on campaign for the officers. Van der Bunt estimates that bottle is worth between 100,000 and 150,000 euros. (more…)

The Bill Foley way

18 Feb

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — On a crisp winter’s day in 2010, Bill Foley was exploring a troubled winery for sale in Sonoma County, California, when he was taken aback by the sight of an enclosed horse-riding ring the size of an airplane hangar. Foley, who made a fortune selling mortgage title insurance during the housing boom, also recalls seeing a California mission-style chapel and a regulation-sized football field and baseball diamond at the Chalk Hill Estate. These extravagant structures had nothing to do with making wine and helped saddle an estate valued at more than $100 million with excessive debt, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its March issue. “My wife said, ‘There’s no way you can buy this,’” Foley recalls with a mischievous grin. (more…)

The art of wine description

7 Feb

Describing what a wine tastes like is an art form that isn’t taught in any school and is best created by those with an exalted sense of the absurd.

I have seen wine reviewers who wax so poetic that the prose turns scarlet, as if embarrassed to be so manipulated.

A wine can’t be simply excellent, it must have “explosive fruit” and “cascades of generosity” and offer a “monumental expansiveness” and “overwhelming breadth and a dramatic if not cataclysmic aftertaste.” Many wine lovers are awed by such language, but fear not. You need not feel left out of this game. You too can participate in the vinous wordplay sweepstakes. Here are a few tips: (more…)

Chemical found in red wine and other foods = health benefits

6 Feb
3d molecular spacefill of Resveratrol
Image via Wikipedia

National Institutes of Health researchers and their colleagues have identified how resveratrol, a naturally occurring chemical found in red wine and other plant products, may confer its health benefits. The authors present evidence that resveratrol does not directly (more…)

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