Dr Vino's wine blog

SIPPED: spiked juice
The good folks at Gizmodo sacrificed their own palates by turning Welch’s grape juice into, well, fermented grape juice using a product called Spike Your Juice. Just don’t let the WSWA know that underage might be able to get ahold of this for cheaper than wine.

SIPPED: wine book for kids
An illustrated book for children that details the life of the vine and wine’s history back to Roman times will be appearing soon–in France. It’ll keep them away from the fermented Welch’s, no doubt! (But then again, when you have self-serve wine tanks, why would you ever need to ferment Welch’s?)

SPIT: shopping for wine with kids
A Tesco in the UK refused to sell a dad a bottle of wine with his groceries. Why? Because he was with his eight-year-old daughter and she didn’t have valid ID. [Mirror.co.uk]

SIPPED: Bordeaux & Asia 1
After having his wine mentioned in a Drops of the Gods spin-off comic, a small Bordeaux vintner has withdrawn his wine from the market in the hope of preventing speculation and escalating prices. He’s now screening buyers and still offering the wine at €18. How long before there’s a secondary market for Château le Puy? [Guardian]

SIPPED: Bordeaux & Asia 2
A sequel to the popular Chinese TV show, “Cherish Our Love Forever,” is now shooting on location in Bordeaux. Inquiring minds wonder if it will do for Bordeaux in China what Sideways did for pinot noir here? [AFP]

SPIT: Bordeaux & Asia 3
The Economist has a short piece on wine in Hong Kong. They cite prices for Château Lafite Rothschild, the market leader, have roughly doubled in the past six months; “Sniff its bouquet,” they write “and the wine boom has hints of tulip mania.”

SIPPED: impossible pairings!
The robotic sommelier videos are back! And this could be the funniest one ever! Click above to view the encounter between diner an open/close-minded diner and an exasperated somm.

SIPPED: Red, white and…blue?
“Viagra-spiked wine nearly kills husband” [winetimes.co.za]

SIPPED: good times
Elin McCoy plunges into the fun of Beaujolais 2009 [Bloomberg]

SIPPED: go, go godello
“Northern Spain has become a white-wine Valhalla.” [Slate]

SIPPED: wine’s fake Rolex?
Beijing Boyce posts about finding a wine labeled as “Benfold’s” for sale in China.

SPIT: wine competitions
NY Cork Report says they won’t participate as judges in competitions any more. Discussion ensues.

SPIT: oak barrels
Want all the oak flavor with none of the…oak? Say hello to flexitanks! They can “impart flavours, tannins and aromas.” [weeklytimesnow.com.au]

SPIT: the wrong kind of bubbly
“Drinking cava on shipboard is worse that shooting an albatross and will lead to a similar fate!” Reader comment

SIPPED: X-Ray vision for wine lists?
The above image comes from wondertonic.tumblr.com

SIPPED: satire
HoseMaster continues his discussion of Carbon Footprint wines, including “Creeping Deforestation” & “Screw the Ozone” [HoseMaster of Wine]

SIPPED: dug up from the cellar
“Perth Pink….This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.” An old Monty Python wine sketch that had fallen through the cracks!

SPIT: convenience
Alcohol has been “too accessible to the people of Ontario,” so the LCBO will respond by shuttering retail stores and limiting the rest to 12-3 on Saturday. [This & That; cbc.ca]

SIPPED: natural wine humor
“So far only insufferable hipsters in New York and San Francisco talk about natural wines but they proselytize so much over the internet that we may pick up another 50 or so drinkers in the next few years.” A new new robotic sommelier video.

SIPPED: glass cleaning tip o’ the day
Don’t use the same sponge to clean wine glasses that you just used to clean the waffle batter bowl.

SPIT: “imbibing idiot bias”
Job applicants who partake in alcoholic drinks are perceived as less intelligent and hireable according to a new academic study, dubbing the phenomenon an “imbibing idiot bias.” In the actual experiments, the subject ordered a glass of “house merlot,” so perhaps the conclusion is valid. But what if the subject ordered a glass of hipster wine, such as pineau d’aunis or Txakoli, or a back vintage something good? Maybe that idiot deserves a job after all. [Reuters]

SPIT: clarity
In the hope for clarity, French authorities propose to rename AOC Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire as Côteaux Bourguignons. You’d think they ordered the house merlot! [thedrinksbusiness]

SIPPED: more imbibing idiots?
Coca-Cola has been sued over the health claims of vitaminwater. Its defense: “no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.” In and of itself, it’s not wine related, but it does remind me of Fred Franzia’s defense in the case of Napa Ridge (not sourced from Napa fruit) that nobody expects Hawaiian Punch to come from Hawaii.

SPIT: cartel action
Nine sherry producers have been slapped with a $9 million fine from Spanish competition authorities according to Decanter. Their breach of the law: colluding to set minimum prices for private label sherry to supermarkets. Blogger Oliver Styles would be fine with the price collusion though, writing “Wouldn’t that stick a lump of deep shag in the supermarkets’ pipes? And they’d have to smoke it.”

SIPPED: The Doon of a new way?
Randall Grahm places a two million dollar bet on a new vineyard grown from grape seeds (as opposed to cuttings). And not just any seeds: he will crossbreed his own hybrids, thus making essentially new grape varieties, the seeds of which will give rise to the 90 acre vineyard in San Juan bautista. Of note, he calls the project a form of “viticultural philanthropy.” [SFGate.com]

SPIT: overpriced wine lists
Eater has a run-down of four wine lists, all obnoxious in their own way, which they dub the Hall of Shame. One question: are plaques available for purchase?

CHUGGED: Dornfelder
Nothing says par-tay like 4,000 liters of Dornfelder! Or so a German chef thought when he partially filled a 140,000 liter barrel for the first time in 400 years. The cause was a two-day bash called the Riessen Weinfass. [TheLocal.de]

SPIT: classified growths?
In an effort to help sales beyond the top wines of the region, local trade authorities in Bordeaux have proposed a four new price categories: Art, Exploration, Fun, and Basic. Move over, classified growths, here comes exploration and fun! [AFP]

SIPPED: bottoms up
Gallup released its annual poll about the drinking patterns of Americans. Wine’s slightly down, but the data show the amount of people consuming alcohol at a 25 year high (hello, recession?). See our discussion about last year’s data.

SIPPED: A Year of Wine
Stevie at the blog wierdcombinations.com has a review of my book, A Year of Wine. He writes, “Like a refreshing Chablis on a warm day, the book is cool, smooth and easy going down with enough earth and interest to keep you wanting more.” Very nice–but it sounds like he should have gotten the magnum edition!

SPIT: fine wine; SIPPED: regulations
Fancy enomatic machines can store and open bottle of wine for days, if not weeks. Thus stores (and bars) can use the system for dispensing tasting sized pours of expensive wines, amortized over days. However, in Vancouver, regulations appear to thwart this: The anonymous bloggers at Winecouver report that authorities are now enforcing regulations that make stores dump all sample bottles 30 minutes before closing, including those in Enomatics. Also, consumers may be limited to two one-ounce pours–in plastic cups.

SIPPED: under the influence
UPDATE: The WaPo follows the beer distributor money on HR 5034.

SIPPED: jug wine
A sports bra modified to contain 25 ounces of wine and fitted with a nozzle is making the rounds again. Dubbed the “Wine Rack,” it is the companion to the “Beer Belly” for men.

SPIT: New York wine
An Albany blogger throws a flag on the new Jets wine play for not being a wine from New York State, especially after state funds subsidized their pre-season training.

SPIT and a SHRUG: leafroll virus
The leafroll virus is attacking vines in Napa Valley, reducing yields and slowing sugar development. While most producers lament this, some producers don’t mind. [SF Chron]

SPIT: pinot noir
Wine journoblogger Blake Gray pens a break up letter to Pinot Noir. Here’s a taste: “It’s not only because you’ve gained weight, although I won’t deny that’s a big factor…But that’s not the only reason. You’re sleeping with Syrah.” [Gray Market Report]

SPIT: en primeur scores?
James Suckling is retiring from Wine Spectator after 29 years. An announcement states that reviewers James Molesworth and Bruce Sanderson will assume the duties for Bordeaux and Italy respectively. Further, “The wines will be reviewed in our standard blind-tastings in the company’s New York office.” Given that Molesworth does not rate barrel samples, is the the end of the magazine’s participation in en primeurs, the system of selling Bordeaux wines two years before the arrive? When asked about it on Twitter, Molesworth indicated it is still an open question.

SIPPED: new owners
Evesham Wood, a small producer in Oregon, has been sold. Russ and Mary Raney have sold their 24-year old, 13-acre vineyard and winery to Erin and Jordan Nuccio. The Raneys will consult as well as spend more time in France. [Avalon wine]

SIPPED: Le Tour pairings
The Tour de France is, in many ways, a rolling promotion for France’s regions. David McDuff makes the link to wine and gastronomy for each stage with maps, photos and guest posts. [McDuff’s Wine & Food Trail]

SPIT: HR 5034
A hearing before a subcomittee about HR 5034 has been postponed, hopefully indefinitely. We maintain our existing threat level.

SIPPED: Amazon sells wine
…in Britain.

SPIT: wine and football
NFL players endorsing (their own) wine? That’s a no-no. But the NFL accepting alcohol ads? Bring it on! [The Atlantic]

SIPPED: wine and “football”
Meanwhile, Spanish soccer star Andres Iniesta is plowing his profits back into a $9 million vineyard in Castilla-La Mancha! [Bloomberg]

SPIT: cellar age
Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte of Bordeaux will export about 1,600 cases of their wine to Montreal via sailboat! Incidentally, the shipper claims that the mode of transport will improve the wines “giving an impression of having aged a year in the process.” [Decanter]

SIPPED: the wine biz
Amazon, which tried to sell wine unsuccessfully, acquired woot.com for $110 million; the deal-of-the-day site sells wine among other things. Be sure to check out the CEO letter announcing it to the staff. [TechCrunch]

SIPPED: new bottles
Roederer will introduce a brown glass bottle in the fall for their brut premier Champagne. Apparently, the green glass bottle only kept out 92% of UV light. But their clear Cristal bottles come shrouded in orange crinkly wrap that filters out 98% of UV rays. Perhaps that should be sold as sun protection? [Drinks Business]

SPIT: keeping up with inflation
California’s budget may be reeling, but authorities won’t be hitting the bottle–for more excise taxes, at least, as they maintain excise taxes at 1991 levels. [Sac Bee]

SPIT: one-stop shopping
The WSJ reports that wine in NY grocery stores has been all but bagged (paper, not plastic).

SIPPED: irony
HoseMaster of Wine lists the top ten things he learned in Walla Walla.