Dr Vino's wine blog

OTBN turns 8: Saturday Feb 24
It’s time to open that bottle this Saturday! John and Dottie told you to do it! Consider it a print-media equivalent of Wine Blogging Wednesday. [WSJ]

Le Guide, born anew
The annual Michelin guide to France has been released. Taillevent, a three-star resto for 34 years is out; Anne-Sophie Pic, 37 year old chef owner, is into the elite group [details on Bloomberg, along with a nice quote from Vrinat of Taillevent]

Wild Oats sown, harvested
Whole Foods Market (WFMI) is buying Wild Oats Market (OATS) for $565 million. Both chains sell wine–conventional, organic, and otherwise–where allowed by law. When I asked a Wild Oats rep in September when they would be bought by Whole Foods, she replied that it would never happen, citing different corporate cultures. “We’re Colorado, they’re Texas.” Drat, I should have bought the stock. [Bloomberg]

Terroir, reborn
“In the same way that fast food has made a market for slow food, industrial wines have made a market for real wines,” Nicolas Joly says. Biodynamic wines had a big tasting in LA last week. [SF Chron]

Wine X is dead! Long live Gen X!
WineX a XXX magazine (no, not THAT kind of XXX–that was their wine rating system) rolled over last week and succumbed. The editor blames the industry. Others blame the publication. See goodgrape for a roundup and further comentary. It certainly goes to show the high costs–and the fine line between editorial and publishing–of running a print magazine. Long live blogs that cost practically nothing to run and hardly make any money anyway!

Men, take a wine class!
“Almost one-in-four men try to impress friends or dates by pretending to be wine buffs, reveals a new survey. However, most risk being exposed as buffoons according to the poll, which found knowledge of the drink is low despite soaring popularity.” [lse.co.uk]

tags: wine | OTBN 8 | Michelin

Vote it up
Voting ends today in the inaugural edition of the American Wine Blog Awards. Consider Dr. Vino in two categories! You can vote here.

Vote it down
Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, was dealt a setback in her reform for the wine sector. The EU Parliament voted 484 – 129 against her proposal to uproot almost 1 million acres of vines. The Parliament is a consultative body so the reform is not dead but it may be wounded given the lopsided nature of the vote. [Bloomberg]

Cellar time
Park B. Smith, the eminent wine collector featured along with this cellar (check out the slide show!) in this week’s NYT, invited Eric Asimov to lunch in the cellar. On his grand cru blog, Asimov recounts the “parade of Chateauneufs.” [The Pour]

La vache qui boit
Kobe beef cows are a pampered lot since they are seranaded with Mozart, massaged and fed beer to make their meat succulent. But their analogues in Australia, where it is known as wagyu, are being fed red — a premium red wine blend that is, costing A$20 (16 USD) a bottle! “The addition of a litre of premium wine to each animal’s feed for the last 60 days of its life is said to give the meat a sweetness that lifts the quality even further. The antioxidants in the wine are also thought to improve the colour and shelf life of the beef.” [Daily Telegraph, via Uncorked]

Koshu, nice to meet you?
Who’s heard of indigenous grape varieties in Japan? Well, first class travelers on Japan Air Lines will be getting to know the koshu grape variety better as it will be poured in their cabin. [JAL, thanks, Mark!]

Drink inside the box
According to this story, the French are discovering bag-in-a-box wine. Now we can too with the next edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday, scheduled for March 14. [Box Wine Blog]

tags: wine | food and drink | wine collecting

Wine and Valentines
US News & World Report emailed, asking for some wine picks and I told them something I have neglected to tell you: Pierre Peters champagne is excellent! I have enjoyed it on the deck as an aperitif, at dinner, but not, however, in the jacuzzi. Send me your notes if you do! (find this champagne) [US News]

Wine and politics
Wine and cheese? No, wine and corruption is perhaps a more common pairing in Texas according to member of a committee examining the regulation of the wine biz. [Houston Chron, thanks Tom!]

Wine and sports
Did you spend $14.60 on wine all of 2005? And last year did you spend $81.40? Then you might just be a fan sports fan! Ladies golf comes in at the top of the heap of couch potatoes with $125 of spending. [Reuters, thanks Jeff!]

Wine and sports, part 2
Indy Colts fan Jeff at Goodgrape.com took me up on my betting wine for football. Fortunately for his sake, since I took da Bears, I couldn’t find any Illinois wine to send him. So I am adding a $25 bottle of his choosing (Tulocay Napa zinfandel 2000) to his cellar. Hey I’m almost a third of the way to the average expenditure of a sports fan!

Wine and weather
The Economist discusses German wine and climate change. But they fail to mention the economists who already did! (Slate even thoroughly discussed the paper) For more detail on the broader trend, see a recent LA Times story [Economist]

UPDATE:
Wine and blogs
Looking for a new world syrah tip? Tim wraps up his WBW with 50 of them. [Winecast]

…and finally, I forgot to include a link to Tony Bourdain’s hilarious rant against every show on the Food Network. [Ruhlman]

Related: “This Valentine’s Day, don’t have pinot envy”

tags: wine | wine

Challenging
“This is the next wave. This is the Granholm case all over again,” said Kenneth Starr, of counsel to Chicago’s Kirkland & Ellis. Granholm? Yes, Granholm v. Heald, the Supreme Court case that paved the way for greater liberalization in wine shipments. Pre-Granholm, there were 26 states that allowed shipping. Now, almost two years later, there are only 34. Volume caps, requiring person-to-person transactions are among the barriers that remain and amount to distributors doing an “end run” around Granholm. Several cases will be coming this year according to a summary of the issues on Law.com

Reforming
Georgia is trying to make it easier to buy wine with bills facilitating internet sales and Sunday sales making their way through the legislature. Go Wendell Willard, scotch man and Georgia House Judiciary Committee Chairman! [Bizjournals]

Dunking
Teri Hatcher, Desperate Housewife, likes red wine, though not to drink (too many calories). According to the Daily Telegraph, she “is one of an increasing number who has started pouring a glass of wine into her bath every day. She would never drink it, but she claims bathing in it keeps her skin soft.” Um, someone help her. [Starpulse]

Dunking, II
Long a staple of California and Bordeaux, “vinotherapie” comes to NYC. Delluva Day Spa is now offering it in TriBeCa, just in time for Valentine’s Day. They must love Teri Hatcher there. [Urban Baby]

Drinking
Burgundy 2005–Is it the best burgundy year ever? Tim Atkins doesn’t buy the hype. But he isn’t about to dump it in his bath, either! [The Observer]

Daunting
A panel will assemble on March 13, 2007 to determine the Wine Women Want(TM). Oy. Good luck! [Jancisrobinson.com]

tags: wine | Burgundy 2005 | wine law | women

Red wine beats the greenback
“Like chocolate was to the Aztecs, wine has become the ultimate currency,” said Daphne Derven, an independent scholar on food and wine based in Eugene, Ore. “It appears that the thieves, whoever they were, had more faith in the stability and accruing value of the ultimate bottle of wine than the American dollar.” The big wine heist in Silicon Valley [NYT]

Red wine makes greenbacks for entrepreneurs (almost)
In a cover story with a provocative headline, Fortune magazine profiles Sirtris, the biotech start-up that is trying to commercially develop resveratrol. The research into naturally occurring compound in red wine has been led by Dr. David Sinclair, red wine hater, at Harvard. It may hold the key for fighting diseases associated with aging. [Fortune]

IN: Yves Bénard
Yves Bénard, head of the Champagne division at LVMH and co-president of the regional Champagne body (CIVC), is likely to assume the presidency at the French wine regulatory body, INAO. Given that Champagne is one of the most commercially viable wine regions and Bénard is no stranger to brands, is he the man to lead the appellation system out of the morass they are in? [Decanter]

OUT: Michel Rolland
Two years after Michael Broadbent criticized their wine in the documentary Mondovino, the owners of Chateau Kirwan have dumped him. Begin the Rolland backlash? [Decanter.com–link mysteriously removed]

Wine for no greenbacks in NYC
Free, public tasting of 2005 Chateauneuf-du-Pape with importer Alain Junguenet, at Tribeca Grill on Feb. 3rd from 12:00-4:00. Six winemakers will be there pouring samples.

tags: wine | wine tasting | wine collecting

Buyers of cellars: BusinessWeek reviews home wine cellars. Cut straight to the photos.

Buyers and buyers: “Bidders shattered last year’s $12.2-million, single-day record when they hit lot No. 49, with 23 lots still to go.” Naples Winter Wine Festival brings in $16.5 million for charity through the sale of wine–and a Rolls Royce and trips on private jets [Naples News]

Buying more: Americans buy 300 million cases of wine in 2006, a new record. [Sonoma PD]

Sancerre, food pair [Mariani–Bloomberg]

The half-bottle may not be full enough: Landmarc, the very wine-friendly restaurant in Tribeca that has an extensive list of half bottles, moves uptown and upscale to the TimeWarner Center–but are they in over their heads? [NYM]

Pitch it or pour it? Jerald O’Kennard of the Beverage Testing Institute peers into the liquor cabinets of the Trib staff. Some of it is not pretty. [Chicago Tribune, thanks U:TB]

On a roll: Have you ever had a California roll? Or teriyaki chicken? You can now report it to Japanese sushi “police” who are on the prowl, seeking out fraud maki–outside of Japan! [Financial Times]

Some like it hot–spicy and circular: “The United Nations food and health agencies are to lay down international standards for how the poppadum can be manufactured.” [TimesOnline]

The next edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday will focus on New World syrah. Taste, then blog it on Feb 7! [WineCast]

Many sales are happening now–check your local wine shop and stock up!

tags: wine | wine collecting | sushi

“You’re Mispronouncing ‘Achatz'” A primer on molecular gastronomy. Tip #2: don’t call it molecular gastronomy [Chow]

“I ate bird stomach, lamb’s brain, hearts, thymus gland, intestine, and the livers of veal, chicken and goose in the past 14 days. What an offal fortnight.” offal puns more like it. Staff writer Ryan Sutton reviews Momofuku Ssam and Ariyoshi . [Bloomberg]

“And if states like California can ban foie gras, I guarantee you that veal, lobster and cattle will be next, and in 50 years we will all be forced to be vegetarians.” said Ariane Daguin, owner of D’Artagnan gourmet foods. Um, I doubt it. [Bloomberg]

“Vintners have been using byproducts from milk, eggs, wheat and even fish guts in the winemaking processes for centuries. But a new federal proposal could require American wineries to disclose such unsavory items – used as “fining” agents to remove grit – as ingredients.” Fine wine, indeed! Just don’t tell the vegans about the bull’s blood. Just kidding!!! [AP]

Related: “Cantu feel the love tonight”

tags: wine | dining

Drinking up
By 2010, the British market for wine consumption will be Europe’s most valuable, topping France and Italy according to a new study released by Vinexpo. [Vinexpo]

Building up
Could a wine brand be in the top 100 brands in the world? Could it be better known than Starbucks?!? Apparently so according to BusinessWeek’s Top 100 brands of 2006. What is it? Check number 87 (and brand 83 for a cognac from the same company). [BW]

Breaking up
Jacques & Francois Lurton, Bordeaux brothers who make wine in places as diverse as the Entre-deux-Mers, Chile, and Argentina, are heading their separate ways. Jacques will stay in Bordeaux to play a more active role in his father’s properties (Chateau La Louviere among several others) while Francois will still trot the globe for JFL. [Vitisphere]

Heating up
Global warming threatens ice wine. Canada, Germany mourn. [Decanter]

Linking up
Alan Richman, the punchy food writer who recently caught some heat for slamming cajun cuisine and calling Creoles “faerie folk,” now links to this blog from his new blog at GQ. I’ll be sure to stay on his good side. Check out his hard hitting prose.

Foie gras, eating up
“Our mission is to protect human health and not the health of geese and ducks.” -Tim Hadac, Chicago Health Department spokesman on enforcement of the city’s foie gras ban, which has been widely flouted. [AP]

tags: wine | wine news