Dr Vino's wine blog

Two weeks ago a team of American researchers promised what the New York Times story called “guilt-free gluttony” through resveratrol, a component found in red wine.

Now, in a scientific detente, French researchers are doing them one better: cardiovascular-improving sloth. To wit:

“Resveratrol makes you look like a trained athlete without the training,” said Dr. Johan Auwerx of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France who led the study. [Read full story]

This is going to be serious competition for the ab toning belt.

We all know that red wine can cause pinot envy. So only four deadly sins to go! What will resveratrol create next? Humble pride? Gentle anger? Generous greed? Platonic lust?!?

Related:
“Lose weight on a red wine diet”–with video of lab mice! [Daily Telegraph]

Bono, the rock star and activist, can add wine savvy to his file with the Nobel committee in Oslo. This according to “60 Minutes” producer John Hamiln who recently wrote about travling with Bono in the NYT:

If the private plane and police escort weren’t enough, U2 had an extra perk that officially puts it over the top in my book. It turns out that Bono; U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness; and their tour manager, Dennis Sheehan, are all oenophiles. On the [charter] plane home to Nice that night, the Bordeaux was outstanding — properly aged and poured at the perfect temperature by unfailingly polite British flight attendants.

How sweet it is! Apparently though for Hamlin, the experience made his commercial flight home and the $5 mini bottle of generic “red” particularly bittersweet.

Maybe we will see a not-so-generic red from Bono himself? His other “red” products for AIDS research already include a red Amex and a red iPod among other things…

tags: wine | bono | charter jets

Rocks. They’re all the rage.

Earlier this week, an Italian vintner gave me an elegant little box. In it, there was a collection of gravel from his vineyards. I put it on my desk next to a larger rock that I got from at an event with a New Zealand winemaker a few months ago.

I’m getting rock’d at wine events all over NYC.

tags: wine | rocks

Paris Hilton pimps prosecco (in a can no less! And at Oktoberfest in Munich!) two weeks after getting a DUI.

Andrea Dan, the president of Italy’s Road safety Society said: “She has just only been arrested for drunk-driving and a few days later she is promoting an alcoholic drink. What sort of image is that?” [link]

Related:
“Canned wine is fine for Paris but not Italy” The Guardian
The Paris print ad for Rich prosecco

tags: wine | Paris Hilton | prosecco

Tired of the TSA keeping you from your wine? Don’t chug, sip in style (and silence) with the beer belly! Solve your problems of liquid deprivation on flights AND transporting that cult cab back from Napa all in one.

Caution, use of the beer belly runs the risk of a frisk (or worse). Nor is it recommended as a decanter.

tags: wine | travel

Asked how she’s coping with her nerves before the big event, she replied: “I have two words for you: champagne.”

Which wine lover uttered this priceless line?

* * *

Update: True indeed! It is former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, 39, before her wedding in St. Tropez over the weekend. Full story, photos
Great job Anali and winesmith

I love GoogleMaps and Google satellite images as you may have noticed. So indulge me with this bit of trivia: which winery is this?

Image credit: Google.

tags: wine | winery photos

Silly me. I called the phenomenon of French winemakers who are forced to distill their surplus wine into ethanol, a fuel additive, “vin diesel.” But the real vin diesel has just stood up.

The fashionistas who run Diesel jeans know how to charge since their denim can cost $150 or more. They have taken this ability to wine and rolled out two red wines and a Chardonnay that fetch $190 in wine shops in London and almost $300 in restaurants accoding to Decanter. The wines are not available yet in the US. (check availability)

Actually, vino diesel would be more apt since Renzo Rosso, founder of the Diesel brand, has hired enologist Roberto Cipresso to make the wines for him from a 12 acre vineyard on his farm in Veneto. “For successful living,” runs their tag line. Indeed.

tags: wine | fashion | jeans