vitaminW

I always read these articles about of wine gluts around the world.  What are they going to do with all this extra wine they have?  Might as well just distill it into Brandy… but… uh… won’t that make a Brandy glut?  Do people drink that much Brandy?  Is the Brandy used for something else that I don’t know about?  Do Molotov cocktail prices come down? 

Well I have a better idea, why not sell the grapes and or juice to independent bottlers who can then sell the wine from these appellations at a discount.  What I am thinking about is the model used for Scotch Whiskey, where and independent bottler buys a few whisky casks and stores them for a few years only to sell the whisky under their own name, but also referring to where the Whisky came from.  

Signatory is one of several companies that do this.  Port Ellen was a distillery on Islay that does not distill whisky anymore, but you can still buy Port Ellen through one of Signatory’s bottlings...  and while you are at it you can buy a Speyside, a Lowlands or a Campbelltown Whisky from Signatory.  So why not do this same thing in the wine world from some of the worlds famous wine regions.

There are wine negociants that already do this in one form or another, but they only cover one or two regions in a country.  Why not expand and have a Burgundy and a German Reisling and a New Zealand Sauv and an Oregon Pinot all under one company?  I know there would probably some legal ramifications in order to use the proper appellation from where the wine originates, but I am sure something could be thought up to get around that.

Music Match - any Ktel record that has the Original Hits by Unknown Artists and has a name like Dynamite Explosion!

Dynamite

Game 3 – Wine Drinkers make Better Decisions
A new study says that wine drinkers make better decisions when it comes to food compared to beer drinkers.  Wine drinkers buy more fruit and veg, and beer drinkers buy more pork, mutton and chips.

Hmmm...Does this mean I am a beer drinker or does it mean I need to buy more fruit?

 The score after Game 3 - Wine Good - 3

  Wine Bad   - 0

Music match – Lemon Jelly - The Fruity Track

Game 2 – Armagnac aids in Weight Loss
Lab rats were fed a high fat diet and given moderate doses of Armagnac and showed less weight gain compared to the other rats.

Hmmm I wonder how you become a lab rat?

 The score after Game 2 - Wine Good - 2

  Wine Bad   - 0

Music match – Violent Femmes - Fat

2005 Castelli - Podere 414
Morellino di Scansano DOC  (mo-rehl-lee-no dee skahn-sahno)
13.5 % ABV
Approx $22

2005 Podere 414

The nose and the flavours were both muted and the wine didn't seem very interesting.  Tannins were not over the top considering the amount of sediment..it's a 2005 is it supposed to have that much???. 

2005 Podere 414 - Sediment

So it's the Chinese New Year today and I think it is going to be a good year.  Why you ask? Because it is the Year of the Pig...or should I say the Year of Bacon!  So go get a bottle of bacon smelling Syrah (something like Jim Barry - Clare Valley) , que up Pink Floyd's Pigs and fry up a pound of your favorite smoked pigs belly and celebrate!

Flying bacon

There is an abundance of research done on wine and its affect on the body.  All research starts with one basic principle.  How can we do research and get free wine?  So in keeping with all things the wine world appears to be about; competitions and keeping scores.  I am creating a wine competition…Wine Good vs. Wine Bad. 

Game 1 – Wine prevents Colon cancer.

The score after Game 1 - Wine Good - 1

    Wine Bad    - 0

Music match – Queen - We are the Champions!

Has it really been a month since my last post?
My adoring fans must be worried?

Why so long?
A really bad hangover?...uh...no
Was I avoiding the holiday writing schlock where if you write about wine you either have to write about sparkling wine or create a Top 100 list?...not really (Number 1 - No more Top 100 Lists)
Did I have a slothful attitude?...yeah pretty much.

So to start the new year off I am going to do three things;
Train my palate more like this 'How to train you palate'
Learn how to pronounce wine terms better
and try to remember vintages

Also
Look out for the First Installment of
Captain Bacon vs The Fruit Bomb and the Oak Monster.

2003 St Urban-Hof Reisling
Piesporter Goldtropfchen
Masel Saar Ruwer
10% a/v

$15

2003 St Urban-Hof Reisling

Steely Green/Yellow coulour

Music match for this year...Theme to James Bond

Sign up for the petition to Protect Wine Place & Origins 

If you don't sign the petition you are a terroirist which means you are willing to pay $100 for a 'Port' from California or a Champagne made in the great appellation of South East Calgary.

And if you are willing to pay these prices it I just painted a picture and signed Picasso's name and you owe me 10 million dollars.

Wine professionals will always tell you to store wine at a constant temperature and never keep it in a place that is too hot or too cold.  Well this is fine with the wine you have at home, but how do you know the wine made its way from the winery to your cellar without hitting an extreme temperature?  How do we know it wasn’t cooked or frozen?  It could have been left on some truck in the middle of the Canadian Prairies when the temperature hit -30C.  Do we really trust the AGLC, they are part of the government.  How do we know the wine store properly stores the wine?  Maybe they had no room in the front so they stored a bunch of wine in the back room by the furnace?  I think it would be interesting to have temperature gage on a bottle of wine to find out if the bottle has been in an extreme temperature.  I am picturing a small little strip on the side of the bottle that would turn a bright red when the bottle has been exposed to high temperatures for too long or turn blue when the bottle has been in a cold environment for too long.  Not all of the bad wines are due to the cork?

2000 Cline Syrah
Sonoma Coast, California
14.5 %
15.50 - Bin 905

2000 Cline Syrah