Wine Quote of the Day

An ever-expanding collection of our favourite sayings about our favourite drink.

December 26, 2006

What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?

Larson E Whipsnade (WC Fields) in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

December 20, 2006

Wine is bottled poetry.

Robert Louis Stevenson

December 15, 2006

A German wine label is one of the things life's too short for, a daunting testimony to that peculiar nation's love of detail and organization.

Kingsley Amis

December 12, 2006

Three be the things I shall never attain: envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Dorothy Parker

December 8, 2006

I only drink Champagne on two occasions: when I am in love and when I am not.

Coco Chanel

December 7, 2006

Drink wine and you will sleep well.
Sleep and you will not sin.
Avoid sin and you will be saved.
Ergo, drink wine and be saved.

Unknown

December 5, 2006

A first class cabernet is like an investment banker - a polished gentlemen in a three piece suit. But Syrah is a cowboy in a tuxedo.

John Alban

December 4, 2006

In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it.

Napoleon

December 3, 2006

Life – that’s to work with wine.

Unknown

December 2,2006

The wine you drink is the wine you deserve.

Emile Peynaud from The Taste of Wine

December 1, 2006

Wine makes every meal an occasion, every table more elegant, every day more civilized.

Andre Simon

Have a Californian Aussie Wine

Frank’s Rant:

There are now more ways than ever to savour some Australian wine. Just pop the cork on a bottle of wine from California. That’s right. If your bottle of wine has “American” on the label, it could actually contain as much as 25% Aussie grape.

Seems the Aussies are no longer content to fill just the Down Under market with cute and cuddly animal labels. Now they’re attempting – rather successfully – to empty their wine lake by exporting in bulk. Critter wines are breeding like gerbils, much to the horror of California grape growers who are, according to one article, reaching for their shotguns. Having sipped a few of the critter wines, I sympathize with the Californians.

Bulk wine imports into California have increased by six times this year alone, and 80% of those imports are from Australia. Bulk imports from Australia now total the equivalent of 2,300,000 cases of wine – that’s over two million cases, folks. Add another 675,000 cases from Argentinean grapes, and I wonder how much of what’s in my bottle of Californian wine is actually grown in the sunny, surf-loving American state?



westernfarmpress.com

Susan’s Note:

I’m not much of a fan of critter wines at the best of times, and this news certainly doesn’t give me much reassurance I’m likely to change my opinion. Seems like just another step toward the homogenization of wines. Echoes of Ursula LeGuin’s classic sci-fi novel, Lathe of Heaven, are already rattling around in my head.

Two Gifts At Christmas

Frank’s Tip

If you’re looking for Christmas gifts for your favorite wine geek and you think they have everything, I just came across a perfect answer from Riedel. The Riedel Pink “O” Champagne Glass.

Not only are this flute’s design and colour eye-catchingly innovative and unique, but this is a glass that gives twice. Part of the sales proceeds from each and every one of these glasses will go to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a non-profit organization that aids woman with this terrible disease.

So when you wrap up a pair of Riedel Pink “O” Champagne Glass to give to your favorite geek, you’ll actually have given two Christmas presents. Your wine geek has a new design and colour to try, and women everywhere will benefit from much-needed funds for ongoing research and support. A winning combination for sure.

Hint to family and friends: I still have a little room in the glass cabinet. I could fit a couple of these in. No honestly, I really can.

www.riedel.com

BC's Monopoly Madness Continues

Susan’s Rant:

Have our government pundits finally lost their mind completely? According to my calendar, we’re now full on into the Christmas season – one of the busiest times of the year for any retailer who actually wants to make money. Parties, thank you gifts, even just the feeling of “I deserve it,” I don’t know many people who fail to pick up a few extra – or extra special – bottles for the holidays.

Now since wine and liquor sales are traditionally significant contributors to the public coffers – think ever-escalating taxes, duties, and other cash grabs – it seems logical the folks who run our government monopoly would leap at the opportunity to dig even deeper than usual into our pockets.

And yes, I’ll admit, I’m always delighted by the opportunity to expand the wine cellar, but carrying huge amounts of cash around is not part of that agenda. Ka-ching – can you say Credit Card?

So here’s some bureaucratic brilliance that left me speechless – which, as anyone who knows me will tell you, happens somewhat less frequently than a blue moon. Apparently, two weeks before Christmas, some – not all, mind you, just some – liquor stores are refusing to accept a credit card with “Ask for ID” on the signature line. Have the government bureaucrats gone insane? This is an acknowledged safety precaution among many credit card savvy consumers – especially ones who travel frequently.

But the worst of it is the bureaucrats know they have us at – allow me to be polite – a disadvantage. Where else are we going to pick up a bottle of Moet, Remy Martin, Tomasi Valpolicella, and perhaps a six-pack of Heineken all under one roof? Can we just wander down the road to another retail outlet? No. For one-stop shopping it’s LCB or nothing.

Maybe my brain really is getting addled by drinking too many bottles of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc under aluminum screw cap. Could that little slip of metal, actually, be affecting my ability to reason? Or maybe it’s the LCB people who are suffering from aluminum poisoning.

This flagrant display of stupidity does, however, have one good point. It should drive more sales to the gallant entrepreneurs who are fighting to provide us with an alternative. Although independent liquor stores are still limited in BC, their numbers are increasing. Best of all, not only are the staff there typically more helpful and more knowledgeable than their LCB counterparts, but many stores also offer a broad range of tastings and food pairings as well. Let’s hear it for free enterprise.

Thanks to Wine and Dine for sounding the alert and for their ongoing list of great wine events in and around British Columbia.
wineanddinebcnews.ca

Screw Caps Rotting Our Brains?

Frank’s Rant:

A few days ago I received a news alert from Decanter Magazine indicating Jacob’s Creek is now going fully screw cap through their entire range. No big surprise there. What was more interesting, though, was a reader comment directly below the article.

Apparently, unknown to me, there is an International Aluminum Conspiracy. That’s right, it appears screw caps will contaminate our brains. And James Halliday, wine writer as well as one of Australia’s most senior wine judges, is supposedly a heartless member of this conspiracy to rot our intellect.

According to the reader, Australia is “one of the last great strongholds of the International Aluminum Industry, an industry with immense lobbying power both within the Australian government and within the Australian wine writers fraternity.” He proposes this is not only a “conflict of interest” for Mr Halliday, but alludes to the general population suffering dire consequences from aluminum poisoning in the brain as a result of screw caps.

Give me a break. The last great aluminum stronghold? Brain poisoning from a tiny bit of aluminum that’s protected by an internal plastic seal?

Having read a few of Mr Halliday’s books and articles – including the Wine Atlas of Australia and the Australian Wine Companion – he doesn’t seem the type to be involved an international conspiracy. In fact, he barely mentions screw caps in the Wine Atlas of Australia – a tome that’s required reading for WSET certification.

Maybe the reader should just pull the cork out of a bottle of wine, chill out, and relax. Or maybe he’s already had a few glasses too many. And if my bottle of Cloudy Bay or Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc contaminates my brain – oh well. Twist off another cap.

Check out the original article for yourself at:

www.decanter.com



Susan’s Note:

This rant got me more interesting by the minute. Curiosity aroused, I did a bit of Internet digging. No question the reader, apparently a British scientist of some renown by the name of Chris Exley, has an axe to grind with anything aluminum. But why he’s singled out the wine industry escapes me. Has he conveniently overlooked the soft drink industry that surrounds an entire single serving with an aluminum can? What about the tin foil most households consider a standard for cooking and storing food?

Just for fun I googled a bit further. A quick scan of half a dozen other sites revealed some fascinating info.

Six aluminum salts, approved as food additives in the United States, make an appearance in cake mixes, frozen dough, pancake mixes, self-rising flours, processed cheese and cheese foods, and beer (in aluminum cans). Uh oh! The Pillsbury Dough Boy is an Aluminum Terrorist? Sarah Lee and Aunt Jemima are actually perps of the Great Aluminum Conspiracy?

And here’s a couple of stats Ronald MacDonald is sure to love. Some estimates say an average sized pickle treated in an alum solution – a form of aluminum sulfate used in the pickling solution to firm up the cucumbers – contains 5 to 10 milligrams. Just one slice of individually wrapped processed cheese can contain up to 50 milligrams of aluminum creating bad news for cheeseburger fans – in fact, these traditional fast meals are believed to contain one of the highest aluminum contents of any food.

Over the counter medications such as buffered aspirin can be, so says the experts, one of the largest sources of aluminum, as are digestive aides such as diarrhea and hemorrhoid medicines. A typical dose of aluminum-containing antacids can contain as much as 200 milligrams. Aluminum is also often added to hygiene aids such as antiperspirants and douches. Guess the pharmaceutical companies also have a few conspiratorial leanings and subversive ties to the aluminum industry – news, I suspect, to the likes of Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, or Pepto-Bismol.

As Frank says, oh well. If I’m suddenly plagued by senility as I’m sipping a glass of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, I suspect I’ll be a lot happier as an idiot with some really good wines in the cellar than poor Chris as a PhD griping about screw caps.

Love by the Glass Book Review

Love by the Glass: Tasting Notes from a Marriage
by Dorothy J Gaiter and John Brecher

ISBN: 0-8129-6686-4
Format: trade paperback
Pages: 317
Pub Date: 2003 by Random House
Suggested Retail Price: $12.95 (US)/$19.95 (Cdn)

Susan’s Take:

This book disappointed me – big time. I’d expected lush descriptions, extensive – or at least detailed – tasting notes, set against a rich backdrop of their careers and wine explorations. These guys are, after all, both apparently prize-winning journalists. What I had in my hands was a book that continually broke all the rules of good writing and didn’t even tell a decent story.

Most often, just as I was starting to get involved in the current tale of travelling or meeting winemakers, they’d simply stop – done, finito, ain’t no more folks. To me, this is the worst form of saying: I have an incredible piece of information but that’s another story so I’m not telling you. In grade school we used to follow such a statement with a singsong “Na na-na na!” Okay, so even as a non-parent I can accept it from a six-year-old. I expected more from Dorothy and John.

They also have major difficulties deciding whose point of view they’re using – not just in a given chapter but often within a paragraph and sometimes within a single sentence. Going from “Dottie bought John bottle of Chateau Latour” to “so we bought a third wine rack” in the same sentence still makes the hair on the back of my neck prickle. I haven’t figured out how to spell the howl of disapproval it evoked from a long-time editor friend of mine, but it was not a pretty sound.

I also found the never ending stories about “Dottie faces” – apparently specially commissioned on their coffee mugs, carpets, paintings, walls, and just everything else in their house – irritating and distracting. I’m sure they get a kick out of in their personal lives and I’ll admit it was kind of cute the first couple of times them mentioned it – a bit sappy but cute. By the twentieth time it was flat out annoying.

This book is definitely one I’d take a pass on. My copy got recycled to the secondhand store within 24 hours.


Frank’s Take:

Well, what I can I say about this one? I did mention the book to Susan as a possible good read. I do, from time to time, read their Wall Street Journal column and usually find it quite good.

Love by the Glass did have one chapter about a column where they encouraged people to open that special bottle of wine they had stashed away and enjoy it on a specific date. The responses were amazing and heartwarming. I wish the rest of the book was as good.

I’m sure my penance for even suggesting, never mind recommending, this book to Susan will involve a good bottle of wine.

New Experts in a Changing World

Frank's Rant

This morning I read a blog from Vinography with a link to US News which credited Alder, the blog’s creator, as having a “connoisseur site” for wine information. I found it fascinating that a publication as conservative as US News would now acknowledge a blog as a quality wine resource – showing some wine blogs now have more creditability than the traditional glossy magazines which were, rather conspicuously, not citied at all.

The issue that this article brought home for me was, once again, our provincial (British Columbia) monopoly. Applejack Wine and Spirits, the Colorado store mentioned in the US News article, has 15,000 items in inventory and some 80,000 cases of wine. In our entire, province-wide LCB system we don’t have 15,000 different wines available for purchase. At last count it was 5,386 items (including beer) and 3,649 wines. What’s wrong with this picture?

Prices are even more of an eye opener. Here are a few comparisons. Beringer’s 2002 Knights Valley on sale for $15 US which coverts to $28.61 Cdn: LCB lists it for $49.99. Clos du Marquis Bordeaux costs $46 US ($51.02 Cdn), unless of course you buy it in BC where it will set you back $75. Applejack also lists a Columbia Crest Pinot Grigio for $5 US – that’s $5 in US dollars for a bottle of wine, folks. Unfortunately, of course, it’s not available here in BC at any price let alone at $5, although there are some Columbia Crest Wines at $9.95 – some of the lowest prices I’ve seen at the LCB.

Apparently, American consumers are getting overwhelmed with the variety of wines they have available at good prices. I wish I had their problem. Let me have a choice of 15,000 items and who needs sale prices anyway?

Check out these stories for youself at
www.usnews.com
www.vinography.com

Susan’s note:

Coincidentally, a couple of days ago I’d been trying to explain the relevance and credibility of blogs to my (naturalized American) sister who freely admits she “doesn’t get it.” Even though we have the same parents, she grew up in a different era – and yes, I’m proud of the fact that even though we are 23 years apart in age we are still such good friends. What was most interesting for me – aside from the concept of a single store with 80,000 cases of wine – was the concept that here was a tradition publication, one she’s always respected, talking about blogging as a reputable source of information. What was most disappointing was the fact she recently moved away from her home of some 14 years – a home that was only two hours drive away from Applejacks.