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Taste preference varies on both age and gender

Posted by Ellen - 10/30/09 at 04:10:07 pm

Taste preference varies on both age and gender, according to a study from Kent State University. The study found that girls tend to prefer sweet foods and fruit and vegetables, whereas boys like meat, fish and poultry. Tastes were also seen to change with children’s ages, reported Food Navigator USA.

Full Story

October 30, 2009 | In Wine education | 2 Comments

Scientists sample red wine and fish

Posted by Ellen - 10/27/09 at 04:10:27 pm

A very interesting article published in the wine lovers page:

I’ve probably written about the quirky match of red wine and fish a dozen times or more, talking about how the old wisdom recommending it is often correct but sometimes widely misses the mark.

Delicate, white-fleshed seafood like sole, cod or scallops rarely works with red wine, I join most wine enthusiasts in saying, because red wine’s tannic astringency and bold flavors don’t work well with such delicate fare.

But anyone who thinks the rule invariably applies has clearly never sampled the joys of Pinot Noir with fresh wild salmon or rare fresh tuna.

Today, a Japanese research report on just this topic hit the general media, inspiring a lot of “gee whiz” stories expressing surprise that science has apparently confirmed the old wisdom.

But has it? Let’s take a quick look. Read more

October 27, 2009 | In Pairing Wine with Food | No Comments

Gala wines (Italy)

Posted by Yoann - 10/24/09 at 04:10:32 pm

Uliana Petrucci just send us detailled informations on Cantine Galasso – Galà wines we want to share with you. Gala wines just arrived this week at AOC Fine Wines, so if you like their story give them a try.

To my great surprise, travelling around the world, I found out that while a good number of persons knows that “Montepulciano d’Abruzzo” is a wine, the number of those who know that Abruzzo is the name of a Region and where in Italy Abruzzo is located is much smaller.
Abruzzo territory lays in the Center-South of Italy on the Adriatic Coast (East Coast). It is composed of: 65% mountains terrain, 19% coastal hill terrain, 16% inland hill terrain. It is one of the most sparsely populated regions on the Italian peninsula. Always a wild and empty region, since the Second World War it has depopulated further, as people have left the land, and the traditional mainstay of sheep farming, for the cities and for America. This region, where the north of Italy meets the south, is also one of the most beautiful in the country. Bordered by the Apennines to the west and fringed by the Adriatic on the east, it has some of Italy’s most unspoiled scenery. In the Gran Sasso it has the highest mountain of the Apennine range (2912 m. a.s.l.). Stand atop the Gran Sasso and you have views of both the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian (Mediterranean) Seas, across the entire width of Italy. You could journey through the Abruzzo’s valleys for days, never encountering another person, and when you travel up to the broad mountain plains of the Abruzzi, you’ll meet the eerie sight of entire abandoned hill towns.
These remote settlements were the centres for the sheep farming that once formed the backbone of the Abruzzi economy. Bleak little structures, made of stone, and seemingly huddled together against the wind, the narrow slit windows give the look of a castle or fortress. And that was part of the purpose too. High up in the mountains, they were safely remote from the continual waves of invaders that swept across early medieval Italy. But if marauders did come, the villagers could retreat behind their thick stone walls (Out of curiosity take a look at www.sextantio.it and see how one of these abandoned hill towns was recently turned into a top scale residential and tourist project). Descend from the plains and you’ll encounter thick forests of chestnut, beech and oak, and a natural population of wolves, chamois, wild cats and golden eagles; there are deer and even bears. Farming in the mountains has pretty much disappeared, but winter sports have created new jobs. In the north, around L’Aquila, there are 22 ski resorts.
Large stretches of western Abruzzo are protected as national parks. There is the Parco Nazionale del Gran Sasso, the Parco Nazionale della Majella and the Parco Regionale Sirente Velino. The south-west of the region, where Abruzzo meets Lazio, is covered by the Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo. No country in Europe protects nature more than Abruzzo: over 30% of the territory is safeguarded by three National parks and a regional one.

Although sparsely populated, Abruzzo is neither remote nor barren. There are good air and road communications, and you are within easy reach of the motorway network. Abruzzo has a fine coastline and beaches, with good sandy shores to the north, and rockier coastline to the south. In the northern part you will find good stretches of sand, night clubs and some excellent accommodation, and the modern marina at Pescara, this part of the coast contrasts dramatically with the more untamed southern stretches around Ortona, Vasto and Termoli, more south. Here, the Mediterranean vegetation reaches down to the sea, and little fishing villages still follow their old trade. Between San Vito and Fossacesia you’ll see the “travocchi”, little fishing huts raised on piles, and still used today by the fishermen.

Fresh (freezing?) news from Bordeaux – ChateauTournefeuille

Posted by Yoann - 10/23/09 at 11:10:39 am

Here is the message we just received from Chateau Tournefeuille (Bordeaux, Lalande de Pomerol) this morning.

Good news ! Harvests have been finished on tuesday, october 20th !

Viva “la Gerbaude” ! (harvest end fest)

They have lasted for more than 3 weeks, which is rather uncommon ! Last day was spent on cabernets francs from Château La Reverence.

We have been waiting and waiting to get a perfect skin maturity without any botrytis damage. Weather was very cold last week, enabling us to pick frozen grapes ! It made us easy to drive cold macerations !
However, we are a little bit anxious about merlot fermentations. They are moving very slowly ; we have hard time to complete sugar transformation.
First vats filled are now macerating at 28° for 10 more days before running them off.

Wine maker report : ” This is the best vintage we have ever made since 12 years !”

As you can read, the new harvest sounds very promising!

October 23, 2009 | In News from our winemakers | No Comments

Witch wine to have for Halloween (?)

Posted by Yoann - 10/22/09 at 04:10:03 pm

Serving wine amidst all those wrapped goodies seems a feat to spook even the most daring host, but here are some ideas to outwit the Sugar Witch from wine country minute:

“The trick for Halloween treats is not bedeviling your guests’ palates. With sweets everywhere, that’s not easy; but here’s how to do it.

The first rule of wine wizardry is: “don’t serve dry wines with sweet foods.” Their sugars make the acidity of dry white wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc, stand out too much. They’ll taste thin and mean. Instead serve rich, nutty whites like Viognier or oaky Chardonnay, or sweet whites like Riesling. Stay away from Pinot Noir and other light reds for the same reasons. Go with rich, soft reds like Zinfandel.

For scary cookies smothered in butter cream icing, think young (10-year) Tawny Ports. Chill them or serve with ice and a little soda for a refreshing grog. Their caramel-like taste and hints of fruit (orange mostly) are perfect foils; sweet enough not to be overwhelmed. For chocolate frosting, the spicy, fruity, sweet flavors of Ruby Ports or late bottle Vintage Ports go famously.

The profusion of tastes found in candy bars makes pairing especially difficult. A safe bet for all candy bars, however, are Rutherglen Muscats or Tawny Ports from Australia because they have a deep, almost smoky, sweet caramel and blackberry flavor powerful enough to stand up, even to peanut butter. Yet they have enough acidity to not taste too sweet.

Here are a few more fun wine pairings with Halloween treats that are sure to give you and your guests lots to talk about.

Caramel Apples
Dessert wines such as Sauternes from France, or Far Niente Dolce from Napa, or late harvest Rieslings from Germany or Austria are great. These wines don’t have brandy added like the ports, and have a honeyed, apple, peach flavor that is a good match in both sweetness and acidity for the apples.

Popcorn Balls
A moderately sweet Chenin Blanc like a Vouvray Sec Tendre (tenderly dry) or Mulderbosch Steen Op Hout from South Africa. The Chenin Blancs will have a perfect mix of nutty and crisp flavors, and just enough sweetness to go perfectly. Short of a Chenin Blanc, try an Oregon Pinot Gris that is on the richer, sweeter side.

Butterscotch Brownies
An interesting option is a sweet Spanish Oloroso Sherry, which will have flavors of caramel, dark coffee and cocoa that are wonderful with chocolate. These wines aren’t super sweet, but sweet enough to work.”

Hope your guests will be bewitched, bothered, and bewildered well past midnight!

October 22, 2009 | In Pairing Wine with Food | 1 Comment

Let’s be curious!

Posted by Emmanuel - 10/22/09 at 03:10:29 pm

Great day today, this is the first day of our new blog. As in every project, the foundations are so important that we need to be careful in how we build them. I have always been a keen adept of benchmarking. What is happening in other places? How do people manage to carry their values in other industries. I have foundIn Ted Hope the perfect example to build my foundations. Ted Hope, a very successful, interesting, independent movie producer who was honored at the 2009 Woodstock Film Festival. His speech found very deep echoes in what I am feeling in my own field and also about his fight to make interesting movies in a world where mediocrity is the motto. Sounds familiar?

“I’ve been called many things in my life, but tonight I am being called a “Trailblazer.” I work really hard and have been really fortunate, and because of those two things I have had the privilege of making about 60 films with some of the greatest directors of our time. And I have dreams of making at least that many more with even better filmmakers with even more engaged audiences in the years ahead.

My drive to get so much done comes from being able to remember when I didn’t have the opportunities that I do now, opportunities not just to make such work, but even just to see such movies—and particularly to discuss such films, to participate in that incredible thing when a shared experience brings people closer together. My drive comes from not wanting that opportunity to be missed by others or myself.

I like to think that tonight’s honor partially comes from my commitment to truth—both in terms of content and in terms of process—my commitment to emotional and experiential truth, to the presentation of our complex reality and desires, to the portrayal of our world in such a way that we aren’t diminished or denigrated or spoken down to, but instead are portrayed in ways that recognize the expansive nature and deep community that truly defines all of us.

But lately, when people talk to me about “trailblazing”—and well, don’t they always…!—It’s not because of the work I’ve done in the past, the films I’ve made, or any innovations I have been part of. It’s because of what I am doing right now when I haven’t been able to make movies. It’s about what I have been doing because I am afraid we might lose this glorious and diverse and ambitious film culture—a community that has blossomed over the last two decades, both here in Woodstock and all over the globe. We might lose both that community and the opportunity to evolve it into a true force for social change if we don’t all start to act in new ways.

People think of film as an art form, movies as an entertainment. An independent producer from an earlier era, Walter Wanger, spoke of movies as ambassadors, cultural ambassadors. In my experience I’ve felt movies are more like community organizers. (And I should note that I was one, and in fact, I once almost very happily worked for ACORN, but that’s another story…) A movie’s ability to:

Bring us together

Expand our horizons

Encourage our dreams

Recognize our commonalities

Motivate our actions

Ignite our passions, and

Unite us as a community

is unrivaled. But it is also a power that is all too rarely unleashed. I am so inspired by the potential now before us. I don’t want us to squander it.

I want to ask you all to do something. Imagine the world you’d like, or at least imagine this world being closer to something you like. Look at these simple tools we have before us: films, the Internet, and you. Please recognize what you can now do with them, the power that they contain.

Isn’t it time that we all act? The economy is in the toilet, corporations are in control, the gates and access are closing down, but we still have these three things—film, Internet, and community—and I still believe they can change the world.

For the past year I have been striving to set the example of what I am speaking about. One year ago, I used the Internet only for emails and to read newspapers for free. I had never blogged, twittered, been on a social network.

Now I have several blogs, am completely wired, and have thousands of friends and followers who feed me with hope, information, and knowledge. I have hundreds of NEW friends who now work with me building a truly free film culture that is diverse, vibrant, and open to all, a culture driven by participation on all sides and united in its mission to get good work seen, appreciated and utilized by audiences who choose and act, ones that don’t surrender on impulse to the diet of mediocre drivel that is force-fed to us by what is euphemistically called our entertainment industry.

There is constant chatter by these lucky ones who have “jobs” in the film industry about crisis, but I don’t see a crisis in the same way they do. I see a golden age blooming with more great artists than ever before pushing and pulling the work they love to a deeply engaged and participatory audience.

And that is what I am really here to do tonight: to ask you—this incredible and legendary community—to go one step further, to take the love and appreciation you have for ambitious and humanist cinema, to use the skills you have for community building, to use these tools we all have available to us, and to simply spread the love further out into the world.

Our culture is under siege by the very apparatus that currently delivers this culture to us. But is an easy thing to change. Our fear of the future may still outweigh the pain of the present when it comes to culture, but the price is too high for us to continue to wait.

Write, blog, post, and twitter about the things you enjoy and the reasons why. Become the filter and curator for your family and friends. Don’t allow superficial responses to deeply considered work to permeate further. Don’t wait for the things you want and appreciate to come to you; there is a vibrant community of filmmakers out there eager to bring their work directly to you and discuss it via Skype or iChat or that good old face-to-face with whatever group you organize. Just reach out! The pleasure that the Woodstock Film Festival brings you each fall can extend throughout the year.

Our “indie film” trail has now come to a crossroads. The road to the summit will not be cut by filmmakers alone, but equally drawn by the audience that recognizes how vital a diverse culture truly is.

We won’t unlock the full potential for narrative unless we break the wall between art and commerce—the project and its marketing—and as artists engage not just in content and production, but also in discovery, promotion, and appreciation.

We won’t have artists who can afford to create and engage unless we compensate them fully and shed this notion that content should be free but we should pay huge fortunes for the hardware that stores them.

We won’t have a way to access and offer truly independent work if we don’t have a free and open Internet—true net neutrality.

We won’t be able to find the unique and personal work, if we don’t all take on the responsibility of curating for our family and friends.

We won’t have an exhibition industry if we don’t make a point of getting out of homes and sitting together in the dark to enjoy movies on the big screen.

We won’t have that exhibition industry if we don’t just simply stop showing movies but instead return to putting on a real show.

We won’t have anyone but the rich making movies in this country if we don’t have affordable education and health care.

Wherever we sit, we have to accept the responsibility to promote, enhance, and participate in the culture—and the apparatus that delivers it—that we want, and to expand the community that already understands this. It means all of us regularly discussing all of these things I raised. Sure, it is a great pleasure to see and talk about films, but it is also now very much a political act and a necessary act.

We all must engage in this way on a regular basis. Lend a hand. Take those five minutes in the morning and those ten at night and spread the good word: there is great work out there and you have seen it. Don’t settle for cats playing the piano, kids speaking at high speeds, or robots battling each other. Demand more.

I stand here tonight because no one likes to hike alone. I know you are all trailblazers and it will take many roads to find our way out of the woods and to that mountaintop. But this mountain is scalable and it is climbable in a very… big… way—a way that is going to continue to change our world in wonderful and wondrous ways.”

Essentially what Ted Hope is telling us about his art can apply to the wine trade. I would like to dedicate this blog to all the artisan winemakers who work not for ratings or to design a wine made to please everybody but who make wine to bring us the diversity of the terroirs all around the world. It is time to get curious and also to spread the word or we will be soon be in danger of uniformization, and boredom.

October 22, 2009 | In Wine education | 1 Comment

Channing Daughters

Posted by Lauren - 10/21/09 at 12:10:42 pm

Channing Daughters Research Cab is a new wine that I’ve discovered from AOC Fine Wines selection. A blend of 11 varietals that excite the palate in a fresh way. It’s a journey from Italy, France, and Austria all in one bottle. I love this wine and will recommend it to my friends and family.