New, relaxed standards for what is "moderate" drinking

The benefits of moderate drinking, especially wine, are well known. Now, the Depts of Agriculture and Health and Human Services have issued new standards for acceptable moderate drinking, and they allow more consumption:

For women: Up to one drink per day (that is 1 oz of hard liquor, or 6 oz of wine, or a 12-ounce beer). Also, women can have up to three drinks on any day, so long as their average over the week is no more than one drink per day.

For men: Up to two drinks per day. Also, up to four drinks per day (!), so long as the weekly average is no more than two drinks per day.

That gives us all much more flexibility, when we pop a cork! But, of course, please drink sensibly, especially where driving is concerned.

And just one more reason to be happy to be a man ;)

Biodynamics is a hoax

Check this out:
http://biodynamicshoax.wordpress.com

The author argues that Rudolph Steiner (a philosopher who believed in the ability of science to reach into a separate spiritual world) was a flimflam man who never grew crops in his life, whose ability to promote and confuse rivaled PT Barnum's.

And yet, clearly there are many vineyards and wineries who use biodynamic farming as a clarion call of excellence, in their marketing.

You can bury dung in a cow's horn under the full moon, if you want to, but I'll stick with scientific and sustainable farming methods, thank you. Let's all call this what it is: a hoax. At least until scientific methods can prove whether it is a superior farming program, and why.

To Stomp or Not to Stomp?

There seems to be a resurrection of an age-old ritual: Foot-stomping grapes. One winemaker claims he can better judge the ripeness of the grapes, by stomping them. (I wonder why his just feeling the clusters with his hands would not accomplish the same thing.)

Some (not all) stompers spray disinfectant on their legs and feet; sometimes that is distilled grape spirits. But does that disinfectant get beneath toenails and into the pores of skin cells?

I have smelled the following things in craft-made, expensive wines, in my time: sweat, marijuana, smoke. No, thank you. I have heard that sometimes, during primary fermentation, the winemaker and friends may skinny-dip in the tanks, to feel that "fizz" on their bodies. No, thank you (although skinny dipping certainly has its time and place). And who knows how many toenails, hairs, junk from dirty feet, and flakes of toenail polish have made it into wine, from stomping, skinny dipping, and whatever other horrors are impinged upon the grape? ;) I know that some insects get in there. But we can avoid excessive human contact with wine, if we choose to.

I vote let's all just leave crushing and fermenting to the machines and vessels designed for those purposes. Machines and vessels that can be sterilized before their use. And if this is to be even more of a socialist country anyway, how about we just require wines to bear a special warning label, if they were stomped or swum in?

Toscana!

Tuscany is on my short list of most-wonderful places to visit. This photo is taken next to the rural winery/vineyard B&B property (an "agriturismo" in Italian parlance) where we stayed, near Greve-in-Chianti.

What you don't see in this pic is all the native forest: miles and miles of wonderful oak forest, with wild boars lurking therein (which show up in various menus in all kinds of wonderful ways). The vineyards are remote islands amidst a huge expanse of forest. Most of Tuscany is undeveloped, with gorgeous rolling hills. Not at all what I expected.

Almost all the grapes are Sangiovese, and almost all is made into Chianti wine. This photo is in the Chianti Classico district; there are seven Chianti districts, but Classico and Ruffino are probably the two best-known. This is DOCG territory--the highest designation given to Italian wines. Good Chianti is medium-bodied, with fairly high acidic structure, which marries well to a wide range of foods.

I heartily recommend a visit to Tuscany. The people in all of Italy were universally wonderful. The food is fantastic. And, in Tuscany, don't spend all your time in Florence (very large; hard to drive in; takes a long time to park and walk to the core sights) and Siena (easier to get into and just about as wonderful in terms of sights). This is because almost every small village offers a great visiting experience, with the wonderful shops, restaurants, and great old buildings--so why put yourself into all those crowds when you can stroll more comfortably in smaller towns, with more-personal treatment from the locals?

Recycling the humble wine cork

Thanks to Nick W for this info:





Whole Foods is now accepting used wine corks, for a recycling program.





With more than 13 BILLION wine corks made annually, of which about 8 billion come to the U.S., of which about 99% are thrown into landfills, this is a great idea.





Factoid: Cork is harvested from the bark of a special oak tree species in Portugal. The cork is harvested sustainably--a tree can provide cork for wine corks, for many years, even decades.

So please take your used wine corks to Whole Foods. Maybe other sustainably-minded stores, such as New Seasons, will get into the act?

Effect of future climate change on winegrapes

Slate.com has a wonderfully-written article on the effects already being experienced worldwide by grapegrowers, due to changes in climate. (It cites Frog's Leap, and many other wineries.)



I know, I know--a quarter of you reading this are certain that there is no climate change, and to you I would say "just check it out a little more, would you please?" I can almost see Mt. Hood from here, where over half of its glacial ice is gone. A hundred years ago folks could ride sleighs OVER their fences, every winter, in Joseph, Oregon, but that hasn't happened even once for the past 80 years.

And another quarter of you acknowledge there is climate change, but they deny it is caused by human activity (150 years of our spewing hydrocarbon emissions into the atmosphere--a razor-thin blanket of nitrogen, oxygen, and a few other gases--notwithstanding). OK--you're entitled to that opinion; I know that volcanic eruptions do place monumental amounts of stuff into the atmosphere--boy, do I know that! That still leaves about 75% of us believing that climate change is happening (whether it is wholly natural or human-worsened). In either of those cases, we have a problem, and I'm talking to you.

Winegrapes are the canary in the coalmine: Past a critical point unique to each variety, grapes react quickly, and poorly, to hotter weather. White grapes' skins are less tolerant to heat: They split, and get diseases, and their sugar levels (and thus their alcohols) get too high, masking the delicate flavors. Red grapes get overripe flavors (cooked dark fruit, like burned prunes, and I have been noticing this in the Washington reds more and more often in the past couple of years--I don't like it at all). And the red wine alcohol levels are getting so high that elegance is gone and you can't drink more than a glass without getting drunk. Worse, pests and diseases multiply geometrically when temperatures are higher.

In some areas of Italy, harvest has moved from Nov 5 or so to Sept 10 or so, in one generation. Think about that--that is a earth-quaking change, full of significance. Some wines are benefiting, however, such as Pinot noir in Oregon, and certain wines in Spain. But if the weather keeps warming, Champagne will become impossible to make in France, and other areas (including Napa) may see the curtain fall on their great winemaking. Imagine the changes, in tourism and the local economies, if no great wines were made in Napa or Sonoma anymore.

You can't just push grapegrowing towards the poles. There is a limit to the locations with the right terroir, and Antarctica and Prudhoe Bay aren't exactly located close to the wine-consuming public. They both have very strange summer/winter light cycles, and to my knowledge grapes have never grown in such places.

Call me crazy. 'Cuz I am. (apologies to Storm Large; and OMG what a great show that was). But this is a big deal, and it has already started. So what can you do?

1. Purely selfishly, lay in some fabulous reds that will improve for decades. Their cost will get only higher, as inflation (from our deficits) and scarcity brought on by rising population and weather changes take their likely toll. And, as we've seen from tastings at my house and elsewhere, a great red, suitably aged, is tops to just about any other wine.

2. Nobly, find ways to reduce your energy usage, both car, home, and office. Turn to renewable energy sources where possible, and rely more on walking and biking (and live longer, too!). Lobby for the changes we need: high-speed electric trains (renewably powered); plug-in hybrid cars; more nuclear plants; burn biodiesel in aircraft; less coal burning; higher mpg for cars and trucks, and more use of mass transit; eating more locally; etc.

I had a muscle car, once. Guess my grandkids will just have to listen to stories about it, rather than drive one, themselves ;)

Earth to humans: HELP!

Prosecco

Just returned from Italy. Our first wine destination was the Veneto, the hills north of Venice. Here, prosecco is found. In the pic I'm with Cinzia Sommariva, at her winery just west of Conegliano. It was very generous of her to visit with us, given all that's going on at the winery and that VinItaly--the world's largest wine festival--was starting just two days thereafter, in Verona.

Her family's vineyards have just been elevated from DOC status to DOCG status; that is a big deal, as only 45 areas in Italy are DOCG.


I believe Sommariva prosecco is the best of all I've tasted (which is a fair number). Maybe it's so good because the Sommariva family manages the entire process, from growing the grapes to winemaking, bottling, marketing and selling. In sharp contrast, most prosecco producers buy their fruit from others.

Prosecco uses the Charmat Method, which involves bottling the wine under pressure by use of a centrifuge. Pretty complex, and totally different from the champagne method. Also, the grape and wine were both called prosecco, but now, due to DOCG regulations, the grape is called again by its medieval name, Glera.

This area (the DOCG) is extremely picturesque and well worth a visit. The prosecco wine trail winds through tiny storybook villages, starting from the old castle atop a hill in Conegliano. I wish I could attach more photos of our trip; it is a pretty place. We stayed in a wonderful small hotel nearby, in the country, where our dinner table overlooked the valley and, in the distance, the snowy Alps.