Beer To Cost £7.23 A Pint At The Olympics

Olympic Beer To Cost £7.23 A Pint -- The Telegraph

Spectators hoping to celebrate British Olympic medals with a drink at the Games face paying the equivalent of more than £7 for a pint of beer, organisers have said.

Bars at the official Games venues will charge £4.80 for a small serving of London 2012 red wine. For visitors with an appetite for traditional British fare, a portion of cod and chips will set them back at least £8.

The London 2012 organisers, who published sample menus yesterday, claimed the prices were “more than comparable” to catering costs at other sporting events.

The public reaction was less forgiving, with Twitter users describing the announcement as “a shocker”.

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My Comment: What a rip-off.

World's Highest Whisky Tasting From Everest Base Camp

Video: World's Highest Whisky Tasting From Everest Base Camp -- The Telegraph

Join the wounded servicemen and Glenfiddich Pioneers in Everest Base Camp for the world's highest whisky tasting.

The Walking with the Wounded Everest team and the Glenfiddich Pioneers take part in a world first - live whisky tasting from Everest Base Camp.

Monty Halls hosts the webinar alongside Walking With The Wounded founders, Edward Parker and Simon Daglish, Jamie Milne from Glenfiddich and Mark Thomson of Dramatic Whisky.

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My Comment: I love the shape of the glasses that they are using to taste the scotch.

How Social Media Is Revolutionizing Wine Marketing & Sales

How Social Media Revolutionized Wine Marketing & Sales -- WebProNews

Wineries now have a great online presence and are experiencing increased sales.

Social media is taking over as the recognized way to spread the word about your brand and its products. Today it is essential to have an online component to your marketing efforts and sites like Facebook and Twitter are some the hottest spaces available. The wine industry has been one of the fields to take the most advantage of the new platforms. In fact, wineries have an online presence rivaling anything they have ever tried before.

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My Comment: It's where people now go for information .... wine included.

Why A Gin And Tonic Is Best Served Cold

The tongue tastes the bitterness in gin and tonic more intensely when it's cold, researchers have found (Source: jonathansloane/iStockphoto)

Evidence Supports A Cold Gin And Tonic -- ABC News (Australia)

Science can finally explain why gin and tonic tastes best when it's served cold.

Sensory scientist Dr Martha Bajec and colleagues from Brock University in Ontario, Canada, report their findings online this month in the journal Chemosensory Perception.

"You want to make sure that your gin and tonic is cold to make sure that it's bitter," says Bajec.

While previous research has suggested temperature can affect people's perception of sweetness, Bajec was surprised to find no one had ever looked at the effect of temperature on bitter tastes.

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My Comment: I guess the same can be said of most drinks .... from beer to putting ice-cubes in any 'hard drink'.

Northern California’s Secret Wine Country

Boonville, the hidden gem of California's wine country
Unlike its ever-popular cousins to the south, Sonoma and Napa, Boonville in Anderson Valley, California, doesn’t have tour buses chugging between wineries, swanky spas or the latest “it” restaurant buzzing with clamoring crowds. Instead, the person pouring could very well be the winemaker.

Northern California’s Secret Wine Country -- FOX News

Like anything worthwhile, the tiny Northern California town of Boonville takes some effort to reach. Nestled among rolling hills and vineyards, it’s the hub of the 25-mile Anderson Valley in southern Mendocino County, accessible by a twisty, 30-mile ribbon of two-lane highway that runs through its main drag. Dotted with a single hotel and a handful of restaurants and shops, Boonville’s town center – if you could call it that – is easy to miss.

However, instead of heading west for Mendocino’s rugged coastline, more visitors these days are stopping to experience the bucolic beauty of Boonville and its environs. A few vestiges of the former industries – sheep, apple farming and lumber – still linger, but nowadays, it’s all about grapes, with more than 70 wineries in Anderson Valley alone.

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My Comment: There's a lot of wineries up there .... and I suspect that they sell their wine at a better price.

Wine From The Gobi Desert

Vineyard in the Gobi Desert

Wine From The Gobi Desert Aims At Booming Market -- Reuters

(Reuters) - As spring warms the sands of the Gobi desert in China's vast Inner Mongolia region, it's not just the local camels who are happy to see the end of a long, cold winter.

Just a few hundred metres from towering sand dunes, workers unearth row upon row of grapevines buried under the sand to protect them from temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit).

These vines are helping fuel a booming Chinese wine industry that has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, as the world's most populous nation grows wealthier and embraces foreign tastes.

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Editor: More info on wine from the Gobi Desert can be read and watched here.

Vinexpo Asia-Pacific Opens In Hong Kong

Vinexpo Asia-Pacific Opens In Hong Kong -- Decanter

The fourth edition of Vinexpo Asia-Pacific got underway this morning, as visitors from across the world descended on Hong Kong's Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Vinexpo Asia-Pacific is the region’s largest wine and spirits fair and is expected to see some 14,000 visitors from 28 countries through the doors over the next three days.

The fair, opened by Gregory So Kam-leung, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, is dedicated wines and spirits trade professionals targeting the Asian market.

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Update: Asia's biggest wine expo opens in Hong Kong -- AFP

My Comment: The market is down this year .... but .... I still expect a successful show and a lot of sales.

Is India The Next Growth Market For Wine?

Tax Deal To Uncork India For Wine Investors -- The Telegraph

When Hong Kong scrapped all taxation on alcohol sales in 2008, it sent the price of investment wine into the stratosphere. Tax cuts on wine purchases are now set to happen in India, so will a new flood of buyers reverse recent price declines?

Bordeaux first growths are the most traded commodity in the wine market – and the price has been slumping since March.

The Liv-ex Fine Wine 50 index tracks these young wines, and the recent decline has shown no sign of stopping. The index has plunged by almost 23pc over the past year, but is still showing gains of 70pc over the last five years.

However, the Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables index, which is designed to mirror a typical wine investment portfolio, is more important for ordinary investors.

The index peaked in January and prices are down 17.1pc in the last 12 months, but are still showing a 55.2pc five-year gain.

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My Comment: India has a booming economy and growing middle class .... so why not.

Drinking In Cognac Country

The public can get an inside look at cognac houses in France, including Remy Martin and its scores of massive oak blending casks. Cognac oak blending casks. Washington Post, FA BRICE DIMIE

Drinking In Cognac Country -- Star Tribune

In sniffs, swirls and sips, tradition comes alive during a tour of France's famed cognac distilleries.

Here's one thing I learned during a nine-day drink-and-dine tour of Cognac and other towns in western France: Never, ever text a photo of your sumptuous lunch to your wife when she's alone back home, working and taking care of your 8-year-old son.

To be fair to myself, it was work that took me to France last September. Plus, my wife had recently cashed in more than a decade's worth of communal frequent-flier points to take her mom on a ritzy two-week tour of Italy. I figured I had some karmic currency to burn.

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My Comment: I am drooling at the above picture .... just barrels and barrels of cognac. A must see photo gallery can be viewed here.

A Look At Russia's Wine Industry

RUSSIA: Domestic Wine Producers Hail Record Harvest -- Just Drinks

Russia’s wine market will continue to grow this year, helped by a record grape harvest and support from the country’s authorities, according to a new report.

The study, unveiled at the London International Wine Fair today (22 May), said a record harvest of grapes last year – more than 400,000 tonnes – means winemakers will “gradually discontinue” importing raw materials and use their own. Russia has around 60 wineries that produce wine from home-grown grapes. Around another 150 wineries use imported grapes. Russia has around 70,000 hectares of vineyards in total.

However, the report suggests that imports of wine will also increase in “the coming years”.

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My Comment: They have the soil and sunshine .... bit what they lack is expertise.

Upstate New York America's Next Great Wine Region?

Image from uncorkny.com

Upstate New York Will Finally Become America's Next Great Wine Region -- The Atlantic

At a time when the local food movement has inspired many consumers across the nation to, for the first time, consider the wines being made in their own backyards, no up-and-coming domestic region has received as much serious attention as the Finger Lakes of upstate New York.

To be specific, it is the Rieslings of the Finger Lakes that have generated the most buzz.

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My Comment: If you like white wine .... upstate New York has some good wines. But reds ..... hmmmm .... not yet.

Even Plonk Can Be A Winner Sometimes

Photo: Stonking plonk: Aldi's Spanish Toro Loco Tempranillo 2011 (above) has won an international award despite costing just £3.59p

It’s A Corker! Red Wine Costing £3.59 And Sold At Aldi Scoops International Award -- Daily Mail

Some dinner party hosts might feel insulted if a guest turned up with a cheap bottle of plonk from Aldi.

But a panel of experts has named a wine sold by the budget supermarket for just £3.59 as one of the world’s best.

Its own-brand Spanish Toro Loco Tempranillo from 2011 excelled in blind taste tests alongside reds costing nearly ten times as much.

Judges at the International Wine and Spirit Competition awarded it a silver medal, describing it as ‘fruity, rounded and appealing’ with hints of ‘nice bright cherry’.

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My Comment: The judges obviously liked something about the wine to give it an award.

New Bottle Designs Are Revolutionizing The Wine Business

Eight Arms Cellars created Tentacles wine

These Stunning New Bottle Designs Are Revolutionizing The Wine Business -- Business Insider

When purchasing a bottle of wine, are you more likely to go for the tannins inside the bottle or the stunning visuals that decorate the label?

Traditionally, you're supposed to buy wine based on taste (and price). But the design world wants to change all that, the same way it's changed food and non-alcoholic beverages.

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My Comment: Some of these labels and bottle designs are awesome. Check it out.

A Look At This Year's British Colombian Wines

Bordeaux 2011 Prices Cut As Much As 45%

Bordeaux 2011 Prices Cut As Much As 45% as Lafite Demand Cools -- SFGate/Bloomberg

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Top Bordeaux 2011 wines including Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Cos d'Estournel are selling for between 30 percent and 45 percent below recent vintages after investment demand for the exceptional 2009s and 2010s sapped buyers' appetite for less-powerful new clarets.

First-growth Lafite is being quoted at $8,410 a case on London-based wine exchange Liv-ex, 41 percent below 2010 and 45 percent down from the 2009s. Second-growth Cos d'Estournel, its close neighbor, is at $1,680 a case for the latest vintage, 45 percent down from the 2010s and 62 percent below 2009.

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My Comment: It looks like some sanity is returning to the market.

For Sale: 5,000 Bottles Of Vintage Cognac

Bay van der Bunt of the Netherlands shows the cognac of Croizet 1842

One Of World's Largest Private Cognac Collections On Sale -- BBC

Bay van der Bunt claims his is the world's largest and most unique private cognac collection- and he's putting it up for sale.

He started buying bottles of cognac some 40 years ago, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, despite the fact that he doesn't drink.

The collection in Holland includes 5,000 bottles of old spirits and liqueurs, with some dating back to the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte.

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My Comment: Sighhhh ..... if I only had the money.

Baccarrat Claims Glass Improves The Taste Of Wine

The French glassmaker is hoping to revolutionize the experience of drinking wine with a new design that promises to settle the age-old argument between alcohol and the grape. PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP

Wine Glass Has Tulip-Shape; Baccarrat Claims Glass Improves The Taste Of Wine -- New York Daily News

Wide flat base and a vertical 'chimney' aims to prevent alcohol from overpowering the wine's aroma.

A French glassmaker is hoping to revolutionise the experience of drinking wine with a new design that promises to settle the age-old argument between alcohol and the grape.

The tulip-shaped glass, with a wide flat base and a vertical "chimney", will prevent the alcohol from overpowering the aroma of wine when the glass is swirled, according to Baccarat, a maker of luxury crystal glassware.

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My Comment: A smart way for Baccarrat to sell wine glasses.

Bordeaux Hit By Spate Of Binge Drinking Fatalities

Harvesting grapes in Bordeaux vineyards Photo: Alamy

Bordeaux Hit By Spate Of Binge Drinking Drownings -- The Telegraph

France's wine capital Bordeaux has been struck by spate of binge drinking drownings in its river Garonne, with five young men dying in the past ten months.

The southwestern French city famed for world-beating grands crus like Chateau Margaux or Chateau Latour is in shock, raising questions on how the alcohol abuse can be tackled without tainting its global wine reputation.

The victims – in their twenties – all fell from the newly refurbished river banks that run through the city centre into the icy waters of the Garonne after a night of heavy drinking.

The latest victim, Julien Teyssier, 25, was pulled out of the river on May 11 after disappearing without trace on the night of April 28.

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My Comment: Sonoma county in California has been having the same problem (without the fatalities so far) .... of students showing up during a festival and/or organized outing .... and getting super drunk in the process.

China's Wine Investment Market Cools Down

Highlights of this week's event include blind tastings and a charity auction (Image: Luxury Insider)

China's Wine Investment Market Cools Down -- China Daily

China, the world's fifth largest wine consumer, has shown the sign of a cooling wine market, the Oriental Morning Post reported Monday.

Shanghai, China's main distribution center for imported wines, have seen declining wine imports for five consecutive months, Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

The Shanghai Customs District imported 29.63 million liters of wine in the first quarter of this year, and the average price dropped to $9.8 per liter. March imports were 7.35 million liters, a month-on-moth decrease of 11.3 percent according to the Xinhua report.

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My Comment: It has cool down for now .... but the Chinese are beginning to have a taste for investing in good wines, and this 'investment' taste will only increase with time.

Enjoy Classic Scandinavian Aquavit—And How To Make Your Own

Aquavits have been made in Scandinavia since at least the 15th century by distilling fermented potato or grain mash and flavoring it with savory, herbaceous ingredients. Laura Gardner for The Wall Street Journal

Sipping The Spirit Of The North -- Wall Street Journal

The best ways to enjoy classic Scandinavian aquavit—and how to make your own.

"SKÅL!," WE CRIED, and no sooner had I set down my thimble-sized glass than a colossal Swede slapped me on the back and seamlessly refilled it. Then we began again, lilting through a new melody, my bleary eyes struggling with the foreign text spelled out phonetically before me.

This is how I whiled away one long summer night at a wedding reception on the Baltic coast of Sweden: hearing toasts, crooning local drinking songs and draining a profusion of little nips bottles of something called snaps (which is pronounced "schnahps," but is very different from dessert-like schnapps). My first glass was a mouthful of pure licorice; the second, redolent of rye bread; others gave off the earthy taste of cardamom or a bitter marmalade kick.

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My Comment: Not a fan of aquavit .... but my Scandinavian friends love it.

Australia's Penfolds Releases It's 2007 Grange

Penfolds’ Grange, center, is one of Australia’s most recognized and expensive fine wines. Penfolds

Penfolds Releases 2007 Grange -- The Telegraph

The first Thursday in May is a red-letter day among wine buffs, who toast the release of Penfolds’ latest Grange, one of Australia’s most recognized – and expensive – fine wines.

The winemaker marks the occasion with a ceremony at its spiritual home, the Penfolds cellar door in the foothills of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital. This year’s attendees will be the first to taste the 2007 Grange, which starts at 625 Australian dollars (US$656) and takes its place in an unbroken line that began with the experimental 1951 vintage, then known as Grange Hermitage, created by Max Schubert.

A Penfolds spokeswoman said the winery does not reveal how many bottles of Grange it makes each year.

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My Comment: This wine is not cheap.

A Look At Portugese Wine

First port of call: the growers of the Douro are branching out to make unfortified reds Photo: ALAMY

Portugal: The Land That The Wine Buyers Forgot -- The Telegraph

Portugal has been snubbed by the supermarkets, but there are big, feisty wines there waiting to be discovered.

The idea that there might be a meritocracy in the wine world breaks down when you consider Portugal. The country produces a fantastically diverse range of wines, from light, thirst-quenching vinho verde to complex and unusual reds and mateus rosé (stop sniggering at the back). It offers value to those looking for an everyday drink and interest for the nerds. So the problem with Portuguese wines is…?

“Selling them,” say supermarket buyers (off the record).

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My Comment: Their porto wines are excellent. But they do have the climate and geography to produce adequate wines.

A Sonoma Vineyard Estate

Photo Courtesy of Aidlin Darling Design

Sonoma Vineyard Estate Employs Stunning Design Artistry -- Just Luxe

Joshua Aidlin and David Darling are the partners behind Aidlin Darling Design, renowned for their luxury accommodations. The gorgeous Vineyard Estate won the company the 2008 Chairman’s Award from the International Interior Design Association as well at the 2007 Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects, among other honors. The beautiful 14,000 square foot home is located in Sonoma, California on 140 acres of land. The estate includes the main home, as well as a caretaker’s residence, barn, irrigation center, water storage, as well as sculpture gardens and an orchard.

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My Comment: The architecture for this house certainly alters one's traditional view of what a house should look like in the middle of a vineyard.

First Indications Of The Bordeaux 2011 Vintage

Bordeaux, the world's largest fine wine region has just released its 2011 vintage. This follows two spectacular vintages in 2009 and 2010, which saw prices rise by as much 50% for some châteaux. WSJ's Will Lyons has been tasting the latest wines.

Bordeaux 2011: Choose Carefully -- Wall Street Journal

They can build the most sophisticated, technologically advanced wineries in the world, match them with immaculate, temperate cellars, and employ the most talented winemakers of a generation. But behind the neoclassical facades of Bordeaux's spectacular châteaux, the Bordelais understand that however much attention to detail they lavish on their vines, they cannot control mother nature.

The region's very best wines may command thousands of pounds a bottle, morphing into international brands and commodities to be traded in countless investment portfolios, but unlike fabricating a Hermès handbag or the latest McLaren supercar, if the weather conditions conspire to affect the growing season, there is only so much one can do to save the quality of the wine.

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My Comment: It looks like the Bordeaux 2011 is going to be a hit and miss proposition.

The Ultimate Private Bar

Diageo

Is This Bar Worth $159,000? -- Wall Street Journal

Diageo makes well-known beverages like Guinness stout, Smirnoff vodka and Johnnie Walker whiskey, but you won’t find one of its latest products in any nearby watering hole.

The world’s largest spirits producer has teamed up with Porsche Design Studio, a subsidiary of the car maker, to create not a drink but a personal bar to hold one of its most expensive scotches. Launched in November, the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Private Bar comes in just 50 editions, each with a price tag of more than $159,000.

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My Comment: At $159,000 per .... I will have to say no.

Why A Wine Cellar

Where Wine Lives: Cellar, Fridge—or Garage? -- Wall Street Journal

THERE ARE PEOPLE for whom the wine cellar is every bit as important as the wine. The cellars of such people tend to be carpeted, mirrored and lit by chandeliers. They may also be accessorized with Old Master paintings, Roman statues and Cristal Jeroboam souvenirs. Wine in these cellars isn't so much consumed as it is revered. I don't have one of those cellars. In fact, I don't really have a cellar at all. My wines are currently stored in several places—including the basement of my ex-husband's house.

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My Comment: A good summary on why (and what type) of wine cellar you should have.

How Red Wine Prolongs Life

How Red Wine Prolongs Life: Scientists Uncover How 'Miracle Ingredient' Boosts Body’s Cell Energy -- Daily Mail

Scientists claim to have discovered the secret of how an ingredient in red wine could be the key to a longer life.

The ‘miracle ingredient’ resveratrol credited with anti-ageing powers, and the ability to work against cancer, heart disease and obesity, really does boost the body’s supply of cell energy, claim researchers.

But it is only ‘switched on’ in the presence of a gene called SIRT1 that is the key to longevity and energy.

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My Comment: I can drink to that.