Wine Bazar

It’s that time of year. The giving time. And I need your help.

Increasingly, popular bloggers are overwhelmed with opportunities to use their blogs as platforms for the promotion of the worthy causes that are especially visible during the holiday season. Here at Vinography we have chosen to throw our energy and time into a single cause year after year, both because it is specific to the wine and food blogging community, and because it is increasingly effective in raising an awful lot of money for people in need.

A Menu For Hope was started by my friend Pim in response to the tsunami tragedy of 2004. Now in it’s fourth year, it has become one of the largest grassroots charity fundraising operations in the blogosphere, with 100% of its proceeds going to benefit the United Nations World Food Programme. Additionally, this year we will actually be working with the WFP to get the funds to a very specific community of farmers in Lesotho, Africa with 100% transparency and control over where the funds go.

For those who are not familiar with this initiative, it is essentially a raffle, with prizes donated by bloggers. Participating bloggers post a description of their prize (which is also listed on the main Menu For Hope page) and do all they can to attract donations (made on the designated donation web site) in increments of $10. Each $10 donated becomes a ticket for the raffle, which the person donating can specify as being used towards the specific prize they want.

A CALL FOR PRIZE DONATIONS
The most important part of this project, of course are the prizes donated by bloggers and companies. Which is where you come in. Last year we raised over $60,000. I think if we’re good, this year we can raise over $100,000.

In order to do that, however we need two things. We need great prizes donated by bloggers, and we need those bloggers to spread the word far and wide, so that lots of people want to bid on those prizes.

So I want you to consider donating a prize (whether or not you have a blog). If you’re curious, here’s the list of prizes donated last year. I have some caveats this year for those who are donating.

The last thing we want to do is discourage anyone from donating a prize to this event, but we do want to make sure that your gift is fully appreciated, and helps the overall cause. There were a number of gifts last year that received only one or two bids, or didn’t receive any bids at all, which was a bummer for everyone involved. There were also a number of duplicate prizes as well.

So I’d like to urge everyone participating to try to make their prize as valuable and attractive as they can, and to perhaps think beyond a copy of your favorite wine book, for instance. A good rule of thumb is to think of a prize that would get at least 20 of YOUR readers or customers to donate at least 10 bucks apiece.

The other thing I would suggest, this being the world of wine bloggers we’re talking about, that unless you are a winery or a wine retailer, or you are regularly used to shipping wine to folks in other states, that you don’t donate wine as your prize. Shipping wine across state lines as an individual without a distributors license is technically illegal. So if you donate wine as your prize, or as part of your prize, make sure you know what you’re doing. However, if you ARE a wine producer or distributor, then BRING IT ON. Donate a couple of mixed cases of the really good stuff. Some of the most popular prizes last year were such prizes.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE
Think of a prize and then contact me by sending me e-mail at alder at vinography dot com. I will then assign you a prize code, which is what your readers will need in order to bid on your prize, starting on December 10th when the campaign launches. I will also need a 100 x 100 pixel and a 250 x 250 pixel image of your prize by the time the campaign goes live.

If you are going to participate, YOU NEED TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR PRIZE BY WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 5TH.

If you can’t think of a good prize, or if you’re not inclined to do so, you can also participate by blogging about the event, hosting banners for the event on your site, or simply buying raffle tickets yourself.

I hope you will consider doing your part to support this very worthy cause this year.

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Levi Reiss)

Wine Lovers , billed as “the wine-tasting musical,” makes its debut at the Triad Theater Dec. 1. From Dec. 1-3 and Dec. 8-10, theatregoers have the chance to enjoy six different wines while watching the Manhattan premiere of the new musical.

Original post by Robin DeCato

NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Bernama) — Drugs that mimic the health-protection effects of a chemical compound in red wine could form the basis of the next generation treatment for diabetes, the Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted a research as saying Friday.

Original post by Robin DeCato

Figuring out which (if any) organic wine to buy can feel like navigating dawn with a hangover.

Original post by Robin DeCato

Review by Cole Danehower.

If I were a grape, and someone wanted to write a book about me, I’d pray that someone was John Winthrop Haeger. Haeger’s singular work, North American Pinot Noir, is a model of precise scholarship translated into cogent and flowing narrative. Thankfully devoid of the purple prose syndrome so prevalent in writing about Pinot noir (for example, Oz Clarke calls Pinot “seductive, sultry, steamy, sinful if possible,” while Serena Sutcliffe says that “to unlock the flavors and smells of fine Burgundy is to attain a hedonist’s nirvana.”), the volume should serve as the prototype for sober, in-depth wine writing and belongs in every wine-lover’s library.

North American Pinot Noir was published in 2004, the same year the Pinot-centric movie Sideways was released. Since then, the relevancy and value of the book has, if anything, increased as the interest in, demand for, and production of Pinot noir in North America has exploded.

Want to learn when “pinot” was first used to describe grapes? It was in the year 1394, says Haeger on page 14. Need to understand what whole-cluster fermentation is, and why someone would want to do it? There’s a clear description on page 160. Ever wonder what a Wädenswil clone is? The history and terminology is discussed on page 140. Worried about the fact that anthocyanins in Pinot are not linked to glucose units? Haeger explains why this is a good thing for wine drinkers on page 173.

If these examples make it sound like North American Pinot Noir is pedantic or tedious, it isn’t. Writing with clean, clear, and unpretentious exposition, Haeger covers every relevant aspect of North American Pinot noir. As I went through his pages, I kept thinking of subjects that he surely would not cover—technical stuff, like how much diurnal temperature variation can affect flavor characteristics, or what role seed lignification should play in judging ripeness. But each time I came up with one of these yes-but-what-about subjects, I was foiled: Haeger covers it.

And he covers it equally well for consumers and specialists. With chapters on nearly every aspect of Pinot Noir in America and Canada (yes, Virginia, I can personally testify there is good Pinot noir in British Columbia), plus a detailed and well-researched section listing more than 70 recommended producers, even casual Pinot lovers can dip into the book at any point and learn something interesting.

In the section on winegrowing, you’ll learn just why vineyard site selection is so important to Pinot. In the winemaking chapter, you’ll appreciate the myriad of decisions the winemaker must make in working with “the heartbreak grape”. In a discussion of pricing, readers will understand why good Pinot noir is so expensive. Advice on cellaring will help ensure long-lived bottles, and the section on Pinot food pairing is one of the most cogent examinations of the subject I have yet seen.

On the grounds of regional pride (I’ve been writing about Oregon Pinot noir since 1999), I must quibble with the relative balance of treatment Haeger gives to Oregon and B.C versus California. In the chapters on individual growing regions, Oregon is given just over six pages of coverage, and the Okanagan Valley takes up three pages–against 35 pages devoted to California. Haeger says the Willamette Valley “contains the largest planted surface of Pinot Noir in North America”—yet he devotes more pages to describing “The Southern Central Coast” of California then he does the Willamette Valley. In the section listing “Key Producers,” California merits 52 listings, while Oregon gets a mere 16, and B.C. only one.

My own regional bias aside, Oregon’s role in the development of North American Pinot noir has been substantial, and many advancements in Pinot production were pioneered in Oregon. Of course, I have to be realistic: California’s sheer size, whether measured by Pinot plantings, Pinot wineries, or Pinot sales, means it will inevitably dominate any discussion of the varietal on this continent. Even so, a good case could be made that it was Oregon winemakers who blazed the trail of market respectability for any American Pinot Noir–from the early recognition of The Eyrie Vineyard’s wines (well documented by Haeger), to the efforts of David Adelsheim to import new clonal stocks (not so well described by Haeger).

But these complaints are all minor—more a matter of emphasis than of completeness or accuracy. The fact is, Haeger has produced the definitive study of North American Pinot noir. But definitive for how long? Like the ever-mutating grape itself, the Pinot-scape is changing rapidly. There are many more producers today than there were in 2004, much more money has gone into new Pinot plantings and winery developments throughout the region (traveling through the Okanagan or Willamette Valleys today will give you a visceral sense of the change), and even the economics of Pinot-making are fast-shifting (Oregon, for instance, has more good $20-and-under Pinots today than when Haeger was writing).

Last summer Haeger told me he was working on a second edition of North American Pinot Noir. One can only hope it will appear soon. Haeger’s relish for research and detail, his accessible style that is neither dogmatic nor opinionated, and the overwhelming value to wine lovers–as reference and as entertainment–of North American Pinot Noir demand an encore.

John Winthrop Haeger, North American Pinot Noir, University of California Press, 2004, $34.95 (hardback).

Cole Danehower is the co-publisher and wine editor of Northwest Palate magazine, a consumer publication covering the wine, food, and culinary travel bounty of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Idaho. He received a James Beard Journalism Award for his previous publication, the Oregon Wine Report; writes frequently about Northwest wines for several publications; and blogs as the Inspired Imbiber.

Original post by default@goarticles.com (Levi Reiss)

Maybe there’s a last-minute rush on everyone’s tour schedules before the holidays, because Portland’s music scene this week is packed tighter than Santa’s sleigh.

Original post by Robin DeCato

The term “food wine” has always been one that has baffled me. From my understanding of the term it does not simply mean a wine that is good with food.

Original post by Robin DeCato

Missouri’s wine and grapes had an estimated economic impact of $701.2 million on the state’s economy in 2007, according to a research report released by the Missouri Wine and Grape Board.

Original post by Robin DeCato

Drugs that mimic the health-protection effects of a chemical compound in red wine could form the basis of the next generation treatment for diabetes, a research said.

Original post by Robin DeCato

Scientists at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals have conducted research on fattened rodents to test the utility of a chemical that mimics resversatrol. Resversatrol is a key compound in red wine. After examining 500 thousand compounds, the scientists located a compound that is a thousand times more potent. Human studies will begin in 2008. The results could lead to treatment for Diabetes and other age …

Original post by Robin DeCato