The clever people over at Google have identified an apparently growing problem of emailing while intoxicated (EWI) and have taken steps to prevent it. The new “Mail Goggles” feature of their free email service challenges the user to 5 math problems before sending an email after hours. The user is in full control of which hours they want to designate and you don’t have to opt-in to this unique service. This should cut down on those drunk emails that seem like a good idea at the time but usually aren’t.

Although it will likely not catch drunk mathematicians, others who have a problem in this area will be well served. You know who you are

Read all about it on Google’s Gmail blog.

Domaine Weinbach Schlossberg Grand Cru Cuvee St.Catherine Riesling 2004 (375mL)
Peaches, pears, orange peel and marmalade on the nose. A rich, viscous and weighty palate with excellent texture and length. Bold, but balanced.
92/100

Domaine Fourrier Les Goulots 1er Gevery-Chambertin 2003
A nose of red berries, candy, violets, chocolate and cinnamon. Touch of stalk to the medium bodied palate. Decent length and structure. Nice.
88/100

P&C Bonnefond Cote Rotie 2001
Licorice, dark chocolate, raspberry and coffee aromas. A juicy, ripe palate with the elements of the wine well integrated. Very good.
90/100

Taylors Vintage Port 1977 (375mL)
Vanilla, jasmine tea, licorice and cedar. Palate is smooth and of medium length, but doesn’t have the complexity or depth I expected. A bit of a let down as it is meant to be amazing.
88/100

Ed Schwartz (napavalleyregister.com) writes:

There is a lot of talk these days about the globalization of wine. Some wine people are up all night tossing and turning, worried about that sometime in the distant future, all wines will taste^? alike, assuming there could ever be such a thing as a "universal" taste.
 
Globalization of wine sets me off in another direction ? the amazing growth of international commerce in wine in this generation. Not that international wine trade is something new. The Greeks, as in many things, did a wonderful job 2,000 years ago planting vines and spreading wine culture. The Greek trade in wine was surprisingly extensive. There was a system of appellations to ensure the origin of the best wines so that customers of Greek wines knew where the wine came from. Large stores of wine traveled wherever Greek ships traveled ? and that was all over the known world. We even know from ancient records where the best wines came from. So, the Greeks developed the kind of Epicurean consciousness that is now also part of the modern wine mind.
 
I've always believed that this globalization, or internationalization of wine has caused great competition, which is always good for the development of wine and our wine industry.
 
...
 
One notable example ? the wines of Italy. Not so long ago, most United States wine consumers thought of Italian wines as the rather rough, thin inexpensive wines in straw flasks with the Chianti on the label. Now, what has happened in Italy has been phenomenal and not just in Tuscany. Today, a top level wine merchant will have well over 200 Italian red wines ranging from excellent Falesco wines under $10 to a line of highly regarded wines from Gaja, some of which command prices close to $300 a bottle.
 
Today, fine Italian wines are not restricted to the Northern districts. Excellent wines are being enjoyed from Sicily to Puglia, Campania and points south. Italian grape varietals^? that in the past "got no respect" are now flourishing stars under new and expert hands ? Nero^? d'Avola and Sagrantino are just two examples.

» Full Story

Tags: melgab, wine, italian, globalisation, wine making, south-africa, South Africa

First Press - the UK wine trade’s first fully-interactive Ezine, has just launched featuring an interview with JancisRobinson.  First Press has been produced by Nicky Burston of World Wine Agencies. It has a lifestyle look and feel and is easy to download, or email directly to friends. Issue 1 of this new quarterly features wine celebrity interviews and podcasts, up-and-coming news and events and includes a prize draw for tickets to Old Trafford.

Free Web Wine Club - 30 August 2006

Wine Party in Budapest - 02 September 2006

Hot New WINE Gadget: CATANIA Wine Enhancer - 18 May 2007

Vinturi Helps Wines to Breathe Faster, Taste Better! - 03 October 2007

Just after Christmas Gemma and I inexplicably found ourselves at the Boutique Wine Center inquiring after any new releases. Although there was nothing released in the previous two months, we were lucky enough to taste some unreleased 2007 reds from Meerea Park (all of which look superb), including the Meerea Park Shiraz Viognier 2007 which is available as of today.

Showing perfumed aromas of cherry and clove, there is an intense and fruity front palate followed by some spices that lead to a tangy and savoury finish. The fine/approachable tannins and pure fruit make this an excellent drink-now proposition, or you can wait a few years for some further complexity to develop.

This is the best Shiraz Viognier Meerea Park have produced to date, though my score is the same as the 2005 vintage since I am marking a little harder these days…

Score: 91/100
Price: $20
Closure: Screwcap
Alcohol: 14%
Would I buy this wine?
Yes, you should be able to find it for around $17-18

How do you keep up to date with the wine world these days? I’ve found out what works for me although I still suffer from information overload some times. My interests are as follows ?

• current hot topics such as closures, global warming, harvest expectations and so on
• recommendations on wines to try and buy
• educational material especially anything that helps me towards my WSET Diploma

I’ve found the following sources really help me

1. Harpers magazine. I wish I could afford their annual subscription but it’s just too much. However I subscribe to their daily bulletins via Google’s reader and this really works for me. I see a couple of lines summarising news items when I’m on the computer at home or work and I can always click the link to go their web site if i wish to read more
2. an unusual source of news items is South African Wines. They send out regular emails which summarise the key stories from around the world by directing you towards the various publications, web sites, blogs etc which have something interesting and relevant
3. there is no substitute for a monthly magazine which is good for those train journeys commuting to work. Decanter and Wine and Spirit are my favourites. I was working in the US last summer and enjoyed Wine Spectator and thought about taking out a subscription but the cost including mailing back to the UK was prohibitive
4. I love reading other people’s blogs. People like Jamie Goode and Andrew Jefford talk about people they have met, wines they have drunk and places they have visited. The problem with blogs is that there are so many (and yes I have one also) that it’s possible to subscribe to too many of them using Google’s reader that information overload soon takes over.
5. Podcasts are great for car journeys if you put them on a CD or train journeys if you play them on your phone. I’ve learned a lot from some of the podcasts from Grape Radio
6. For bedtime reading or sitting in a chair (with a glass of something nice of course) there is no substitute for the hard stuff ie: books. You can’t go wrong with a copy of the Oxford Companion to Wine by your side. I also try to look up every wine I try in at least one reference book such as the World Atlas of Wine, Wine by the Label or Oz Clark’s pocket wine book. These often give the context for the wine leaving the label to give the detail (unless of course it’s French!).

I may occasionally suffer from information overload but I do learn a whole lot of interesting stuff about wine which vastly increases my enjoyment of the stuff.

Since moving to Pensacola Beach from Michigan, I have been longing for a great, cheap, rich Michigan wine. Well, Harvest White from the Fox Barn Winery fits the bill!

This semi-dry white has all the characteristics of the wine I loved so much from Michigan. Spicy, fruity and “snappy”, this wine was a perfect companion on this hot, humid Florida night while we enjoyed some Bands on the Beach.

Since moving to Florida, I’ve really become aware to how good I had it in Michigan. You couldn’t drive an hour in any direction before hitting a winery, and I do miss being able to do just that. Many of the gas stations down here in Pensacola sell all the generic cheap wines: Yellow Tail, Beringer, etc, but you’re not likely to find anything from a local vineyard.

My friend (the one that graciously brought me this wine down all the way from Shelby, MI) mentioned that the tasting room at The Fox Barn Winery was just recently opened, and was a lot of fun to visit. According to their website, it looks as though they have nice little produce market as well.

I am definitely going to check this place out the next time I’m in Michigan, and I would recommend anyone traveling near Shelby to stop in as well.

You can also check out Fox Barn’s website, or their blog.

Rating: 9/10 - Great!
Price: Not sure, since it was a gift, but I think my friend mentioned it was less than 10 dollars.
Winery Info:
The Fox Barn Winery
Paw Paw, Michigan
Phone: 231-861-8050

Image by Renegade98 via Flickr

I’m sure there has been plenty said about the impending Obama presidency but I’m going to say my $.02.

Its really hard to describe what this means to me, to many many people for that matter.  Its not the end all be all, but its a milestone that seemed impossible two years ago.  Barack Obama, a black American, taking the head of the most powerful office in the free world.  Its not coincidence that the world looked at this as an instantaneous moral and morale boost - we just, as a collective nation - looked past everything and did what the majority of citizens (majority by popular vote) thought would be best for this country and that happen to mean putting a minority into the oval office.

A country that can do that should be able to speak rationally with other cultures and religious states, shouldn’t it?  Should be able to be open to listening to all sides of a debate and making a good decision shouldn’t it?  Clearly should be able to give the minority voice of other nations the ear they want when all they want is an ear to listen to them to restore their dignity, shouldn’t it?

Thats called hope.  Instantaneous, street credentialed hope.  For that I’m incredibly pumped for this country.  I don’t feel like cringing when I think about my president going and speaking to other nations.  I don’t have that feeling that I have a loud, obnoxious friend with me in a fancy restaurant who I love dearly but I just know he/she’s doesn’t belong in an environment that people want to be civilized and not sloppy drunk.  That is all gone today.

For me personally, I guess even expecting him to win I wasn’t expecting alot of feelings I had to bubble to the surface.  My father is my hero and he taught me basically if you’re at a disadvantage, well then too bad, you just have to work harder than the others.  Energy you waste complaining could be energy that could be putting you ahead.  Something I took to heart never complaining about the disadvantages of being black in America because I’m pretty confident in my abilities.  But even so, there is a bit of an unspoken limit to what could be accomplished.  Or at least there was one.  That hit me yesterday.  How can there be a limit?  Even with people trying to hold you back or not giving you the same chance, Obama is the president, anything can happen.  Truly.

Thinking about the people who died just on the faith that this day would come if they marched, took beatings in non-violent protest, and even lost their lives so that I could see this day and my kids would be in a different world.  Lost their LIVES on faith in this country’s ability to adjust and the hope that their efforts would make this time possible…that hit me yesterday.

My kids…I hugged my daughter (she’s been sick).  And I did cry a little.  She doesn’t have to know that limit.  She’ll never know that limit.  I’ve always thought racism was so ignorant that it was comical; something just ripe for satire.  I truly appreciated things like The Chappelle Show and Wayans Brothers productions (like Hollywood Shuffle) because they used comedy to highlight the absurdity of racism.  I love that.  But the racism takes on a whole new level of rediculousness when the leader of the most powerful nation in the world is a black man.  My daughter is 3 years old.  I have a sincere hope that could come true now - that she really won’t understand how people could be seriously racist.  That hit me yesterday too.

I think thats how I look at it.  The people that I struggle with now will be long dead and buried by the time my girls are my age.  And while it feels good for me now to see all this worldwide credibility restored and faith in our own democracy’s ability to adjust restored, its really when I think about the things my daughters will never know is when I can find the energy and enthusiasm for life.  I often think about how technology will change things, in fact I think about it constantly.  Think about how my daughters will never wake up at 6am on a Saturday to watch their favorite Saturday Morning cartoon because they can just pull it up.  In fact, my 3 year old has a hard time understanding why if “Dora” can play in her room, why can’t she continue watching it downstairs on the TV (yeah, DirecTV DVR, why the f*** not?).

Today I can think about more significant things that I didn’t really think about because I didn’t see this happening and I didn’t know when it would.  Not knowing that limit or perception of limit.  Dealing with racism (as its clearly not gone) but having a very different perspective as the racism shouldn’t be a limit on what she can do anymore than any other corporate political situation.  No more excuses - yes, “the man” might be holding you back but YOU are the only one limiting yourself because being black isn’t even an excuse for not being the f***ing President of the United States anymore!!

No more excuses for not achieving.

To me personally, it inspires me further to understand the wine industry because the lack of minorities (not women obviously) still puzzles me.  I mean, I get the demographic thing and the “snooty” thing but thats changing with social media, folks like Gary V, new generations coming in, etc…yet for some reason this industry is simply monochromatic.

No more excuses…

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• Obama’s Challenge

Every fan of Pinot Noir will undoubtedly know the name of John Haeger.

As author of the highly acclaimed “North American Pinot Noir,” John literally wrote the book on the fascinating history and evolution of Burgundy’s illustrious grape variety here in the United States. John’s academic approach to both the research and the writing created an instant hit and a must-have treatise for most wine lovers. But, more than anything, it was destined to become THE book for domestic Pinot fanatics. Of course, its appearance at booksellers just months before release of the movie “Sideways” didn’t hurt sales either.

Now, four years later John Haeger has written another wine book, “Pacific Pinot Noir.” Since, as he notes, “96% of North America’s Pinot Noir comes from an area I call the Pacific Pinot Zone,” it was only natural for him to focus on an area extending from mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon to Santa Barbara in California and extending up to thirty miles inland.

Pinot Noir’s rise in popularity over the last several years owes much to the different personalities of the grape itself. Join us as we talk with author and lecturer John Haeger about Pinot Noir, and discover its unique place in the world of wine.

For more info on John Haeger: www.ucpress.edu

Sponsor: Bagged Wine: www.baggedwine.com

Click Below to Play the Show:

Download audio file (GR-ENG-USA-2008-10-13.mp3)

A couple of weekends ago, I attended the grand re-opening of Wine Connection in Pound Ridge, NY. Max Marinucci moved his store to a handsome, custom-built facility and it was an amazing tasting by any measure. There were about six Barolos available from producers that ran the modern-traditional axis, E. Pira, G. Mascarello, G. Conterno, and Sandrone among others. They also poured the 2004 Hudelot Noellat Richebourg (about $259; find this wine), and several current release Bordeaux. Then there was the amazing 1985 Leoville Las Cases (about $379; find this wine), whose aroma was so enticing with tannins were smooth as silk.

And the price for this tasting? Free.

In this tough economy, even seeking solace in a wine glass can still cost a lot. But there is one place where you can still taste fine wine for free: New York wine stores. Granted, you’re standing up and the pours are sometimes barely enough to cover the bottom of the glass, but they are a great opportunity for broadening your tasting experience–as well as talking with some interesting people who are usually doing the pouring.

While there are many silly (separate entrances for separate licenses) and annoying (not being able to to sell cheese in a wine shop nor wine in a food shop) aspects of New York wine retail laws, the free tasting is a definite boon for consumers. Stores can’t charge for tasting since that would be profiting from the sale of liquor on-premises, which requires a different license. Other states have different rules about in-store pourings and they are not always free, but are often a good value. (Sadly, one place where free tastings may someday be illegal is the little-known wine country called France.)

And the downturn in the economy means that some shops are eagerly pouring wines (or, technically, having the distributor reps pour the wines) to attract foot traffic. So check out your local retailers and see what’s on the calendar. Here’s my map of my favorite NYC wine shops.

Mongrain Glass makes beautiful and fancy wine glasses. James Mongrain is the artist behind this beauty. The thing that impresses me most about James Mongrain is that he has worked with Dale Chihuly since the late 1990?s. Dale Chihuly is a world class glass artist.

I looked through the Mongrain Glass website at the pictures of fancy wine glasses. The white glass goblets were magnificent, as were the chartreuse and yellow. I looked further at the Solid Series and there were more fancy wine glasses in blue, pink and the prettiest black glass I?ve ever seen.

James Mongrain and Mongrain Glass have so many fancy wine glasses for sale. It is important to keep in mind that each of the pieces is handmade and one-of-a-kind. If you want to order any of the Mongrain Glass fancy wine glasses, you need to e-mail or call with your order.

Mongrain Glass has a series of fancy wine glasses called the Creature Series. These are so beautiful. The stems of the fancy wine glasses are creatures like swans and sea horses. There is one design in particular, that has a frosted look to it. There are even dainty flowers around the base of these fancy wine glasses.

The Modern Venetians line of Mongrain Glass fancy wine glasses are very sophisticated in appearance. The glass detail work brings lace to mind because of its intricacy. I would have a very hard time trying to choose which line of Morain Glass fancy wine glasses I wanted. I actually like them all.

In addition to fancy wine glasses, Morain Glass makes commissioned pieces of art. Some of the pieces pictured in the gallery on their website were very large. There are no prices listed on this website, but these look like they cost many thousands of dollars.

Fancy wine glasses really do seem to be a small part of what Morain Glass does in their studio. I found a picture of a piece of art entitle Vortex. Vortex is described as a 7-foot stainless-steel slice of sensuality. The foundation of this piece of art is set in steel and a collection of glass forms illuminate neon light from within. The union of glass and steel in this piece of art is somewhat of a contrast, both in form and idea. Glass and steel are two distinct elements that have been joined so intimately it?s as if they are one.