Thursday, July 27, 2006

Wedding Bells



Don Ziraldo is the founder of Inniskillin Winery in Canada and is credited with bringing ice wine to the forefront. If you’ve never had it, you should try it. It’s expensive ($100 for a half bottle) but OMG it is divine. I had the Cab Franc Icewine and it tasted like a liquid strawberry shortcake. Anywho, Ziraldo got married this past week to Anna Netter. But here’s the good part. The couple did a press release and here are just a few snipits from their article.

The 58-year-old Mr. Ziraldo met his bride on the ski slopes of Whistler, but they lived apart for some time, "each continuing to travel and learn from other cultures. Gradually, thanks to their mutual interest in Buddhism, both learned that "there is no fear, only love." At the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece the couple exchanged eternity rings.

Remember that kids “there is no fear, only love”. WTF? I love it, they exchanged “eternity rings”. Is that just basically what millionaires call a wedding band? And OMG, that hat and those shoes do not scream millionaire. I do like her dress though.

More details on the wedding: It took place at the jet-set Hotel Traube-Tonbach (Traube means grape in German), which "prides itself on its strictly enforced peace and quiet, and the glamour of its very upscale clientele." The wines were Inniskillin -- natch -- and the dinner menu featured venison and pike. The couple is honeymooning in the Bahamas with friends.

Does it strike anyone else as odd that they took “friends” on their honeymoon?

Well, we wish you all the best. Cheers Mr. and Mrs. Ziraldo!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060727.RNOBODY27/TPStory/Business
I smell something fishy

Fact #1
JD Wetherspoon’s is a chain of pubs in England. There are 650 in operation.

Fact #2
Constellation Brands is a wine GIANT. They sell more than 80 million cases a year. They own Alice White, Almaden, Arbor Mist, Cook's, Covey Run, Inglenook, Vendange, Dunnewood, Farallon, Great Western, J. Roget, Marcus James, Paul Masson table wines, Taylor California Cellars, Viña Santa Carolina, Banrock Station, Hardys, Leasingham, Barossa Valley Estate, Chateau Reynella, and Nobilo just to name a few. Seriously, they own hundreds of wineries.

Fact #3
Constellation often does “private labels”. This means that they take one of their wines, let’s say Alice White for example, and they put it in a bottle with a different label on it. So, if you were a mega retail store *cough Total Wine cough* you could take that Alice White and call it Blue Flame *cough ass in a glass cough* and when people want more, they can only get it at your store b/c the consumer doesn’t know it’s Alice White….for example.

Fact #4
JD Wetherspoon’s let several different companies compete for their house wine. Whatever wine was the most popular for the trial period would win an exclusive with all of the pubs for a contract valued at nearly 150 million dollars.

Okay, now that we know the facts, let’s look at what really happened. It seems that an email was leaked from the Boss of Matthew Clarks Brands (a division of Constellation Brands) to all of their employees (around 300 people).

Wine distributor Matthew Clark emailed staff asking them to buy up to eight bottles of wine each at JD Wetherspoon's pubs in Bristol - and then claim it back on expenses.
Employees were told to buy Nottage Hill Chardonnay and Shiraz, and Echo Falls - all of which are produced by Matthew Clark parent company Constellation Europe.
If each of the firm's 300 employees had "done their bit" and splashed out on eight bottles of wine, it would have increased sales by 2,400 bottles in the city's pubs - potentially tipping the balance in its favour.
The plan to artificially enhance the wine's popularity was devised as Constellation battled with rival firms for the exclusive rights to supply wine to JD Wetherspoon's 650 pubs.

Nice. I’d love to buy wine and expense it back to my boss. Somehow I don’t think he’d go for it. I have to say though, this doesn’t shock me so much. I wouldn’t put anything past Constellation Brands. So I guess my point here is know your brands, and know what you are buying.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1200200.ece


When pigs fly…I mean drink beer


So, in Tasmania (off of the coast of Australia) there is a local tourist attraction that has been getting a lot of flack lately. If you go to the “Pub in the Paddock” you will find Prescilla and PB and they chug beers. But get this, Prescilla and PB are pigs. Yep, people can pay to – and I quote – “pour bottles of beer down the willing throats of resident pigs”.

Dude, I would totally pay to see that. But PETA would like to go on the record and state that they are not down with it and they want to have the pigs rescued.


"Whilst it is a difficult pill to swallow ... it's certainly not cruelty, unfortunately," RSPCA state chief executive Rick Butler told PETA.

Pub owner Anne Free said Wednesday she was outraged that the tourist attraction had been attacked as cruel in the latest edition of a magazine published by animal welfare group Choose Cruelty Free.
"When it's very, very quiet, I often actually have to go over and give them a couple of drinks because, yeah, they do look forward to it," Free told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Note to self: If you ever go to Tasmania, you must go see the beer swilling pigs!
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14035561/

Boozehounds

Heartland Brewery has just begun marketing their new beer called Slobber Lager. This non-alcoholic beef flavored beer is made specifically for dogs.

"It's damn good," said Jon Bloostein, owner of Heartland Brewery, after taking a sip.
Polo, a Bichon Frise, took a sniff and slurped down the whole bowl in a few seconds.
Simba, a Shih Tzu, was more hesitant. After several whiffs and plenty of encouragement, he took a few gulps.
But Diva, a Rottweiler, couldn't get enough.
She finished one bowl and moved on to the next. Still thirsty, she sipped from a pint glass, then drank straight from the tap.
"She's a beer drinker!" said Allison Cardona of the ASPCA, who helped bring the dogs, all available for adoption, to the tavern for the taste test.


Um, I am sure the dogs love it but why is the brewer drinking it? Ew! Beef flavored beer? Count me out. My dog is fat enough as it is so he’s definitely not getting any.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/438150p-369132c.html


How Much??

Schramsberg has just come out with a new sparkling wine meant to compete with the likes of Krug, Dom P., and Cristal. It is called J. Schram Rose 1988 and there were only 800 cases produced. Rarely will you ever see an American Sparkler go for more than $75 but this one……$120.
"It appears in a world where Dom Pérignon Rosé is $200, and Cristal is probably $350. The Krug Rosé is certainly in that range as well," said Shramsberg head winemaker Hugh Davies. "This wine competes with those in terms of flavor, finesse and character.

Yeah, but it’s still Schramsberg and I doubt it competes with Krug. Strike that – There is NO WAY it competes with Krug. If anybody out there can get a hold of some, I wanna know what it’s like. Ooooh I would love to have it in a blind tasting.
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Features/0,1197,3361,00.html

Last night was our anniversary so Kipp and I got a babysitter and hit the town. First we went to Milner's in Winston Salem and I had a glass of Renard Rose. It was just kinda meh...
From there we proceeded to go to several different bars and I actually ran into an old sorority sister at Foothills. Anyway we came home at 8:30 (I know, were wild right?) and I fixed Steak with a mushroom and Humboldt Fog (bleu cheese) sauce. We had an '01 Spotteswoode with it. That review will come tomorrow. But for now read my review of Martinelli Pinot that I had at an impromptu wine dinner with Jon and Sam at my house on Sunday.

Martinelli '02 Moonshine Ranch Pinot Noir
The nose was earthy and powdery all at the same time. It also had a lot of blackberry with some hints of white pepper. The palate was all cherry cola and sweet black cherries. There was some hidden acidity on the mid-palate with a very sweet, very lush blackberry jam finish. Yeah, it was over extracted but damn, it was GOOD. I have one more bottle and I think I'll let that one sit for about 3 more years.

Cheers!