Posts Tagged wine

Yes, Wine, Please

What a good week for health studies that match my profile. Women, rejoice, today the news is about wine. Now that I have your attention, you’ll be able to get into that swimsuit after all. According to the Brigham & Women’s Hospital (Boston) study, women who drink moderate amounts of wine have a lower risk of becoming overweight and obese than their non-drinking compatriots. Over 19,000 women were followed during a 13-year period.

Non-drinkers gained the most weight, and weight gain decreased as the alcohol intake increased! Those who drank 15 to less than 30 grams daily had the lowest risk of obesity or weight gain. They studied liquor, beer, white wine, and red wine and found that red wine was the most effective in terms of consumption v. weight gain.

Here’s the perfect combination: A diet plan and a glass of wine to help tolerate the stress of dieting!riedeltarget

We definitely need more studies like this even if they seem counter-intuitive. As with all health studies, not all information works for everyone, but there seem to be no shortage of possible studies to match your lifestyle!

Wine, coffee, chocolate: Bring ‘em on.

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Chilean Wine

I have written numerous posts about the affordable wines coming from Chile. The news from last week’s earthquake disaster and the numerous aftershocks have rocked the industry. So much is still uncertain and long-term effects are still unknown, but this is a viable, economic industry that has grown significantly over the past several years.

The leaders of the Chilean Wine Industry call the loss limited which is astonishing. This week’s numbers indicate a financial loss of $250 million (125 million liters), but the industry last year proved itself a strong contender in the international wine world with over a billion liters of wine.  They feel fortunate that the loss is not greater, and, of course express their concerns for the overall devastation that the earthquake caused. This information is, of course, still in the estimation period as the infrastructure at individual wineries has not yet been fully determined. Daily updates have become the norm.wines-of-chile-vinos-de-chile

If you are looking for a way to help Chile during this devastation, drink Chilean wine.

Do your part: Support a strong, growing wine industry with so many wonderful, affordable, and delicious choices!

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Sweet Riesling…Sometimes

It’s a funny thing about Riesling: It gets a bad rap from a lot of people who have heard about it but have never tasted it. Someone, somewhere, said, ooh, Riesling’s a super sweet wine.

OK, it can be; it doesn’t have to be super sweet or even sweet as the significant number of dry Rieslings attest. No longer do you need to avoid a great grape. There’s basically a Riesling for every type of white wine drinker. You can trust the Riesling Taste Profile and make a decision based on the graphic on the back label. You will be in for a pleasant wine surprise if the profile matches what you plan to eat or what you like in a wine.riesling

Over a million cases already include the profile graphic and additional wineries are expected to come on board as this particular grape is the fastest selling white grape in the United States. Imagine its numbers if consumers who suffer from Riesling Phobia would look at the graph and be comfortable with the grape!

There are so many foods that favor a Riesling pairing. Or, the other way to think about this versatile grape is that there is a food-friendly Riesling ready for you to try.

I need no convincing: I’ll start with one from the Mosel.

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Heart Month and Wine

It’s truly appropriate in this month of love, V-Day time, to focus on our hearts and have heart-healthy discussions. The month has been designated as American Heart Month. Plenty of foods qualify as heart-healthy and exercise regimes are well focused on their benefits to the heart. It’s also a perfect time to talk about wine and its benefits and find the affordable, drinkable wines that please your palate.

Consider this: Wine prices continue to drop as more distributors have become knowledgeable about less expensive wines. Is the Cabernet rush over? Some would say it has been toned down considerably for its price escalation and our newly-found interest in the under $20 and under $10 bins. Have you seen the latest strategy: Plenty of 2nd label wines are appearing in our markets and are filling up consumer carts as they are averaging $7. Hard to beat a price like that for an everyday drinkable product! If you don’t believe me, study the crowds at Trader Joe’s filling their baskets with $4.99 bottles!fuerzamalbec

Yes, the California Cab has proven an expensive luxury for many while European and South American wines are having a front row seat at the wine bar.

Time to take care of your heart. Enjoy the requisite number of fruits and vegetables, eat the right proteins, choose fats carefully, and take out your favorite glass.

Wine works wonders to soothe the soul and keep the heart healthy.

Salud.

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The Drinks World

As we tune out and wind down, let’s not forget how the beverage world has changed this decade. Very few people carried individual water bottles wherever they went. Did they even sell those 35-pak cases at Costco? OK, I know not everyone recycles, but drinking water is good for us, right? Now we’ve even flavored them and forced people to make major water decisions when dining out: Tap or expensive? Maybe that approach will stay in the decade we’re leaving behind. Hope so.

Artisan beers became a craze, and big brewers needed to step down into the craft market. Wait, for many that became a significant financial step upwards. Look at the popularity of Blue Moon and the significant number of brewers making Hefeweizens. Slice of lemon, please.

Remember expensive bottles of French wine? OK, they still exist as do the reserve wine lists, but as the recession took its toll on our dining out and dining-in budgets, we learned to embrace new regions of the world and become familiar with other wines and sparklings such as Malbec, Cava, and Prosecco. What was being poured in Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa became of greater interest to us as we scoured those regions for our new vintages.

No longer were we limited to American wines from California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. We learned Thomas Jefferson was right: Virginia became an established wine region with award-winning wines from Barboursville, Chrysalis, and Jefferson Vineyards.

We even became fascinated by different wine glasses for different wines. What was once limited to high-end stores and fancy restaurants became more commonplace on the shelves at Target as Riedel moved into the consumer space with its 4 and 6-boxed items. A glass for red, one for white, and the emergence of the flute instead of the floating half circle for sparkling! Of course, those who follow every trend knew they needed a specific glass for a specific pour. Stop, not that one, that’s for Zinfandel only!

We even bought the whole wine lineup including the darling of the opening set, the Rabbit, and the multitude of decanting carafes. We became serious wine drinkers, and as we traveled wine regions, we became more knowledgeable, and less intimidated, by what we drank!Rabbit7

As we look forward, we’ve gone back to the old cocktail routine and elevated the bartender to a drink specialist who has studied the chemistry, or alchemy, of an ingredient-shaken beverage. Specialty cocktail menus re-emerged and the high priced, fun-sounding cocktail helped many restaurants survive.

We became caffeine freaks with an almost unstoppable fascination with coffee drinks, both hot and iced. It was clearly the Starbucks decade, a title the company hopes to regain in the upcoming year. Grocery stores proudly introduced coffee bars. We decided one double espresso was too limiting and added caffeine-based energy drinks to our daily consumption routines. All these steps hit soda sales as they plummeted, and the old brands started to lose the high fructose corn syrup and explore cane sugar drinks.

We were a thirsty group and little has quenched our thirst as we reach for the next tantalizing trend.

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Drink Light Colors

I’m not telling you what to do, but a new study from Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies found that individuals who favored light-colored beverages, such as vodka, fared better with the extra shot than those on the bourbon side of the bar. Subjects were given 100 proof Absolut and 101 proof Wild Turkey for the first night of the study, and a caffeine-free soft drink the second. They found that those who drank to a state of inebriation suffered more with the darker drink, the one with more toxic properties.

They did not study red v. white wine nor light beers v. heavy lagers, but the study author believes that lighter beverages fare better in the overindulgence headache department.absolut100

You’ve been warned.

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Paint the Room Red; Drink the Wine

Some studies are just too good to ignore. German researchers found that people who sipped wine in a blue or red-painted room enjoyed the experience more. They rated the wine of a higher quality than it might have scored!

Now admittedly they used a Riesling, I imagine a German Mosel, which has quite distinctive flavors and a recognizable color. Individuals in a red room gave it higher marks than those with the same wine in a green-painted space! The red and blue wine tasters said they would pay more for the wine than those in the white or green room.

As long as your walls are red or blue, you might be able to serve a lesser priced wine for your next party!

Seriously, some of these so-called tests are just too good to ignore!

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What about a deep purple Syrah from Santa Ynez in California in a red room?

What a clash of colors!

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Is It Safe to Drink 50 Glasses of Wine?

That’s the question I have to ask myself after hearing about the newest nutrition bar. Yes, it’s great to find a product with only 190 calories. Love the fact that it’s marketed as a luxury nutrition bar. That’s a new branding category, I think. Another positive: High in fiber and loaded with seven super fruits such as pomegranate. Getting me excited.

Am a little flummoxed by the quantity claim that the WineTime Bar contains as much resveratrol as 50 glasses of red wine! Now you understand my problem. Love the health benefits from resveratrol and the fact that the company sourced the Rhone reds, but am just a little confused by how much is too much.

Should we be drinking 50 glasses of red wine at a time? Should one bar which we will willingly enjoy for its fiber-rich, low-calorie, dark chocolate taste be a substitute for those many enjoyable sips of dinner reds? There’s something fundamentally wrong with this picture.bars-small

Who is doing the science to question how much resveratrol we should consume in one sitting? How much is too much? How many bars should we have daily? Three? 150 glasses?

Those who jumped on the early bandwagon and consume resveratrol pills may want to enjoy a bar instead. A glass of water and a pill is one approach, but a chocolate bar certainly sounds more appealing. We just have a few unanswered questions.

Personally, I prefer to have my cake and eat it, too, or in this case my chosen glass of red with a small bar of 71% dark chocolate and then my double espresso!

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Trust A Restaurant

I’m so busy often siding with the diner in many restaurant kerfuffles, but it’s time to put on the owner, chef, manager hat and see what we can uncover. Hats off to hard work.

When you go to a good restaurant or one considered top tier, it’s OK to order the least expensive wine if it is the type you like or think you’ll like and it is the one that matches your budget. Remember that a good restaurant takes pride in its wine list and has no need to put inferior wines on the list. The old rule was always order the second least expensive one because you can’t trust the least expensive one. Not true. Trust the fine quality restaurant to care about its wine choices. You’ll not be sorry or if you are, they are making the major mistake!

If the restaurant explains its specials and the price is in range with the other menu items, then consider that the chef got excited from going to market or seeing what was the freshest item he could buy today. Sometimes the specials are so good they deserve to be considered as regular menu items; assuming they are available and match the price points. Trust the specials (if they are within the regular menu range).

If you have allergies or certain ingredients seem to cause problems, specify that when ordering. A good server will double check with the chef on specific ingredients and together with the chef will offer suggestions on more suitable selections. If you have major allergies, it is always good to call ahead and make certain you have made a reservation at a restaurant that can accommodate your specific needs.

A good restaurant seldom fails you. They want you to be pleased; to return; to spread the word. It’s a mutual bond: You want to be pleased. Let the praise begin.friedgreentomatoes

Trust the restaurant, and you will be rewarded.

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Wine Not

corksThe wine industry has managed to have a stellar year despite some strategic changes. Many restaurants decided to rethink their Reserve lists, grocers and wine stores increased their specially priced wines, AKA the under $10 bins, and consumers became more adventuresome in their selections than maybe they were a year ago. With all the adjustments, the wine industry survived with a relatively strong year. Maybe not the sparklings, but the rest of the industry.

Here are other facts to sip:

Health articles that speak volumes about the heart-healthy benefits of red wine positively impact consumption. There’s a possible spike in grape juice consumption, too, as it possesses the same ingredient, resveratrol. How about the impact of resveratrol on fighting off viruses. Right now with the fear of the devastating effects of the flu, the Italian study could not be better timed. I’m starting to feel really healthy.

With all the employment anxiety affecting so many of us, how about the study that suggests red wine helps with digestion. Now we’re talking pairing: a good dinner and a glass of red wine. This has true promise.

Sure some wineries have not survived aspects of the downturn, and the Julia Child/Robert Mondavi food center, (The American Center for Wine, Food, & the Arts, COPIA in Napa) is up for sale, but as far as an industry, many US regions are reporting strong sales. Wines from South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand  are strong contenders for a re-tailored wine budget. It looks as if France is back in favor as the world’s number one wine producer, taking the crown from last year’s winner, Italy.

Wine tastes and budgets are all over the map. Maybe you’re drinking more Malbec than Merlot now than you were 2 years ago, or more Beaujolais than Bordeaux, but you’re enjoying the swirl. Some patterns could be in flux as big bonuses are back again on Wall Street. Maybe some of those redefined New York restaurants are rethinking their tailored-down lists. Time will tell. I hope those days of wine and roses are left to the novelists.

So many wonderful wines.

Raise your glass high and enjoy the bouquet while your heart, digestive system, and virus-fighting agents smile at your beverage selection.

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