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News January 26, 2012

Scientist Who Studied Wine Accused Of Faking Data.

The University of Connecticut has accused Dipak Das, a professor and researcher who published studies touting the health benefits of consuming red wine, of falsifying data and is seeking his dismissal, according to a report in Wine Spectator. The university’s health center is citing extensive research misconduct in Das’ studies after a three-year investigation into research published in 11 scientific journals. “We have a responsibility to correct the scientific record and inform peer researchers across…

Funny, News January 22, 2012

World’s First Meteorite-Aged Wine.

Norwich-born Ian Hutcheon (NB: I KNEW it would be a Brit behind this!) has released a Cabernet Sauvignon called Meteorito, aged with a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite from the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. The “extra-terrestrial wine” was created at Hutcheon’s Tremonte Vineyard in the Cachapoal Valley in Chile, which he bought in 2009. “I’ve been involved in wines and astronomy for many, many years and I wanted to find some way of combining the…

News January 22, 2012

New Drug Claims to Keep You Sober, No Matter How Much You’ve Had to Drink.

Chinese tree extract has long been used as a hangover cure. Now it is being turned into a ‘sobriety pill’ that could cure alcoholism. Imagine a pill that could instantly sober you up no matter how much you’ve had to drink, or a hangover cure that worked minutes after swallowing it. Hardened drinkers rejoice: researchers are about to begin human trials on an "alcohol antidote" that may soon offer a cure to alcoholism, reports New…

News January 20, 2012

Sommelier Created Blog to Trash Yelp Critic

A Chicago woman who took her complaint about a local sommelier and his food and wine pairing class to the Internet said she got more than a taste of revenge from the businessman. Cecelia Groark’s post on Yelp (click here for the review), the popular online review site, about Bottled Grapes in Albany Park allegedly yielded an angry response from owner Krunch Kretschmar, (NB: it sounds like an angry name) an internationally known sommelier. She…

News January 18, 2012

Life Sentence for Chinese Smuggler of Bordeaux Wines

ShanghaiDaily.com has reported that a wine smuggler named Sun Xitai, has been jailed for life for illegally bringing over 70,000 bottles worth 45 million yuan (US$ 7.128 million) to China’s mainland. This has been China’s biggest wine smuggling case. Despite being previously convicted in 2002 when he was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 1 year’s reprieve in the city of Tianjin, Sun Xitai continued his smuggling

News January 16, 2012

White Zinfandel Dispute Resolved.

This TREMENDOUS news (tongue firmly in cheek) resolves an issue which arose last year, when Blossom Hill’s White Zinfandel and White Grenache were impounded by authorities in Italy, where the wines are bottled. The brand was forced to relabel the wines as Zinfandel Rosé and Grenache Rosé. The Blossom Hill brand reported that its parent company Diageo and the Wine & Spirit Trade Association have since been working with the EU to resolve the dispute….

News January 16, 2012

Breathalyzer Kits to Become Compulsory in all Vehicles in France.

Every car in France will have to be equipped with a breathalyzer from the spring of 2012. The announcement was made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The new plan will force every driver to have a breathalyzer kit in their cars so they can check their alcohol level before driving. A kit costs just €1.50 to €2 ($2 to $2.70). Anyone caught without a kit will face a €17 ($23) fine.

News January 10, 2012

The Most Overused Winery Social Media Posts

No doubt it’s extremely difficult for any business to maintain a constant stream of engaging content on Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest of it; but it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of posting the saaaaaaame old stuff. It’s often suggested that if you can’t post daily, or at least every-other-day, you have no place having a social media presence, at least when it comes to business. I would like to counter…

News January 8, 2012

This Week In Wine–1/8/12

Charlie Trotter’s Closing in Chicago Charlie Trotter plans to close his famous Chicago restaurant in August, 25 years after it opened in a Lincoln Park townhouse and quickly became a national destination. Trotter, 52, has said that he would close the 120-seat restaurant that bears his name to travel and go to school, after being accepted to graduate programs at schools in Chicago and California to study philosophy and political theory Charlie Trotter’s has a…

News January 5, 2012

What They Don’t Teach You in Sommelier School.

Lately I’ve started realizing that my wine knowledge has been slipping. How could that possibly happen? Well, I did just turn 31, so maybe dementia could be setting in early; but personally I think the truth is that I just don’t seem to use what I had drilled into me from the Court of Master Sommeliers and the Society of Wine Educators. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not knocking these fine institutions…well maybe…

Funny, News January 3, 2012

A Round Up of 2011

I thought it only appropriate to close out 2011 with a post that summed up the whole year. So this is it. Right here. I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who has continued to follow my progress. This website is a lot of fun, but I wouldn’t have the passion to do it if I didn’t think people were getting some pleasure, and maybe a little information out of reading it….

Funny, News, Pairings December 30, 2011

A Redneck Christmas.

Christmas is a CRAZY time for most people, and I’m no exception, therefore this post has taken a few days to get together. I hope you all (or should I say “y’all”, with an English accent) had a great Christmas! It just seemed to zip by, well, at least did for me! It feels like we only JUST put our tree up! Now we have to take the bloody-thing down again….Christmas was soooo much easier…