@wedwardes on #Wine #Curry and more

Roast Chicken painted with Tandoori paste and PX

2012-01-30T16:14:00.002Z

I hadn't roasted a chicken for some months but I wanted to make some chicken soup so I bought a 1.8 kg chicken and roasted a chicken for Sunday lunch yesterday.

Prior to roasting it I stuffed it with two limes and three large vinegar soaked chillies.

Then I made a mixture of Tandoori masala, yogurt and Pedro Ximénez (PX) and painted the chicken with the paste and spooned the remnants of the mix inside the chicken.

I set the oven to 190ºC and 90 minutes and let it whirl.

The raisiny PX really did marry well with the Tandoori paste and the limes brought a fresh acidity to the chicken and of course the chillies inside added bite. It worked.

Roast Chicken painted with Tandoori paste and PX

So that was lunch. Roast Chicken painted with Tandoori paste and PX with cucumber slices.

After we were done for lunch, the remainder went into my pressure cooker with onions, carrots, leeks and potatoes and boiling water. Maybe I should have missed out on the potatoes since I am trying to cut down on the carbohydrates.

So I let it whistle away for an hour; opened and gave it a good stir; added some more boiling water; and pressure cooked for another hour.

Here we are:

My Chicken and Vegetable Winter Warming soup.

Chicken Soup

That's what I had for lunch today.

You can buy Pedro Ximénez (PX) from me via Sticky Wines
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

QR codes - Don't be condescending

2012-01-29T12:31:00.000Z

QR codes have arrived. They are in every magazine, display shelves and many invitations. But please don't be condescending.

What about Androids from HTC and Samsung and Nokia?

The above is taken from an invitation to a trade wine tasting. "Scan your iphone to register online". What about users of Android and Nokia phones that can scan these QR codes? Are they not welcome? Unless of course iphone (lower case P) rather than iPhone has become a generic term for all smartphones like hoover.

I photographed these recent advertisements featuring QR codes. It is interesting looking at the different approaches taken.

This is so condescending. I wonder how many
of IBM's customers don't know what a QR code is.

A bit better but not much. Still condescending.
Nobody will scan this if they didn't know what it was.

As I wrote above, nobody will scan this if they didn't know what it was.

I like this. Just the QR code and no comment.

I add nothing to my QRs. People are fascinated by QRs.
And they love teaching others about them.

What's this? Ah it is a Miscrosoft Tag.

I find that people are fascinated by QRs. And they love teaching others about QRs and showing them how to scan and read QRs on their smartphones. Actually the phones do not have to be that "smart". My back-up five year old Nokia E71 has a QR reader.

On the last image, this was my first sighting of a Microsoft Tag. And just yesterday I deleted the Tag reader from my Android phone. I can't see Microsoft tags catching on. A bit like the VHS versus Betamax debate.

Here are some of my earlier blogposts on QRs.

Survey: How many QR codes did you scan in June 2011?
QR Code Survey: consumers are interested in interacting
QR codes are useful but check them before publishing
QR codes in Wine Marketing
QRs on rounded surfaces are difficult to read
QR code for Wine for Spice
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Vikram Seth author of A Suitable Boy on the BBC

2012-01-28T15:47:00.000Z

I was captivated by the tome of a novel "A Suitable Boy" by Vikram Seth. It brought back many real and imaginary memories for me of the India I grew up in.

After more than 40 years away I visited India twice in the last two years with a visit to Mumbai in October 2011 where I delivered a seminar on Product Innovation for Financial Institutions.

I was delighted to listen to an interview with Vikram Seth on the BBC today on Desert Island Disks.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the author Vikram Seth.

His novel A Suitable Boy was nearly a decade in the writing, but it was a huge and immediate hit and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

He is now working on a follow-up novel called A Suitable Girl. He's due to finish work on it in 2013 - 20 years after the original work was published. The pace of work, he admits, is slow:

"The sound of deadlines pushing past is one of the sounds that authors are most familiar with - it's very much in the gestational period."

Wikipedia on A Suitable Boy says:

A Suitable Boy is a novel by Vikram Seth, released in 1993. At 1349 pages (1488 pages softcover) and 591,552 words, the book is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language.

A sequel, to be called A Suitable Girl, is due for publication in 2013.

Plot introduction

A Suitable Boy is set in post-independence, post-partition India. The novel follows the story of four families over a period of 18 months as a mother searches for a suitable boy to marry her daughter.

The 1349-page novel alternatively offers satirical and earnest examinations of national political issues in the period leading up to the first post-Independence national election of 1952, including inter-sectarian animosity, the status of lower caste peoples such as the jatav, land reform and the eclipse of the feudal princes and landlords, academic affairs, inter- and intra-family relations and a range of further issues of importance to the characters.

A suitable boy centres on Mrs. Rupa Mehra's efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, with a "suitable boy". At the heart of the novel it is a love story, set in a young, newly independent India. It begins in the fictional town of Brahmpur, located on the Ganges between Banares and Patna. Brahmpur, along with Calcutta, Delhi, Kanpur and other Indian cities, forms a colourful backdrop for the emerging stories.

Lata is a 19-year-old college girl, vulnerable, yet determined to have her own way and not be influenced by her strong mother and opinionated brother, Arun. Her story revolves around the choice she is forced to make between her suitors, Kabir, Haresh, and Amit.
The novel is not simply based on one story. This epic novel covers the various issues faced by post-independence India, including Hindu-Muslim strife, abolition of the Zamindari system, land reforms and empowerment of Muslim women.

The novel is divided into 19 parts, with each part focussing on a different story (and eventually coming back round again). For example part 1 is about Lata's story; part 2 is about a courtesan (the beginning of a major subplot featuring Maan Kapoor); part 3 is about Lata again; part 4 is about Haresh; part 5 is about the Brahmpur political scene etc. Each part is described by a rhyming couplet on the contents page.

Given the format of many smallish chapters I am surprised that A Suitable Boy has not been adapted to television.

I must re-read the book.

It is a cold day in London. I could do with a Massala Wine

Massala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 1

Massala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 2

And with a warming Chicken Tikka Massala for dinner a glass or two of my Wine for Spice

Wine for Spice: Rani Gold a semi-sparkling Macabeo / Moscatel blend
is the best wine to drink with a curry

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Sherry can bring the dead back to life

2012-01-27T00:58:00.004Z

The Fleming Museum attached to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London

I often pass The Fleming Museum attached to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London but I haven't popped into the Museum yet.

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955), the Scottish bacteriologist was credited with discovering Penicillin in 1928. Visitors to the Museum can see Fleming's laboratory, restored to its 1928 condition, and explore the story of Fleming and the discovery and development of penicillin through displays and video.

Here is an extract from Fleming's Nobel Prize biography

Sir Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield near Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881. He attended Louden Moor School, Darvel School, and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London where he attended the Polytechnic.

He spent four years in a shipping office before entering St. Mary's Medical School, London University. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St. Mary's under Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy. He gained M.B., B.S., (London), with Gold Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914.

In 1918 he returned to St.Mary's. He was elected Professor of the School in 1928 and Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology, University of London in 1948. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943 and knighted in 1944.

Fleming receiving the Nobel prize from King Gustaf V of Sweden in 1945
Early in his medical life, Fleming became interested in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal tissues.

In 1921, he discovered in «tissues and secretions» an important bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme. About this time, he devised sensitivity titration methods and assays in human blood and other body fluids, which he subsequently used for the titration of penicillin.

In 1928, while working on influenza virus, he observed that mould had developed accidently on a staphylococcus culture plate and that the mould had created a bacteria-free circle around itself. He was inspired to further experiment and he found that a mould culture prevented growth of staphylococci, even when diluted 800 times. He named the active substance penicillin.

Sir Alexander wrote numerous papers on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy, including original descriptions of lysozyme and penicillin.

I am certainly personally grateful for the work of Sir Alexander Fleming. I also note that Fleming said:

"If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life."

Mind you I would have written just "Sherry" (with a capital S) as there is no such thing as British, Cyprus or South African sherry (lower case s).

But back to my visits to St Mary's.

Nearly three years ago I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer at St Mary's Hospital.

That was just after I had set up my range of sweet and fortified wines - Sticky Wines.

As of now, and without any treatment, there is no sign of Prostate Cancer.

I am sure Fleming was joking about Sherry bringing the dead back to life. But I do wonder if regular consumption of Fino, Manzanilla and Oloroso is a cure -all - specifically of prostate cancer cells.

Perhaps it was some residual still alive yeasty "flor" in Fleming's glass of Sherry in the lab that gave rise to Penicillin?

Flor in a glass of Fino straight out of a barrel

I am sure it is.

As Nobel Prize Winning Sir Alexander Fleming said:

"If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life."

So drink Sherry.

Sherry can bring the dead back to life

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Nehru Jacket is Top 10 Political Dress Statement

2012-01-25T00:34:00.002Z

Well tomorrow 26th January is India's Republic Day. Note that this is not India's Independence Day which is 15th August. According to Time Magazine, a Nehru Jacket is a Top 10 Political Statement - as worn by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, often referred to with the epithet of Panditji.

Coming in at #7 is the Nehru Jacket. So let's celebrate The Nehru Jacket.

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

But as Rajendra Prasad was India's first President it could easily have been called the Prasad Coat as he followed the same aristocratic Indian dress code.

Rajendra Prasad was India's first President

Some public figures end up popularizing their favorite fashions; a select few have their fashions named after them.

That was the case for Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who effectively took India's reins from none other than Gandhi (his mentor) as the first Prime Minister of a free India.

Hardly reminiscent of Gandhi's famous homespun clothing, the Nehru jacket is a descendant of the northern Indian achkan, a closed-neck, coatlike garment usually considered court dress for Indian nobility.

Indeed, it was when the jacket was marketed to Western audiences that it took the "Nehru" title, the charismatic Prime Minister having popularized its style in public appearances during his tenure in government.

Nehru wasn't the only prominent figure associated with it; the minimalist aesthetic of the jacket inspired the likes of the Beatles (who wore the style at their Shea Stadium performance) as well as Sammy Davis Jr., who claimed to own more than 200 of the jackets.

Well I keep telling myself that I must get myself a Nehru Jacket sometime (or even a Prasad coat). I never did have one. But I have an unused White Dinner Jacket and it is feeling rather lonely so perhaps a Nehru Jacket could calmly hang beside it in splendid tranquillity.

You shouldn't really wear a Nehru jacket if your inside leg measures less than your waist - and that applies both in centimetres and in inches of course. There's no hiding. Women's sizes do vary of course and one person's size 10 is another's size 14.

And the same applies to double-breasted jackets. If your waist measures more than your inside leg forget the double-breasted coat.

I haven't worn double-breasted suits for some decades.

And no ties are worn with Nehru jackets.

From my days as a banker I've got dozens of those ties where the logo is on the front of the thin end. You know the ones where you carefully have your tie in disarray where the thin end pokes out from behind the fat front end and shows the designer's logo just by chance.

OK so that's me out on both scores. So no Nehru jacket for me unless I lose some [OK several] waist inches. Maybe that's a good incentive for 2012 but getting my inside leg measurement less or even equal to my waist is going to be impossible. I haven't been there since university days. But I'll try and get close.

I have not checked the basis for the ranking but they are probably just as good as Standard and Poor's country ratings ;-)

Oh and Time's Top 10 are:

#1 Rick Santorum's Sweater Vests [How many people outside the US have heard of hom?]

#2 Fidel Castro's Tracksuits [Not by me. I imagine him in jungle fatigues as so doe Wikipedia]

#3 Every Male in American Politics, Ever.[Eh?]

You've seen it before: the crisp white button-down. Neatly tailored dark suit. Red or blue tie in a Double Windsor knot. Flag lapel pin.

This is the uniform of every male politician in the Western world, a modern marvel of sartorial science that beams reassurances of competence and conformity into the brainpan of every person in the room. Ever seen a G-20 group photo?

It's two women, the King of Saudi Arabia and 17 guys wearing this outfit.

Note how Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has changed her style from lacy white to black? A man in a skirt one could say if she wasn't so spectacularly good looking - for a woman of course.

Too much deviation from the norm — think Rick Santorum's sweater vests, Barack Obama's mom jeans and Bill Clinton's short shorts — and an inspirational leader risks becoming an object of ridicule. Don't do it, gentlemen. You know who wears fancy duds? Divas and dictators.

#4 Kim Jong Il's Khaki Safari Suits and Sunglasses [Spot on]

#5 Jimmy Carter's Cardigan [I don't remember that]

#6 Mao Zedong's Suits [Looks to me like Kim Jong Il's Khaki Safari Suits. Or is it the other way round?]

#7 Jawaharlal Nehru's Jackets

#8 Muammar Gaddafi's Everything

#9 Hillary Clinton's Pantsuits [Yes. Dressing like a man. See #3]

#10 Sarah Palin's Glasses [O-O]

More India Stories
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Best Wine for Chinese New Year? Red Sparkling Wine

2012-01-23T16:17:00.001Z

So what is the Best Wine for Chinese New Year?

I say make that a Red Sparkling Wine.

Why Red? Well that is a very Chinese colour of course.

According to Wikipedia on Red in "Colour in Chinese culture"

Red, corresponding with fire, symbolizes good fortune and joy.

Red is found everywhere during Chinese New Year and other holidays and family gatherings.

A red envelope is a monetary gift which is given in Chinese society during holiday or special occasions. The red colour of the packet symbolizes good luck. Red is strictly forbidden at funerals as it is a traditionally symbolic color of happiness.

In modern China, red remains a very popular color and is affiliated with and used by the Communist government.

So that's settled. It has to be red.

OK but it is New Year. We want some fireworks to go with celebrations.

So it has to be sparkling. A Red Sparkling Wine it is then.

And with food maybe a semi-sparkling (i.e. Frizzante) Brachetto D'Aqui so there is less gas to get in the way of the food. And it is Off Dry so it offsets chilli bite between mouthfuls.

Here's my Penang Style Ikan Mein. Great with a Red Semi-Sparkling wine.

Red Sparkling Brachetto and Sardines Penang Style

So Kung Hei Fat Choy - Happy Chinese New Year

Here is another Red Sparkler from Beaujolais. But this is Fully Sparkling (5-6 bars of pressure) not Semi-Sparkling (2.5 bars of pressure).

Note that 3 bars of pressure is 43psi. My car tyres' pressure is 2.3 bar or 34psi on a standard load.

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

61% of people who talk a lot about Wine are ******

2012-01-22T14:27:00.000Z

According to an article in Slate: "A new way of measuring pretentiousness":

I said, “You mean that 61 percent of people who talk a lot about wine are —”

“Correct,” he said, before I could finish ..

Here's a summary:

When I entered the nearly empty bar near Grand Central, I was unsurprised — and, I’ll admit, rather pleased—to see, sitting on the stool he’d occupied when I was in the bar some months before, the mature gentleman who had told me that the economic crisis was inevitable once smart people started taking jobs on Wall Street.

“Our guys would have never invented credit default swaps,” he’d explained. “They couldn’t have done the math.”

I settled myself a few stools away, but I did nod; in return, he lifted his martini in my direction as a sort of understated toast.

No sooner had I ordered a drink than we had occasion to exchange glances that communicated dismay: Three men who were sitting at the other end of the room had begun discussing wine in voices that seemed intended to enlighten oenophiles who were strolling past

The man at the end of the bar nodded in their direction and said, “Among people who think of themselves as wine connoisseurs there’s a 61 percent ACI.”

I was puzzled. “What’s an ACI?” I asked.

He lowered his voice a bit, as if he was about to use somewhat offensive language and wanted to make certain no women (he would have said “ladies”) were in ear-shot. “Asshole Correlation Index,” he said.

I said, “You mean that 61 percent of people who talk a lot about wine are—”

“Correct,” he said, before I could finish.

“That’s not even particularly high, as these things go. That means that nearly 40 percent of people who think of themselves as wine connoisseurs are people who have learned a lot about wine for one legitimate reason or another and are not pretentious about it. Those guys over there are in the other 61 percent, I’d wager. When they get through analyzing a few pinot noirs that they wouldn’t actually be able to tell apart, they’ll probably turn to cigars or single malt scotch.

People who spend a lot of time discussing both cigars and single malt scotch, by the way, have a 78 percent ACI. That’s high—much higher than connoisseurs of either one singly. If you add wine to those two, it’s off the charts.”

“But aren’t you stereotyping people?” I asked.

“Only a certain percentage of them,” he said. “For instance, what do you think when you see a guy who’s wearing a blazer over a sport shirt, and the shirt is unbuttoned nearly to the navel? What’s your first reaction?”

“Creep,” I said.

“Not me,” he said. “I think 93 percent ACI. Admittedly, that’s high.

It’s one of the highest ACI’s on record. It’s 25 points higher than the ACI for males who wear designer jeans and 12 points higher than males who wore Nehru jackets or bell-bottom pants in the ’70s.

So you might say that the ACI is a device that allows some people to be a bit more tolerant than some other people—no offense.

That sounded disturbingly logical. Also, I happen to have in my safety-deposit box a list of people I know who wore Nehru jackets in the ’70s.

Full Article

Of course this is all tongue in cheek but it is indeed strange that people do not pontificate about food as much as they do about wine.

Yet people are more than happy to buy a £3.33 wine (after removing tax that is about £0.02) but would not shirk from paying £1 or over for a lettuce.

See my earlier articles:

"Can a Wine be Excellent to One but Horrible to Another?"

3 bottles for £10 wine is just 2p per bottle for the wine

More on Nehru jackets on this blog soon.

Back to an interesting comment:

“Our guys would have never invented credit default swaps,” he’d explained. “They couldn’t have done the math.”

That would have been in the days of institutional insider trading and tips passed around at The Club.

As it happens I am preparing a training programme in Kuala Lumpur on Asset and Liability Management. I will start the seminar with this line to warm things up. See my Finance blog. There is some overlap as you will see.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

BBC Radio's Dickens: The Mumbai Chuzzlewits set in Bandra

2012-01-21T23:04:00.001Z

Me in a rickshaw visiting Bandra, Mumbai last October

I have just discovered an excellent radio programme on BBC Radio 4. BBC Radio's Dickens: The Mumbai Chuzzlewits set in Bandra, Mumbai, India.

Charles Dickens 'Martin Chuzzlewit' is set amongst the Catholic community in modern-day Bandra.

Bandra Railway Station

Bandra Station

Convinced his relatives are after his money, miserly old recluse Martin Chuzzlewit adopts orphan girl, Mary to be his carer. As she will inherit nothing upon his death, he believes she will do her utmost to keep him in good health.

But when his grandson Mickey falls in love with her, Martin's plans are thrown into disarray. Disinheriting him, Martin triggers a complex web of deceit, betrayal and manipulation as the extended family and hangers-on close in, in pursuit of his fortune.

An old Portuguese house opposite Bandstand, Bandra

St Andrew's Church, Bandra

Told from the point of view of orphan Thomas an observer into the world of the Chuzzlewits, this is a fast-paced drama full of intrigue, romance, suspense and murder ...

Really well done.

There's less than a day to hear the programmes as of now (18 hours to be precise). Well worth it!

Episode 1 [Now expired as at 22/1/12 22:44]

Episode 2 [Now expired as at 22/1/12 22:44]

Episode 3 [Six Days to expiry as at 22/1/12 22:44]

The programme was made by Goldhawk productions. [Useful link as the programme might be repeated ]

Hats off to all concerned.

Here are a few scenes from "Behind the Scenes"

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Best Wine with Peking Duck? Oloroso

2012-01-20T23:30:00.000Z

It is going to be Chinese New Year in a few days' time on the 23rd January 2012. Time Out London says:

January 29 2012 sees the celebrations to welcome in the Year of the Dragon take place in Chinatown and Shaftesbury Avenue (central London's big event traditionally takes place on the first Sunday after the official start of the Chinese New Year, which in 2012 is on January 23).

Festivities begin at 10.15am with a parade of colourful floats from Trafalgar Square to Rupert Street. At noon, Boris Johnson and Chinatown president Stanley Tse commence the Dotting of the Eye ceremony, kickstarting an afternoon of performances featuring music, dance, Chinese dragons, lions and acrobatics.

The show culminates in a fireworks display at 5.40pm. Chinatown will be filled with cultural and food stalls and displays all day.

I'm going to have Peking Duck painted with PX and accompanied by a glass of aromatic Oloroso.

Here is Wikipedia's report on Peking Duck

Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China's national foods.

The dish is prized for the thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook.

Peking Duck with pancakes, onions, cucumber and plum sauce

Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with pancakes, spring onions, and hoisin sauce or sweet bean sauce.

Interestingly I have never heard of Beijing Duck. The Peking name has stuck for the dish and there seems to be have been no move to re-transliterate.

I have never made Peking Duck from the start. But I do have a variation on the traditional.

I buy a duck ready cooked in London's Chinatown or Bayswater.

Then paint it with Pedro Ximénez (or PX for short) and then give it a blast in the oven on 200ºC for 10 minutes.

Paint in Black

I also use reduced PX instead of the plum sauce. Just lovely.

And so what is the best wine to drink with Peking Duck?

I will plump for an Oloroso. A bone dry aromatic Oloroso to cut into the fatty duck.

Oloroso means Aromatic

The PX and The Oloroso are available from me at Sticky Wines.

Hey and you can have Peking Duck painted black with PX and Oloroso well beyond Chinese New Year. In fact every New Day if you like.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Even if you are on the right track don't just sit there - Kodak shows you'll get run over

2012-01-19T18:32:00.000Z

A few days before its demise, The Economist wrote an excellent article on Kodak: "The last Kodak moment?":

Kodak is at death’s door; Fujifilm, its old rival, is thriving. Why?

Capitalists quite often invent the technology that destroys their own business. Eastman Kodak is a picture-perfect example. It built one of the first digital cameras in 1975. That technology, followed by the development of smartphones that double as cameras, has battered Kodak’s old film- and camera-making business almost to death.

Strange to recall, Kodak was the Google of its day. Founded in 1880, it was known for its pioneering technology and innovative marketing. “You press the button, we do the rest,” was its slogan in 1888.

By 1976 Kodak accounted for 90% of film and 85% of camera sales in America. Until the 1990s it was regularly rated one of the world’s five most valuable brands.

Then came digital photography to replace film, and smartphones to replace cameras. Kodak’s revenues peaked at nearly $16 billion in 1996 and its profits at $2.5 billion in 1999. The consensus forecast by analysts is that its revenues in 2011 were $6.2 billion. It recently reported a third-quarter loss of $222m, the ninth quarterly loss in three years. In 1988, Kodak employed over 145,000 workers worldwide; at the last count, barely one-tenth as many. Its share price has fallen by nearly 90% in the past year.

While Kodak suffers, its long-time rival Fujifilm is doing rather well. Both firms saw their traditional business rendered obsolete. But whereas Kodak has so far failed to adapt adequately, Fujifilm has transformed itself into a solidly profitable business, with a market capitalisation, even after a rough year, of some $12.6 billion to Kodak’s $220m. Why did these two firms fare so differently?

Both saw change coming. Larry Matteson, a former Kodak executive who now teaches at the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, recalls writing a report in 1979 detailing, fairly accurately, how different parts of the market would switch from film to digital, starting with government reconnaissance, then professional photography and finally the mass market, all by 2010. He was only a few years out.

Fujifilm, too, saw omens of digital doom as early as the 1980s. It developed a three-pronged strategy: to squeeze as much money out of the film business as possible, to prepare for the switch to digital and to develop new business lines.

Both firms realised that digital photography itself would not be very profitable. “Wise businesspeople concluded that it was best not to hurry to switch from making 70 cents on the dollar on film to maybe five cents at most in digital,” says Mr Matteson. But both firms had to adapt; Kodak was slower.

Its culture did not help. Despite its strengths—hefty investment in research, a rigorous approach to manufacturing and good relations with its local community—Kodak had become a complacent monopolist. Fujifilm exposed this weakness by bagging the sponsorship of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles while Kodak dithered. The publicity helped Fujifilm’s far cheaper film invade Kodak’s home market.

Another reason why Kodak was slow to change was that its executives “suffered from a mentality of perfect products, rather than the high-tech mindset of make it, launch it, fix it,” says Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School, who has advised the firm. Working in a one-company town did not help, either. Kodak’s bosses in Rochester seldom heard much criticism of the firm, she says. Even when Kodak decided to diversify, it took years to make its first acquisition. It created a widely admired venture-capital arm, but never made big enough bets to create breakthroughs, says Ms Kanter.

Bad luck played a role, too. Kodak thought that the thousands of chemicals its researchers had created for use in film might instead be turned into drugs. But its pharmaceutical operations fizzled, and were sold in the 1990s.

Fujifilm diversified more successfully. Film is a bit like skin: both contain collagen. So the company launched a line of cosmetics, called Astalift, which is sold in Asia and is being launched in Europe this year. Fujifilm also sought new outlets for its expertise in film: for example, making optical films for LCD flat-panel screens.

George Fisher, who served as Kodak’s boss from 1993 until 1999, decided that its expertise lay not in chemicals but in imaging. He cranked out digital cameras and offered customers the ability to post and share pictures online.

A brilliant boss might have turned this idea into something like Facebook, but Mr Fisher was not that boss. He failed to outsource much production, which might have made Kodak more nimble and creative. He struggled, too, to adapt Kodak’s “razor blade” business model. Kodak sold cheap cameras and relied on customers buying lots of expensive film. (Just as Gillette makes money on the blades, not the razors.) That model obviously does not work with digital cameras. Still, Kodak did eventually build a hefty business out of digital cameras—but it lasted only a few years before camera phones scuppered it.

Could Kodak have avoided its current misfortunes? Some say it could have become the equivalent of “Intel Inside” for the smartphone camera—a brand that consumers trust. But Canon and Sony were better placed to achieve that, given their superior intellectual property, and neither has succeeded in doing so.

Unlike people, companies can in theory live for ever. But most die young, because the corporate world, unlike society at large, is a fight to the death. Fujifilm has mastered new tactics and survived. Film went from 60% of its profits in 2000 to basically nothing, yet it found new sources of revenue. Kodak, along with many a great company before it, appears simply to have run its course. After 132 years it is poised, like an old photo, to fade away.

Full Article

As Will Rogers said: "Don't just sit there. Even if you are on the right track you'll get run over". Just ask Kodak. So even if you have a very successful product and business model don't just rest on your laurels. Prepare to be made obsolete.

Better still, make yourself obsolete and while you are at it, make your competitors obsolete as well but you will have jumped on to the next plateau when the ledge that you and your competitors are standing on crumbles away.

What is the new ecosystem and don't ask where you will fit into it but how you will manage it?

From a wine perspective what are the new trends? Low Alcohol Wines perhaps even if I personally find most of them undrinkable.

It is not a truism that companies will always die. Only those that think they are immortal.

See my article on How to Capture the Big IDEA

And here is my tribute to Kodachrome

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Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Masala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 2

2012-01-18T12:29:00.000Z

In Masala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 1 I wrote about making Masala Wine using white Moscatel.

But now we are going to make a Masala Wine with sun-dried raisin wine - Vino de Pasas.

This is the same Moscatel grape but laid out in the hot Seville sun to dry and then the grapes are fermented. So extra rich and dark and sweet. The Vino de Pasas is a lot like the Pedro Ximénez (PX) made in Montilla but instead of the wine being made from the neutral Pedro Ximénez, it is made from the highly aromatic Moscatel grape.

I wrote:

Oh keep the spice mix for next time.

So take the spice mix - Cinnamon, Cloves, Cardamom and Vanilla saved from making the Masala Wine with white Moscatel.

And add a glass of sun dried raisin wine - Moscatel Vino de Pasas from Lebrija in Seville province.

Transfer the spices and wine to a porridge bowl; cover with cling-film as before and microwave on medium power for 4 minutes.

Strain into a large bowl glass and serve.

The cinnamon and cloves really set off the raisined Moscatel both on the nose and the palate. Lovely stuff indeed.

Really Christmassy on a cold January.

Oh and then re-use the spice mix again for making Chai - That is Indian Spiced Tea. Just pour freshly brewed tea over the spices in a strainer and you have a lightly spiced tea.

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

London School of Curries

2012-01-17T00:46:00.000Z

Will students soon be occupying the LSC just like they were occupying the LSE 40 years ago?

I did write LSC and that is the newly proposed London School of Curries and not The London School of Economics (LSE) that saw student riots in the 1970s against the Vietnam War.

Late last year the UK Government proposed a School of Curries so as to limit the need to import chefs especially from India and Bangladesh.

The Guardian reported in "Pickles to serve up curry college in government integration strategy"

The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, is to make a UK curry college that would teach British workers the secret of perfect pakoras a showpiece of the government's integration strategy to be published shortly.

Pickles's "curry college", as it is being called, would see the government backing a school to train British people from all backgrounds to become chefs specialising in Indian food as an answer to the crisis in the £3.2bn curry industry triggered by the Home Office's ban on bringing in chefs from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

The scheme is in line with Conservative policy to make deep cuts in immigration numbers on the basis "that we do not need to attract people to do jobs that could be carried out by British citizens, given the right training and support".

It also chimes with the position of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. In July he appeared to echo Gordon Brown's infamous plea for "British jobs for British workers" but has since said that he rejects that in favour of a policy of "getting British workers ready for British jobs".

The idea is backed in the long-awaited integration strategy being hammered out between Whitehall departments, which says the government is to "support British excellence in the Asian and Oriental catering" sector.

Pickles's curry college scheme falls under the heading of "increasing social mobility". An early paper for the "integration and tolerance working group", entitled Creating the Conditions for Integration, says:

"The Indian restaurant sector has already approached the government to explore how they can be supported to recruit and train British workers. Changes must come from the sector but the government will work with them to identify barriers and short-term support."

Paul Goodman, a former Tory shadow communities minister, and executive editor of Conservativehome website, said the curry college plan was "very Eric Pickles". Goodman said: "He [Pickles] has a dream: namely to set up a curry college. It combines border control with foreign cooking. It would both help satisfy the apparently inexhaustible appetite for onion bhajis and prawn birianis while also providing justification for the squeeze on visas."

Goodman said it was also a reminder of Pickles's long engagement with communities from the subcontinent since his days as the leader of Bradford council.

Full Article

I think it makes sense.

Whilst it makes sense for a Hyderabadi quality chef to come over to the UK to act as Visiting Professor of Biriyani at The London School of Curries and spread the word about how to cook a perfect Mutton Biriyani I would have thought that there were sufficient people of all races in the UK to train to cook the basic formulaic curries served in the vast majority of Indian restaurants.

Recently I had dinner in a "Spanish" chain of restaurants in Manchester. Many of the front of house waiters were Spanish. But chatting to them we were told that all the chefs were Polish. And how many chefs or even serving staff in pizza chain restaurants are Italian? Very few if any.

Oh and I would like to be Professor of Matching Wine with Curry at The london School of Curries (LSC).

Me, Warren Edwardes, founder of Wine for Spice

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Masala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 1

2012-01-15T19:00:00.001Z

So here's a note on Masala Wine. No not the very lovely Marsala Wine from Western Sicily near Palermo, but Masala Wine - from me.

I have just invented it and no mention of it on Google until now.

Well Masala Wine is inspired by three things:

The first is Mulled Wine popular at this time of year [It has suddenly turned cold in London]

Secondly, a nice warming cup of Masala Chai also known as Mixed Spiced India Tea or just Chai Tea which actually is a bit of a tautology as Chai is Hindi for Tea.

And I have recently watched a new version of Ben Hur on television and that chariot race between Ben Hur and Masala. or was it Messala? It doesn't matter. I remember seeing Ben Hur in school in India in the 1960's and every time Messala came on we all shouted "Garam Masala".

So Masala Wine it is.

OK looking through my larder I found some Cinnamon, Cloves, Vanilla and Cardamoms. That combination sounds about right to me.

And I have some open sweet Moscatel handy. It is very nice indeed as it is but I'll just try just a glass made into the soon to be world-famous Masala Wine.

OK here goes for Masala Wine

Add the spices, Cinnamon, Cloves, Vanilla and Cardamoms, to a large porridge bowl and add a glass of sweet Moscatel wine available from me at Sticky Wines.

Cover with cling film and Microwave on Medium heat for 4 minutes.

Strain into a large round bowl glass

First breathe in the superb aromas. What an incredible blend of them.

Then sip slowly.

Gosh. Really delicious. A touch of Chai Tea with the Moscatel really opening up.

It will take the winter away and you are whisked off to the beaches of Goa.

That's my Masala Wine.

Oh keep the spice mix for next time.

Also see Wine with Gulab Jamun? Oloroso and Vino de Pasas

Follow-up article Masala Wine - A Vinous Chai - 2

______________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Malvasia delle Lipari - From Sicily's Aeolian Islands

2012-01-14T01:55:00.003Z

The group of idyllic but volcanic islands in the Mediterranean just off the North East tip of Sicily that were the setting for the award-winning film 'Il Postino' (The Postman) has a mystery. No it is not that the Aeolian Islands – the setting for the film - is a summer playground for the rich and famous.

They are home to a delicious nectar of the gods - Malvasia delle Lipari DOC.

According to Wikipedia on Malvasia delle Lipari

Since the 1980s, dessert wines made from the Malvasia delle Lipari variety has seen a resurgence in interest on the volcanic Aeolian Islands off the north east coast of Sicily.

With distinctive orange notes, this Sicilian wine saw its peak of popularity just before the phylloxera epidemic when the more than 2.6 million gallons (100,000 hectoliters) was produced annually.

Guy de Maupassant defined it as "the wine of volcanoes".

On dirait un sirop de soufre. C'est véritablement le vin des volcans, dense, sucré, doré et avec un tel goût de soufre qu'il colle au palais jusqu'au soir: le vin du diable

I make that (but excuse my poor command of French):

Looks like a syrup of sulfur. It is truly the wine of volcanoes, dense, sweet, golden and with such a taste of sulfur it sticks to the palate until the evening: the wine of the devil

Golden amber, sweet and delicate, almost honeyed, Malvasia is known as the nectar of the gods. But that is a term applied to many a sweet wine. According to Homer, the god of the winds Aeolus had his kingdom in the seven islands that have their name to him, precisely the Aeolian Islands.

Salina from Lipari

The Malvasia grape was imported by the first Greek colonists around 600 BC, to the island of Salina, where the vines still grow on volcanic soils, three hundred meters above sea level.

Grape cultivation reached its climax in the nineteenth century, when producers of Malvasia apparently had a fleet of a hundred merchant sailing ships. However, phylloxera destroyed most of the vineyards until the second half of the twentieth century when by some growers resumed the production of Malvasia, and in 1973 a DOC was granted.

The grapes used must come from at least 95% Malvasia delle Lipari, the remaining 5% from the Black Corinth grape.

Malvasia delle Lipari wines vary considerably in terms of sweetness and there are three types of wine:

There are lighter dry table wines - Malvasia delle Lipari made with fresh grapes and aged in the bottle for a minimum of one year. The colour ranges from golden yellow to amber with an abundant floral grapey Muscat-like aroma, and the alcohol content is about 12%.

Dolce Naturale or Sweet Natural Fortified Malvasia delle Lipari similar to Vin Doux Naturel from Roussillon are much sweeter. The Fortified Malvasia delle Lipari is a classic honey-yellow in color, while the nose reminiscent of apricot and peach. The minimum alcohol is 20%. There is a minimum of six months aging

Malvasia delle Lipari Passito is sweeter still and when fortified with grape spirit, is Malvasia delle Lipari Liquoroso. This is about 18% to 20% ABV and is aged for six months or more in barrel. As in Vinsanto in Tuscany, the passito method of allowing the grapes to dry on mats or hung on racks is used to increase the sugars and strengthen the Malvasia flavor. Malvasia delle Lipari Passito wines must have a final alcohol level of 18% ABV and not less than 60 grams/litre of residual sugar. The colour is amber and there is pronounced nuttiness on the nose.

Although in recent years the amount of wine produced has increased significantly given the increase in planted area and the presence of new producers, Malvasia delle Lipari DOC remains a niche product, created through the work of a small number of producers and wineries.

The area of production of Malvasia delle Lipari DOC includes the seven islands of the Aeolian Islands: Lipari, Stromboli, Salina, Panarea, Vulcano, Filicudi and Alicudi, in the province of Messina. Malvasia delle Lipari is now primarily produced in the islands of Salina and the active volcanic island of Stromboli. Wine production is insignificant in the other islands. So Malvasia delle Lipari is curiously not from Lipari itself.

Malvasia delle Lipari DOC is part of Wine Road of the Province of Messina.

Here is the trailer from Il Postino which was shot on the Island of Salina, home to Malvasia delle Lipari. Lipari is in the fact the neighbouring island and no Malvasia delle Lipari is in fact produced on Lipari itself.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

In December 2012 I was on a 3 day buyers and journalists' mission with the return airfare from London to Catania, 3 nights accommodation in Milazzo and local transportation and all meals paid for by the Messina provincial government - Workshop del Festival dei Vini DOC e IGT della Provincia di Messina. Other than three bottles of wine as samples (not one of them the delicious Malvasia delle Lipari DOC unfortunately) I was given one delicious IGP salami.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Wine and Curry Tasting at Downley Wine and Beer Club

2012-01-13T00:37:00.001Z

On Wednesday I delivered a Wine and Curry Tasting at Downley Wine and Beer Club. It appears to have gone down quite well to the 34 club members who attended.

Vicky Allen of the club committee said:

On behalf of the club I would like to say thanks for a great evening. Some members who have been attending since the club began 30+ years said how much they had learned this evening. That is one reason we still turn up. Thanks again.

There were three flights of wine - with mild, medium and hot spices. The curries were represented by three heat levels of Bombay Mix as well as curry sauces with pitta bread to dip into the sauces.

Downley Community Centre

The basic principles in terms of Matching Wine with Spicy Food are:

(1) Refreshing

(2) A touch of Sweetness to offset chilli-bite. So rising sweetness to act as an antidote to chilli-bite

(1) Refreshing is:

Lager beer cold
Naturally Sparkling or Semi-Sparkling. Beer has injected gas which produce larger burpy bubbles than with naturally sparkling wines.
Good mouth-watering lemony acidity.
No mouth-drying tannin. So red wines if at all with mild or perhaps medium spices. And then low tannin reds only.
Oak-free. Stainless steel gives a fresh crisp feel to the wine
Moderate but not very low alcohol.

Flight 1: with mild spices

Wine A Wine for Spice: Viceroy White Macabeo / Parellada / Xarel.lo Catalonia NV Spain White Very Dry

Wine B Cavas Hill Reserva Oro Macabeo / Parellada / Xarel.lo Catalonia Brut Nature NV Spain White

Flight 2 with medium spices

Wine A Conto Vecchio Pinot Grigio Blush Venezie Italy Rosé

Wine B Wine for Spice: Raja Rosé Garnacha / Tempranillo Catalonia NV Spain Rosé Quite Dry

Wine C Morgon Les Griottes Mommessin Gamay Beaujolais France Red

Flight 3 with hot spices

Wine A Wine for Spice: Rani Gold Muscat / Macabeo / Parellada / Xarel.lo Catalonia NV Spain White Off Dry

Wine B Vinedos de la Posada, Organic Fairtrade Torrontes, La Rioja 2009
Argentina White

Wine C H Prinz von Hessen, Riesling Rheingau 2008 Germany White

Check out my video on Matching Wine with Spicy Food.

The Club meets at The Downley Community Centre, an old school house on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at

Downley Community Centre,
School Close,
Downley,
High Wycombe,
Bucks HP13 5TR

View Larger Map
_______________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Red Wine Cuts Breast Cancer - and also Prostate Cancer

2012-01-12T00:58:00.001Z

Apparently moderate consumption of red wine leads to a reduction of Breast Cancer in women.

According to a summary of the report published by the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center "Moderate Red Wine Drinking May Help Cut Women's Breast Cancer Risk":

Drinking red wine in moderation may reduce one of the risk factors for breast cancer, providing a natural weapon to combat a major cause of death among U.S. women, new research from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center shows.

The study, published online in the Journal of Women’s Health, challenges the widely-held belief that all types of alcohol consumption heighten the risk of developing breast cancer. Doctors long have determined that alcohol increases the body’s estrogen levels, fostering the growth of cancer cells.

But the Cedars-Sinai study found that chemicals in the skins and seeds of red grapes slightly lowered estrogen levels while elevating testosterone among premenopausal women who drank eight ounces of red wine nightly for about a month.

White wine lacked the same effect.

Researchers called their findings encouraging, saying women who occasionally drink alcohol might want to reassess their choices.

“If you were to have a glass of wine with dinner, you may want to consider a glass of red,” said Chrisandra Shufelt, MD, assistant director of the Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and one of the study’s co-authors. “Switching may shift your risk.”

In the Cedars-Sinai study, 36 women were randomized to drink either Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay daily for almost a month, then switched to the other type of wine. Blood was collected twice each month to measure hormone levels.

Researchers sought to determine whether red wine mimics the effects of aromatase inhibitors, which play a key role in managing estrogen levels. Aromatase inhibitors are currently used to treat breast cancer.

Investigators said the change in hormone patterns suggested that red wine may stem the growth of cancer cells, as has been shown in test tube studies.

Co-author Glenn D. Braunstein, MD, said the results do not mean that white wine increases the risk of breast cancer but that grapes used in those varieties may lack the same protective elements found in reds.

“There are chemicals in red grape skin and red grape seeds that are not found in white grapes that may decrease breast cancer risk,” said Braunstein, vice president for Clinical Innovation and the James R. Klinenberg, MD, Chair in Medicine.

Full Summary

There is an interesting finding here:

"... elevating testosterone among premenopausal women who drank eight ounces of red wine nightly for about a month. "

If that is the case what about Men and Prostate Cancer? Isn't increased testosterone correlated with Prostate Cancer? So by logic Red Wine should increase the likelihood of Prostate Cancer.

But other research shows that Red Wine in fact decreases the risk of Prostate Cancer. Harvard Men’s Health Watch in "Attention men: the benefits of red wine" says:

Researchers have found that men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine. In addition, red wine appears particularly protective against advanced or aggressive cancers.

Researchers in Seattle collected information about many factors that might influence the risk of prostate cancer in men between ages 40 and 64, including alcohol consumption.

At first the results for alcohol consumption seemed similar to the findings of many earlier studies: There was no relationship between overall consumption and risk. But the scientists went one step further by evaluating each type of alcoholic beverage independently. Here the news was surprising—wine drinking was linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer. And when white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit. Even low amounts seemed to help, and for every additional glass of red wine per week, the relative risk declined by 6%.

Why red wine? Doctors don’t know. But much of the speculation focuses on chemicals—including various flavonoids and resveratrol—missing from other alcoholic beverages. These components have antioxidant properties, and some appear to counterbalance androgens, the male hormones that stimulate the prostate.

Many doctors are reluctant to recommend drinking alcohol for health, fearing that their patients might assume that if a little alcohol is good, a lot might be better. The Harvard Men’s Health Watch notes that men who enjoy alcohol and can drink in moderation and responsibly may benefit from a lower risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and cardiac death.

The studies seem a bit contradictory.

" ... These components have antioxidant properties, and some appear to counterbalance androgens, ..."

Never mind. Life is too short. Enjoy a red wine. Maybe a rosé wine as well. And perhaps white wines.

I suspect that wine just gives pleasure and it is that pleasure that reduces cancer.
_____________________________________________________

The research on red wine and breast cancer was published in Journal of Women's Health: Red Versus White Wine as a Nutritional Aromatase Inhibitor in Premenopausal Women

Chrisandra Shufelt, C. Noel Bairey Merz, YuChing Yang, Joan Kirschner, Donna Polk, Frank Stanczyk, Maura Paul-Labrador, and Glenn D. Braunstein. Journal of Women's Health. doi:10.1089/jwh.2011.3001.

Abstract

Background: An increased risk of breast cancer is associated with alcohol consumption; however, it is controversial whether red wine increases this risk. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) prevent the conversion of androgens to estrogen and occur naturally in grapes, grape juice, and red, but not white wine. We tested whether red wine is a nutritional AI in premenopausal women.

Methods: In a cross-over design, 36 women (mean age [SD], 36 [8] years) were assigned to 8 ounces (237 mL) ofred wine daily then white wine for 1 month each, or the reverse. Blood was collected twice during the menstrualcycle for measurement of estradiol (E2), estrone (E1), androstenedione (A), total and free testosterone (T), sexhormone binding globulin (SHBG), luteinizing hormone (LH), and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).

Results: Red wine demonstrated higher free T vs. white wine (mean difference 0.64 pg/mL [0.2 SE], p = 0.009)and lower SHBG (mean difference - 5.0 nmol/L [1.9 SE], p = 0.007). E2 levels were lower in red vs. white winebut not statistically signiﬁcant. LH was signiﬁcantly higher in red vs. white wine (mean difference 2.3 mIU/mL[1.3 SE], p = 0.027); however, FSH was not.

Conclusion: Red wine is associated with signiﬁcantly higher free T and lower SHBG levels, as well as a signiﬁcant higher LH level vs. white wine in healthy premenopausal women. These data suggest that red wine is a nutritional AI and may explain the observation that red wine does not appear to increase breast cancer risk.

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Tempting Orange Wines

2012-01-10T01:25:00.001Z

Are you tempted by Apples as Adam was? Would you have fallen for Eve holding out an Apple with a glint in her eye?

Nah!. Not me. No way. It may be an "Apple a Day to keep the doctor at bay" but I am firmly in the Orange camp. I would not have been tempted by an outstretched Apple but could easily have fallen for a proffered Orange.

Tempting Oranges

Seville Oranges have begun to arrive in the UK apparently and home marmalade makers are rushing to get them.

The season is very short and depending on the weather from December to February.

These highly aromatic, bumpy-skinned oranges were originally from India and China. They arrived in Europe by Arab traders and groves of them were planted by the Moors in Andalucia around Seville, hence the name.

Curiously Seville Oranges are not eaten by the locals in Spain and are fed to animals. But they are snapped up in the UK by people eager to make marmalade which is a lot more bitter than the sweet Spanish Mermelada made from sweeter oranges or indeed from any fruit. The Spanish Mermelada is sweet jam not bitter marmalade.

But some of the Seville Oranges stays in Andalucia and is used to make Orange Wines - Moscatel Naranja or Vino Naranja.

Moscatel Naranja from Malaga available from Sticky Wines

After an adventurous route my pallet of Moscatel Naranja from Malaga has finally arrived in the UK. The lorry met with an accident somewhere between Malaga and Madrid and several bottles were broken.

Moscatel Naranja is once again available from Sticky Wines.

Oh and there is a legend that the word marmalade is a contraction of "Marie est malade" or Mary is sick. Apparently when Mary, Queen of Scots, was ill, marmalade was given to her and helped her recover.

So Orange Wines or "Marmalade in a Glass" is good for you - probably. In any event it is a nice glass of Seville Sunshine.

See my earlier posts:

Seville Oranges. Not just for Marmalade but also Vino de Naranja
Vino Naranja - Marmalade in a Glass
New DO Vino Naranja del Condado de Huelva
Granizado de Naranja - Orange Granita

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Bubbly 101

2012-01-08T00:37:00.000Z

The American Chemical Society have produced an entertaining video on "A toast to the Chemistry of Champagne".

More corks on more bottles of Champagne are popping during the holiday season than at any other time of the year.

More than 600 different chemical compounds join carbon dioxide in champagne, each lending its own unique quality to the aroma and flavor of this celebrated beverage.

So raise your glass and make a holiday toast to the chemistry behind champagne!

Unlike still wines which undergo a single fermentation process, most naturally sparkling wines such as Champagne undergo a second fermentation.

Fermentation involves yeasts converting any sugar present into alcohol and Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

For still wines and lager beer the CO2 is allowed to escape into the air or maybe used for other purposes. This is also the case for the first fermentation in naturally sparkling wines.

Now the still wine produced by the first fermentation can be converted into a bubbly wine through one of three processes.

Add some sugar solution and yeast to the still wine produced in the first fermentation and close the container and let the second fermentation games begin.

The container is pressure-closed so the CO2 produced will not fly away but remain dissolved in the wine.

(a) If the container is a bottle, this is the traditional method - Champagne and Cava and other bottle fermented naturally sparkling wines. But make sure the bottle can withstand the pressure built up of six atmospheres.

A variant on (a) is

(a1) the Methode Ancestrale or Ancient / Original Method where there is just a single fermentation in a bottle and the CO2 is retained rather than let escape.

(b) If the container is a pressured tank then this is the tank method or Charmat method. This is used for Prosecco, Asti and my own Wine for Spice range of semi-sparkling wines to be drunk with curries and spicy food.

In the tank method the fermentation can be stopped by cooling if a semi-sparkling wine is required.

Naturally Semi-Sparkling Wine for Spice produced by the same tank method as Prosecco

After the secondary fermentation the dead yeast is removed.

(c) And then there is the gas injection method as used for lager beer and industrial sparkling wines. This also known as the bicycle pump method.

Gas injection can easily be spotted in a wine or beer. The bubbles are larger and are released from the wine quickly on pouring.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

You've got Gout? That's Funny!

2012-01-07T00:41:00.000Z

I have just read an excellent article in the Independent from way back in 1994: "The new goutists: Unfashionable? Definitely. Painful? Highly. Funny? Hilarious . . . unless you happen to be the one who has the gout"

It is well worth reading the full article to get an understanding of gout and not snigger at gout sufferers.

WHEN I rang the British Medical Association for information on gout, a young man in the press office sniggered. 'Gout? That's what politicians get from drinking too much red wine, isn't it?' At least, so his history textbooks at school had told him.

This response is about par for the course. Tell anybody you are suffering from gout, and they burst into laughter. At the office, they tell me, I am known as Goutledge. Ha, ha.

My latest attack of gout, easily the worst in almost 20 years of suffering, came after enjoying the justly famous hospitality of my friends the Rawlings in deepest Littondale, north Yorkshire. On New Year's morning, I woke up with only a mild hangover. But my right ankle was swollen and extremely painful. I could walk only with the greatest difficulty.

Never fear, help was at hand. We goutists never go anywhere without an emergency supply of Naproxen, the vivid yellow bombers guaranteed to get rid of an attack within a day - or two, at most.

Gout, doctors tell us, is caused by the deposition of monosodium urate crystals in the joints. These build up when there is an excess of uric acid in the blood, which the body cannot excrete. Being relatively insoluble, the uric acid crystallises and forms deposits, usually in the extremities - usually the big toe or ankle, sometimes the fingers or wrist. These crystals are excruciatingly painful, and down the years gout has had an understandably bad press.
John Webster, the Elizabethan dramatist, wrote in The Devil's Law Case, circa 1619: 'one I have heard of in England / Was cured of the gout by being wracked i' the Tower'. Happily, this remedy is not available today. For me Naproxen usually does the trick. But not this time. The ankle continued to swell alarmingly, and the pain moved into unexplored regions.

Getting ill in the middle of a public holiday, 200 miles from one's GP, is not to be recommended. But the staff at Airedale hospital, near Keighley, were very understanding. They X-rayed the joint to make sure I hadn't broken my ankle, though I think I would have known about that. Then they gave me an injection of something or other per rectum, and bandaged up the offending limb. Swift was familiar with this procedure, commending 'patience and flannel for the gout' in 1738. Thankful for the hospital's solicitude, I was discharged full of hope into a wild Yorkshire night.

It did not work. The pain, accurately described by the physician Thomas Sydenham 300 years ago as 'violent, stretching, gnawing . . . so exquisite that it cannot bear the weight of bedclothes', continued. I tried to carry on as usual, travelling round the West Riding doing interviews for a biography of Betty Boothroyd. I must have cut a ludicrous figure limping out of the rain, walking stick in one hand and notebook in the other. At least it gave me an opening gambit.

Back home in west London, my amiable GP poked and prodded the swelling and sent me off to West Middlesex Hospital for blood tests. There, a kindly Irish nurse took what seemed enough blood to start a black sausage factory, while admiring the Yorkshire rose tattoo on my forearm. It doesn't get admired much: it's not even a proper Tyke rose, because it was done at Big Pete and Painless Max Chatter's salon in Sydney. Much cheered up, I half- ran, half-hobbled for the 237 bus to get me to Gunnersbury Tube. This was a great mistake. The ankle was very angry, and hurt like hell the whole day.
Some days later, the hospital tests showed that my uric acid level was 0.51. In a normal person it is between 0.0 and 0.40. My GP decided that something stronger was required, and prescribed Indomethacin four times a day. This is a non- steroid, anti-inflammatory drug, developed in recent years. When my GP began practising, such drugs did not exist. Doctors still relied on the old apothecary's standby of colchicum, an extract of the autumn crocus. Thought to derive its name from the ancient city of Colchis in Asia Minor, the drug is first mentioned in the Ebers papyrus of around 1500BC.

So, gout is obviously as old as civilisation. Indeed, there is a strong argument that it is a disease of civilisation. Dr Tom Scott, former consultant rheumatologist at London's Charing Cross Hospital, has said: 'There are plenty of underweight sufferers who never touch a drop, but there is a link between gout and the good life. Gout sufferers tend to be heavier and to eat and drink more than their peers, and both alcohol and a high-calorie diet raise the level of uric acid.' This is only half-way comforting. My brother John is a bricklayer, and he scarcely lives the high life, but he gets gout too. Like many others - and there are perhaps 200,000 sufferers, predominantly men, in Britain - we appear to have inherited a tendency to gout.

We have some illustrious predecessors. George IV, Queen Anne, William Pitt and Benjamin Franklin suffered, as famously did Dr Johnson who wrote to a physician in Plymouth in 1773: 'By representing the gout as an antagonist to the palsy, you have said enough to make it welcome.' His credulity was understandable given the state of medical knowledge at the time, but it sits ill with the other attribute of goutists: we are brainy.

A number of studies have revealed higher-than-average IQs among sufferers. Dr Scott again: 'Studies show that gout sufferers are not average people. They tend either to have been top of their class or bottom - because they were too clever to bother to do any work. The nature of the association is not clear. It may be that clever people become successful, and successful people often eat and drink too much.'

But such considerations do not make walking any easier with my ankle in its present state - six weeks on from New Years' Day. Normally, my attacks are short-lived and respond to drugs. This is different. I am becoming accustomed to the gibes of colleagues at Westminster. What I cannot get used to is the behaviour inhibition factor. There are a thousand and one things you cannot do.

If you've got gout, you can't do anything suddenly. You can't turn on your heel. You can't step out of someone's way - an action performed without thinking dozens of times a day on the Underground or in busy streets. You can't sit on the front seat on the bus downstairs because there isn't room to stretch out your leg. You learn to avoid stairs, or steps, and to look out for unexpected dips in the pavement. The main thing is to avoid making the pain worse. You begin to understand what it is like to be disabled.
Three capsules of Indomethacin a day proved insufficient to disperse the uric acid crystals. For a trial three-day period, my GP doubled the dose, and briefly I thought salvation was at hand, three weeks into the attack. I was able to walk, albeit stiffly and still in some pain. The respite proved illusory. Despite the double dose, both swelling and pain returned. Back at the surgery, practically in despair, and feeling like the most pathetic, wheedling sponger on the NHS, I begged my GP to 'do something'.

He asked me if I was in Bupa, which would get me swifter access to an arthritis specialist. Negative. Old fashioned Labour man. Never been interested. Hmmm. I could have forgiven him for saying, as a stern old nurse at the Times, asking if I had private medical facilities, once did: 'You haven't got a leg problem. You've got an attitude problem. Good morning.' But he didn't. He prescribed Colchicine, the modern version of colchicum. The active principle of autumn crocus was first isolated in 1820, about the time William Pitt was nursing his bandaged foot in Downing Street. For modern-day crocus eaters, the drug comes in tiny white pills, perhaps only a tenth of the size of the yellow bombers that were once my sovereign remedy. Take two immediately, and then one every two or three hours. Oh, and watch out for diarrhoea. If you get that, stop taking the tablets immediately. It is no fun getting the runs when you can hardly walk, as I discovered. So it was back to a double dose of Indomethacin, and, hallelujah] the swelling is gradually going down. The pain is taking longer. I am developing a limp.

Of course, medical science will be able to cope once this attack has been defeated. My GP has prescribed Allopurinol, the wonder-drug that will ward off further attacks if taken once a day. My colleague and fellow sufferer, the columnist Alan Watkins, is fulsome in his praise of Allopurinol. The drug acts against 'purines', proteins that exist to some degree in all foods and are actually necessary in the body to help replace cell tissue lost through normal wear and tear. But the breakdown of purines creates uric acid, the immediate cause of gout. An excess of purines equals excess uric acid. Mr Watkins has been chiding me for years to follow his example, but until now I have resisted, being reluctant to become dependent on medication. But if it's dependence or not being able to walk, dependence it will have to be.

Unhappily, there is also the question of lifestyle. I have been known to take a drink, and in the trade union movement and Westminster, the vineyard in which I chose to labour, this has been no small professional advantage. I recall being asked at an interview by Michael Cudlipp, Home Editor of the Times, if I drank. My answer, 'as much as the job demands', was warmly received.

But it is useless to pretend that alcohol plays absolutely no part in the onset of gout attacks - though that has never prevented me from loudly proclaiming the contrary in the past. So this is something in the nature of a disavowal. Booze causes gout. Dr Terry Gibson, consultant at Guy's rheumatology department, found in a study of 'lager gouts' in 1989 that heavy drinkers have a significantly higher intake of purines. He recorded 'a clear association' between drinking alcohol - especially beer - and gout. There is worse (there always is, don't you find?). The Arthritis and Rheumatism Council says that though gout is treatable with a variety of drugs, there is an increasing number of men whose gout is not responding to treatment because of their inability to cut down on beer. Am I one of those men?

It is a daunting prospect. I love my ale, but it is not my friend. What is the good of taking Allopurinol for the rest of my life, when it is only masking the real cause of the problem? These sombre thoughts bubble up naturally because my GP also told me to go on the waggon for the duration of crocus- eating. As the joke goes, the waggon has hitherto been going too fast when it passed by. But it slowed down the other day to let off a colleague on a Scottish newspaper (what else?), and I have managed to scramble aboard. Hello, virtual reality.

What is missing in the saga, it seems to me, is the comradely spirit. There is no hi-falutin' sufferers' club where us goutists can get together and yarn about ankles and big toes. Even sufferers of 'yuppie flu', which has not yet been satisfactorily proven to exist, have a mutual help group. Gouties have nothing, though the man at the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council giggled that something called the Salmon and Trout Club (Cockney rhyming slang, geddit?) had once been mooted.

The trouble is, as my fellow sufferer, magazine publisher Ross Davies, says is that people are too ashamed to admit they have gout. 'Quite simply, it is not a fashionable ailment. People keep quiet about it, because they just get laughed at.' Well, that is going to stop here and now. I am founding Gout Rage. which will expose my fellow sufferers to the steady gaze of public attention - only, of course to improve public understanding of this potentially devastating disease. Step forward Michael Heseltine, who, close aides assure me, suffers from gout; come in, Nicholas Coleridge of Conde Nast. And admit it, author / playwright Nigel Williams. Together, we might even stop the man at the BMA sniggering.

Full Article

Well I first noticed that I had gout nearly two years ago in Jerez during the sweet and fortified wines fair, Vinoble.

Basically my right big toe swelled up making it very painful to walk.

Ibuprofen 600s seemed to work in just a day and I recovered swiftly from being in pain to just hobbling a bit.

I have had gout attacks three times since then culminating in a nasty attack three weeks ago on a wine trip to Sicily.

I seem to get it when I am travelling and tasting wine so perhaps associated with alcohol intake.

Gout is incredibly painful - like an exploding Etna

The swelling this time was on the left knee and right big toe as usual and the pain was incredible despite regular Ibuprofen 600s. I was delirious and even hallucinated about foot amputation and spent much of the night with my foot in the hotel room bidet filled with cold water. I probably caught chilblains.

I was fine in a few days but had to get wheelchair assistance for the first time in my life from check-in at Catania airport to the 'plane and also vice-versa to the kerb and then I hobbled at Gatwick to the bus.

Chinese Acupuncture seems to help. Anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and Naproxen work. And a lot of water should be drunk to clear out the uric acid. I also drink a lot of tea when it seems to be coming on. If gout persists then Allopurinol is prescribed. It is a synthetic drug that inhibits uric acid formation in the body.

A tip is to have a pair of oversized shoes handy. Monk shoes that can be opened up are helpful to ease the pain.

This time it was just a few days of incredible pain. Just a day's foot-up rest helped a lot.

So if it happens to one of you just hang in there and it will go very soon.

On the plus side my prostate cancer has disappeared without treatment pretty much as the gout attacks started. Maybe they are inversely related?
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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A Rosé in Winter?

2012-01-06T00:16:00.001Z

So is it OK to drink a chilled glass of Rosé in mid-winter?

A Rosé in Winter

Of course it is.

I am puzzled that it seems to be fine to drink red wines all year round. And it is also fine to drink white wines all year round. But for some reason convention dictates that rosé wines should only be drunk in summer.

Firstly the temperature outside is irrelevant. I drink most of my wines indoors. As I have the heating on in winter there is nothing wrong at all with drinking rosé wine indoors in winter.

Also in much of tropical Asia and North America the air-conditioning in hotels and restaurants is set so cold that it is much colder there in mid-summer than right here right now in the London January mid-winter - indoors of course. I have to wear a sweater to go down to breakfast in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore hotels.

Then it depends on the production of the rosé. Many rosés have black grape skin contact under maceration from a few hours to a dozen hours. Some may have longer skin contact before the black skins are removed and the wine is fermented as a white wine.

And it also depends on the food.

Add chilli sauce and soy sauce to a Penang Style Paella
and serve with an Off Dry Rose (even in winter)

But one thing about rosés is do be careful about the vintage. There are exceptions, but in general unless you know better in particular cases, rosés will deteriorate after a year. And they are generally designed to be drunk fresh young. Many rosés turn quite bitter after a year so it is best, if you after a fresh style, to drink the current vintage.

Perhaps "Don't Drink Rosé in Winter" is a means of clearing out the previous year's stock.

But right now in January 2012 a 2011 vintage fresh and fruity rosé will be great with a hot and spicy dish. But I would be wary about 2010 rosés, especially Southern Hemisphere rosados from Argentina and Chile or rosés from Australia which would be a year and a half old already.

Rosés are good with spicy food in that they can be drunk refreshingly chilled and are low in mouth-drying tannin.

See my earlier blogpost: "Matching Wine with Spicy Food"

Oh and here is one of my favourite books.

A Rose for Winter: Travels in Andalusia by Laurie Lee.

A Rose for Winter: Travels in Andalusia by Laurie Lee

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
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ASDW

The British Red-Hot Passion for Chilli

2012-01-04T17:13:00.000Z

There was an interesting and informative article on Chilli almost a year ago in The Independent: "Chilli: C'mon baby, light my fire.

Here is an extract from The Full Article:

The Habanero Chilli might make you dance

Spicing our food with chilli [or even spelt chili] has become as British as salt and pepper. But what does our obsession with heat reveal about the national psyche? And can we ever get enough?

Britain is swept up in a red-hot passion – a national love affair. Look in kitchens up and down the land and you'll find little bottles of dauntingly-potent sauce, tubs of fearsomely strong powder and the distinctive, gleaming, scimitar-shaped fruit of the chilli plant. All of these items are clearly marked by nature as red for danger, yet we are fascinated with this deeply pleasurable, if formidable, spice.

But do we even understand it? In a typically British way, we are inclined to adopt the view that "more" – both in quantity and strength – means "better" – and occasionally, we suffer the consequence of our hotheaded hubris.

In a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, my friend Tom Parker Bowles experienced a classic case of chilli overload. Researching his relishable book The Year of Eating Dangerously, he visited an acclaimed joint called Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. It serves fried chicken in a choice of mild, medium, hot and extra-hot. Given the title of his book, Tom had little option.

Scotch Bonnet Chillies

"You'll find it ain't chatting food," warned the Mayor of Nashville, who joined him for lunch. Though Tom's order for "extra-hot" drew the amused attention of fellow diners, at first it didn't seem too bad.

"Yup, it had a kick, but nothing I couldn't handle."

But then his account bursts into flame on the page. "A tanker of nitro-glycerine... a swarm of hornets... my fruit drink as much use as a water pistol on a bush fire."

Soon after Tom's visit, I found myself in Nashville and, on his recommendation, made the journey out to Prince's. Of course, I didn't go for the extra-hot but, deeming myself a fairly experienced chilli hand, I plumped for the medium. I'll spare you the incandescent metaphors, though the mountain of sweat-sodden paper towels on my table testified to my inadequacy at coping with even a moderately hot Nashville chicken.

The unpalatable truth is that my taste buds should definitely be filed under "mild".

It seems likely that the British enthusiasm for chilli products – a 2008 survey showed sales are rising by 18 per cent per year – ensues from our late conversion to this fiery catalyst. The plant is native to Mexico and its name derives from the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs.

Such is its magic in enlivening dreary peasant fayre that the chilli raced round the world soon after Columbus landed in the Americas.

It became part of Italian cuisine in 1526, eventually contributing to the magnificent arrabbiata and puttanesca sauces for pasta.

Introduced by the Portuguese, at least three types of chilli were growing in Goa by 1530. Usurping the role of black pepper, the spice became integral to Indian cuisine.

Today, more chillies are grown in the subcontinent than the rest of the world put together. Cayenne pepper – or merchi – has been propagated into a wide range of regional varieties.

It was via India that the British discovered chilli in the 19th century. The wild child Becky Sharpe, anti-heroine of Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1847), was tempted into trying a "fresh, green chilli" with familiar consequences: "Water, for heaven's sake, water."

For the greatest variety and subtlety of approach, however, no country matches the chilli's birthplace.

Mexican cooks can choose from 100 different species including chocolate-coloured chilaca, pale-yellow guero (which can be "mildly or very hot"), the fiercely hot habanero (the name reveals its Cuban origins) and the more restrained jalapeño. In addition, there are a wide variety of dried chillies, which have different flavour characteristics. The fresh poblano chilli, a handsome fruit in British racing green, is mild enough to be eaten in roast strips as an accompaniment for steak.

Tabasco has expanded its range with mild jalapeno and ferocious habanero varieties. It is an indication of the increasingly torrid taste of the British that sales of Tabasco habanero rose by 5.5 per cent last year. Sadly, the bottle in our house is virtually untouched. I find it too hot for practical use.

To be precise, it rates 7,000-8,000 on the Scoville scale for pepper heat. The original Tabasco, which rates 2,500-5,000 (depending on the provenance of the peppers used in the sauce), is quite hot enough for me. As we shall see, Scoville Heat Units (SHU) are a topic of intense interest for chilli enthusiasts.

When first devised by American chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, the test depended on a team of human palates tasting capsaicin, the active ingredient in peppers, increasingly diluted by sugar solution.
"When the human tongue is sensitive to less than a millionth of a grain, it certainly has an advantage," insisted Scoville. Doubtless to his posthumous disgust, a high-pressure liquid chromatograph is used instead to find the rating today.

Capsaicin is produced just below the surface of the pale, spongy material, known as placenta, to which chilli seeds are attached. It tends to escape and spread to the seeds and inner wall of the hollow fruit. Colourless and flavourless, capsaicin was developed by wild pepper plants as an irritant against mammals but not birds, who play a useful part in spreading the seeds.

As food scientist Harold McGee points out: "It's a wonderfully perverse achievement for our mammal species to have fallen in love with this anti-mammalian weapon and spread the chilli much further than any bird ever did."

Capsaicin is oily, which explains why it is hard to wash off your fingers after you've been cutting up peppers.

The water demanded by Becky Sharpe would have produced scant relief. Munching something cold such as ice cubes can cool taste receptors below the temperature at which they are activated. Rough-textured food such as rice or biscuits can also distract the receptors.

"If all else fails," consoles McGee, "take comfort in the fact that capsaicin pain generally fades after 15 minutes."

It is sometimes suggested that we don't enjoy the chilli so much as the endorphins, the natural opiates which are produced by the brain to mask the pain. However, very little pleasure results from accidentally putting a chilli-daubed finger on an eyelid or another equally-sensitive body part.

If habanero sauce is hot, the habanero pepper is far hotter, rated between 100,000-350,000 SHU. It is matched by the infamous Scotch bonnet pepper from the Caribbean, used in the often-daunting dish of jerk chicken. These small, colourful taste bombs are regarded as relatively innocuous by extreme chilli addicts.

Some people build up a resistance to heat that enables them to take on board quite astounding levels of SHU.

If you tap "Trinidad Scorpion" into Google, you can watch Australian Neil Smith of the Hippy Seed Co. admiring, chewing, then swallowing a large, lumpy chilli known as Trinidad Scorpion. It has been rated at upwards of 800,000 SHU.

"Slightly fruity," he says at first. "Woom! Instant heat... Still building like a hot coal... Excellent. Outstanding... I think my tongue wants to leave... I don't recommend a full one. That was extremely hectic."

A number of peppers are vying for the title of hottest in the world. Curiously, the front-runners have all been grown on an island with a less-than-tropical climate.

A chilli called Dorset Naga (1,032,310 SHU) was grown by Michael and Joy Michaud at Sea Spring Farm, Dorchester, from seeds bought in an ethnic food shop in Bournemouth.

"Maybe you have to experience such a thing once in your life," Joy told me. "It's got an amazing fruity flavour beyond the heat, but I am surprised at its success. Who would want to eat anything that hot?"

The answer is "plenty of people", judging by the reaction in a Newcastle branch of Tesco, which sold 400 packets of Dorset Naga in a single morning. Last year, the Michauds sold out their entire stock of 1,100 plants as soon as they became available in May.

At the South Devon Chilli Farm, Steve Waters is growing the Bhut Jolokin (1,041,427 SHU), which was listed as the world's hottest chilli according to Guinness World Records from 2007-2010. "I eat chilli in just about anything, but I haven't found my tolerance getting any better," Steve told me. "You'd really want to push the envelope to use this."

In February, the Bhut Jolokin was overtaken by the Infinity chilli (1,176,182 SHU) grown in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Two weeks later, the title was snatched by an "unstable hybrid" temptingly called Naga Viper (1,382,118 SHU) that was grown by Gerald Fowler of the Chilli Pepper Co. in Cark, Cumbria. "I wouldn't recommend eating a whole one – absolutely not," he said. "A quarter of one would be OK in a chile con carne. We made a sauce with it that is selling like crazy. Up to now, we've sold 5,000."

Surely that must be the limit. 'Fraid not. Some chilli sauces go higher still. According to one gourmet, a delicate dressing called Be Damned Sauce (alleged to be 7.3 million SHU) is "like licking the tailpipe of a drag racing car. Bring it on!" (US police pepper spray is rated at 5.3 million SHU.) The limit comes in the form of pure capsaicin powder (16 million SHU) sold with the caveat: "This is a collector's item. It is not to be ingested in any form."

In his Cook's Encyclopaedia, Tom Stobart stresses the immunity built up by people who eat lots of chillies.

"It is quite wrong to make Mexican or Indian food blindingly hot on the grounds that it is authentic. That is not how it tastes to the people of those countries."

Moreover, the macho devotee of hot chillies is missing out on some excellent, if less assertive, members of the same family. As a new American book called Chasing Chilles concludes: "In the case of peppers, promoting the consumption of many varieties may bring us greater pleasure – or even a bit of fleeting pain – but never a dull moment."

Though it may take some getting used to, our palates can adjust to the pleasures of the ancho (1,000-2,000 SHU).

Whether in Newcastle or Nashville, there is nothing wrong with a walk on the mild side.

The Full Article:

I am afraid "Water, for heaven's sake, water" just does not serve to put out the fire. Beer also does not do it. Sugar does it.

In terms of Matching Wine with Chilli I go for

(a) Off Dry to act as an antidote to Chilli-Bite

(b) Refreshing qualities

beer cold
naturally semi-sparkling
good mouth watering acidity
no mouth-drying tannin
no buttery oakiness
moderate alcohol

Wine for Spice: Rani Gold - The perfectly refreshing antidote to chilli-bite

See my earlier blogpost: "Matching Wine with Spicy Food"

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Best Wine with Gulab Jamun? Oloroso and Vino de Pasas

2012-01-03T16:21:00.000Z

Gulab Jamun is a typical sweet Indian dessert. Wikipedia says:

Gulab Jamun is a popular dessert in countries of the Indian Subcontinent such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

It is made of a dough consisting mainly of milk solids. Traditionally, khoya, an Indian milk product (buffalo milk), is rolled into a ball together with some flour and then deep fried.

It is then put into in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom seeds and rosewater, kewra or saffron.

These days, gulab jamun powder is also commercially available, so the dessert can be prepared easily. Gulab jamun is common at weddings.

The term gulab jamun comes from Persian, gulab, "rose water" referring to the rosewater-scented syrup, and Hindustani jamun, m., "Syzygium jambolanum" (also jāmaṇ, m., from the Hindustani language), a South Asian fruit with a similar size and shape.

Gulab jamun gets its brownish red color because of the sugar content in the milk powder or khoya

I like Gulab Jamun heated. And then I add a ball of Vanilla Ice Cream. Delicious contrast.

A variant of mine is marinading the Gulab Jamun in Oloroso for an hour or more to cut the sweetness and then microwaving the Oloroso soaked Gulab Jamun for a minute.

Marinade the Gulab Jamun in Oloroso

Then add a dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream as usual.

Serve with Vino de Pasas, literally Raisin Wine. This is like a "PX". Except the one I have illustrated is a simpler younger version made from sun dried Moscatel (rather than Pedro Ximénez) and then fermented into wine.

Add Vanilla Ice Cream and serve with Vino de Pasas

The 30 year old Oloroso and Vino de Pasas are available from me at Sticky Wines
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Can a Wine be Excellent to One but Horrible to Another?

2012-01-02T12:43:00.000Z

I was wondering the other day about the validity of wine ratings.

Can a wine be an excellent wine to me but a truly horrible wine to another person? Or indeed vice-versa?

Who is brave enough to define "horrible wines" for the rest of the population?

You see I can think of several respected wine writers that have appalling taste in Music. In my humble opinion of course.

The same can be said about taste in Art and even Food.

If we can disagree so much on what is "good music" or "horrible music" then we must be able to disagree on "good wines" and "horrible wines".

I dislike "Punk" music. Same with "Rap" music. These are not for me though I will happily accept that such music might be well-made. But I am a fan of Salsa and Opera. And I know many who dislike both Salsa and Opera.

In terms of Food, I dislike most kinds of berries. That's a bit difficult as most wine reviews include references to berries.

Can a Wine be Excellent to One but Horrible to Another?

Thinking about this perhaps the answer is that people feel brave about being honest and forthright in their tastes in Music, Food and Art.

But many, perhaps most people, feel they have to ask an expert on wine.

In a restaurant how many people will ask you to choose their food for them? Nobody.

But they will happily say:

"You are the expert. Choose the wine."

And they will proceed to hand you the wine menu.

Except (still) for Sherry.

Too many people still feel brave enough to say that they don't like Sherry. These people need to be shamed. How dare they? I blame grandmothers and their liking for Cream Sherry. [That why it has been renamed as Rich Oloroso or Sweet Oloroso]

Jussi Laakso points out that they did not have any problems in selling Sherry in Helsinki's Restaurant Nokkas.

We just decided to use style name: Manzanilla, Palo Cortado, PX etc. Instead of slightly dusted area name. Customers enjoyed the great beverage and were surprised when we told them that beverage in the glass was Sherry :)

He has a point I think. Though of course the people in DDOO Jerez etc. would not approve. And of course referring to Sherry as a "beverage" even a "great beverage" is a bit sacrilegious. [Of course Sherry is indeed a beverage but some in the wine industry refer to volume wines as "beverage wines"]

Actually I seem to be doing that already. See my recent posts

Best Wine with Caviar? Manzanilla

Best Wine With Haggis? Oloroso

So "Can a Wine be Excellent to One but Horrible to Another?".

It seems quite illogical to think we can all have the same tastes in wine and therefore a few people rating a wine at 100/100 points or 20/20 points or 7/7 points - and the whole world accepting it - is puzzling to me.

Also see

Wine ratings: 100 points? 20 points? How about AAA?

__________________________ ______________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
GrapesTALK on Facebook
ASDW

Best Wine with Caviar? Manzanilla

2012-01-01T18:28:00.000Z

"So what is the best wine with Caviar?" I wondered aloud with some Russian wine writer friends a few weeks ago.

Black Beluga Caviar

Champagne? Muscadet?

Hey Caviar is a bit salty isn't it?

And which wine is also salty?

Yes Manzanilla.

Actually Manzanilla isn't salty at all. It is the yeastiness from the flor covering that gives the "salty" taste to the wine and not the Sanlucar sea air as their legend has it. But yes the yeasty flor does provide a "salty" taste.

And in terms of "saltiness" better go for Flor de Lebrija from the hilltop and therefore cooler Bodegas Gonzalez Palacios in Lebrija.

Bone Dry Manzanilla-like 12 year old
Flor de Lebrija from StickyWines.co.uk

The cooler micro-climate in the bodega means that the flor does not break up in the hot summer months in the Seville plains such as in Jerez or in certain hot years in Sanlucar de Barrameda. Or even in sun facing parts of bodegas in Sanlucar where the summers are too hot to produce Manzanilla and so the wines become Fino.

I do love Fino as well. Nice enough and different. But Fino from Jerez, Montilla or Huelva does not the Florish tang of Manzanilla or Lebrija.

See also:

Fino and Oloroso - Not just from Jerez (Sherry)

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
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Best Wine With Haggis? Oloroso

2011-12-31T15:03:00.000Z

So what is the best wine to drink with Haggis?

A serving of haggis, neeps and tatties

Now the conventional wisdom is that Scotch Whisky is best.

Why? The simplest reason is that Scotch Whisky is, well, Scottish, so
Haggis eaters are used to Scotch.

In my earlier Blog Post " Do Whisky Lovers like Oloroso?" I wrote:

I wonder if Whisky lovers liked or could grow to like Dry Oloroso Sherry given that Scotch is matured in Oloroso casks and has similar aromas.

Maybe the 18-20% ABV of Oloroso would seem insipid against Scotch?

Maybe it could be marketed as a lighter alternative to Scotch?

Thinking about the Scotch / Oloroso connection I suggest that the best wine to drink with Haggis is therefore none other than an Oloroso.

Especially a bone dry amber Oloroso would have a whisky feel but half the alcohol at about 18%. Note that most Olorosos even "Dry" Olorosos are sweetened to various degrees. The sharp attack of the Oloroso nicely cuts into the fat of the Haggis and the aromatic butterscotch nuttiness complements the offal. The sweetening of most Olorosos takes out that sharp attack so best to avoid sweetened Olorosos. The gentle burn of the Oloroso is great on Burns Night.

Sticky Wines stocks a bone dry 30 year old Oloroso from Lebrija.

30 Year Old Bone Dry Oloroso from Lebrija
via Sticky Wines in London

Happy New Year 2012. Have an Olorosofic Hogmanay 2012
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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Should Wine be Served Cold?

2011-12-30T20:39:00.002Z

I have just seen an interesting video:

Is it Okay to Serve Cold Wine?

Serving wine too cold can deaden the flavor, argues U.K. based wine columnist [of the Wall Street Journal] Will Lyons.

But too warm wine can also be a deal-breaker, says WSJ's Lettie Teague. They discuss common mistakes with the temperature of wine.

Well I am not sure about "Common Mistakes". If you are paying for the wine it is yours. Chill it; freeze it or even microwave it. Upto you.

But a few things I have observed in terms of chilled wine:

Low temperatures depress residual sugar.
Low temperatures depress fruitiness, flavour and aromas.
Low temperatures depress bubbles in sparkling wines keeping the CO2 in solution in the wine rather than bubbling out.
Low temperatures enhance tannins.
Low temperatures depress wine faults.

Some suggest chilling a tannic red wine. I don't as the low temperature will make the wine more tannic.

I suggest warming a tannic red wine under the hot tap rather than chilling it. This softens it.

And as sparkling wines tend to be chilled, if you have a red sparkling wine and there isn't sufficient residual sugar, the chilled wine will be out of balance and be quite tannic. That is why red sparkling wines should be "Dry / Sec" rather than "Brut". [ See my post Sweetness of Wine: Sparkling Wine and The Joy of Secs 102.V2 ]

Also if you are tasting wine for the purpose of purchasing then make sure it is not too cold so that any flavour or indeed faults cannot be detected.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
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Wine for Spice on Facebook

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Salmon Paella Penang Style

2011-12-29T22:44:00.001Z

I cooked another "Paella" this evening. Valencian or even Spanish Purists will be shocked by this - but this one is Penang Style.

Ingredients

The Ingredients were:

Salmon

Spanish rice

One red onion

One Green Chilli

One Red Chilli

One Tom Yam stock cube (bought from Carrefour in Penang)

Thought of after the photograph was taken

One Lime

Black Pepper

Frying the onions and chillies

Chop the onion and chillies and fry them in a large non-stick frying pan ...

Add the rice

Add the rice to the frying onion and chillies and continue to fry ...

Add the stock

When the rice browns, add boiling water to the Tom Yam Stock Cube and add the resulting stock to the frying pan ...

Slice the Salmon

Slice the Salmon ...

The rice is half-cooked

When the rice is half cooked and most of the stock has been absorbed by the rice ....

Add the Salmon

Add the sliced salmon to the frying pan and cover and continue to cook now on a low heat ...

It is done

It should be done in 10 minutes more (or so). Add some lime juice (or lemon) and sprinkle some freshly ground black pepper over the dish ...

Add chilli sauce and soy sauce and serve with an Off Dry Rose (even in winter)

Add a bit of chilli sauce and soy sauce on the side.

Serve with an Off-Dry Rose. Yes you can drink a rosé in winter. The central heating is on isn't it?

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

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A Light Lunch in Mamertino DOC Messina Sicily

2011-12-28T00:13:00.000Z

A week ago I visited the Strada del Vino della Provincia di Messina [Wine Route of Messina in Sicily] consisting of

Mamertino DOC around Milazzo facing the Aeolian Islands on the North East Coast of Sicily,
Faro Doc on the Northern tip of the East coast overlooking the Messina Straits to Calabria. Obviously from the name close to the lighthouse protecting the straits.
Malvasia delle Lipari DOC the sweet passito wines from the Aeolian Islands.

Part of the tour included visiting the winery of Antica Tindari in the Mamertino DOC area near Milazzo.

[Beware this is one of those websites that feel that you need music while you are looking at their website. So turn down the sound]

Lunch was at the superb restaurant of Antica Tindari. They also have a few bedrooms which they let out.

It was meant to be a "light lunch" but I knew better when I counted the cutlery.

Inzolia grape also known as Ansonica

I was impressed by the wines made from Inzolia, a grape typical of Sicily. A lovely almond lemony aroma with a fruity palate. Good firm structure despite the not very high alcohol at 12.5%. I have just discovered that it is also known as Ansonica in Tuscany so now I know where I last tasted it and I have a bottle of Ansonica to taste.

Antica Tindari Imperium Mamertino DOC

Antica Tindari Imperium Mamertino DOC is a blend of Nero D'Avola, Nocera and Nerello Mascalese. Mamertino wines were supplied to Rome in Julius Caesar's time and were apparently regarded as one the finest wines. Dark ruby as you can see with softened tannins and still fruity with spicy cinnamon and cloves notes.

The single varietal Nocera I drank seemed very soft but Googling it is apparently very tannic. It is how you make it apparently and that applies to every grape. So the blend seems to soften the big red Nero D'Avola.

Pasta with pistachio

A Double Caffè Macchiato

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
I was on a 3 day buyers and journalists' mission with the return airfare from London to Catania, 3 nights accommodation in Milazzo and local transportation and all meals paid for by the Messina provincial government - Workshop del Festival dei Vini DOC e IGT della Provincia di Messina.

Other than three bottles as samples I was given one salami.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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The Ganimede Method for Wine-Making

2011-12-27T01:52:00.000Z

Ganymede pouring Zeus a libation

I have only just heard of the Metodo Ganimede for winemaking on a recent visit to Messina Province in Sicily where I visited Mimmo Paone near Milazzo.

Here are a pair of videos that describe the Ganimede Method in some detail.

In short the method involves using the force of the naturally produced carbon dioxide to gently pump over the wine to extract flavours without the violent action of paddles or similar that may extract bitter tannins. The product is a softer and more aromatic wine without harsh tannins.

The first video is by Richard Longoria who bought the tanks.

This video is produced by the manufacturers of the tanks so is effectively a marketing video and contains background muzak.

Ganimede's brochure

A wine made by the Ganimede Method

This is a wine made by the Ganimede Method by Mimmo Paone, Messina, Sicily. This wine has no added sulphites, though it does contain natural sulphites. The wine had an almost Pinot Noir feel to it. Very soft tannins and quite aromatic.

Oh and I was impressed with the striking wine coloured shoes of the wine-making team. I am not sure if the colour of the shoes has something to do with the Metodo Ganimede.

Donatella Paone's Shoes

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

I was on a 3 day buyers' and journalists' mission with the return airfare from London to Catania, 3 nights accommodation in Milazzo and local transportation and all meals paid for by the Messina provincial government - Workshop del Festival dei Vini DOC e IGT della Provincia di Messina.

Other than three bottles of wine as samples for analysis I was given one salami.

Note the Declaration of Interests

If I write about food and wine or anything and it involves writing about something where my expenses have been paid by the supplier I will make a Declaration of Interests at the foot of the post.

See my earlier post

Wine Writers should Publish a Register of Interests

_______________________________________________
Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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ASDW

Mussels Paella in a small frying pan

2011-12-26T23:36:00.003Z

Mussels Paella in a small frying pan

I cooked a quick and easy Mussels Paella in a smallish frying pan this evening.

First I chopped and fried an onion and when it was nearly done I added Valencian rice;

Meanwhile I put some saffron in a cup and added boiling water.

Added the saffron water to the rice.

Added fish stock.

Squeezed a lemon into it.

Covered with a saucepan lid.

After 10 minutes when the rice was half done and had absorbed a lot of the water and stock I added the Mussels which had been pre-cooked.

I covered again with the saucepan lid.

All done in 20 minutes.

I was quite pleased with the results.

I drink a Manzanilla-like Flor de Lebrija from my Sticky Wines with it.

Bone Dry Manzanilla-like 12 year old
Flor de Lebrija from StickyWines.co.uk

Oh don't ask me about the measurements. I don't cook with measurements.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
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Wine for Spice on Facebook

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Best Wine with Curry? Semi-Sparkling Off Dry Wine for Spice

2011-12-24T14:52:00.000Z

Well it is traditional to make a curry out of turkey leftovers on Boxing Day - that is the day after Christmas.

So what is the Best Wine to drink with a Curry?

Here are links to my earlier blog posts on the subject:

Matching Wine with Asian Food - that's brave

Matching Wine with Spicy Food

Wine for Spice is my refreshing range of wines to drink with curries and spicy food. They are the perfect antidote to chilli-bite.

Wine for Spice's naturally semi-sparkling Rani Gold
is the perfectly refreshing antidote to chilli-bite

In short, Off Dry Sparkling wine is the best bet with a curry.

Basically I go for some or all of:

1: Off Dry. A little residual sugar to work as an antidote to chilli-bite

2: Refreshing, viz.,

naturally sparkling,
beer cold temperature,
mouth-watering acidity
fresh stainless steel fermentation, i.e. no rounded oakiness
no mouth-drying tannin so no red wines
moderate but not low alcohol as alcohol adds to chilli burn.

Here's a combination I tried last night - an Argentine Torrontés and a Mutton Curry.

Argentine Torrontés and a Mutton Curry.

A Demi-Sec Champagne or Cava is also great with a curry and ticks many of my boxes. But perhaps there is too much gas that gets in the way of the food and fills the stomach.

Demi-Sec Champagne with a Curry

Hey but my views are based on off-setting the chilli heat between bites and refreshing the palate. Sort of a tsunami of pain and pleasure. For that go for my creation Wine for Spice.

To enhance the chilli heat just go for a big high alcohol low acid oak-chipped tannic red wine.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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Pannetone, Vanilla Ice-Cream and Vino de Pasas

2011-12-23T18:47:00.000Z

One of my favourite desserts is Vanilla ice-cream with Pedro Ximénez (PX) poured over it.

As a variant try a similar wine made from sun-dried grapes (Vino de Pasas or Raisin Wine) but made from the highly aromatic Moscatel grape rather than the neutral Pedro Ximénez grape. It has a fresher feel to it.

I like to toast a generous slice of Pannetone.

Pannetone

Then add a spoon or two of Vanilla Ice Cream.

Pannetone, Vanilla Ice-Cream and Vino de Pasas

And serve with a chilled glass on Moscatel Vino de Pasas.

Very simple and delicious.

See Merry PXmas

PX and Moscatel de Pasas are available in the UK from Sticky Wines
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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Travel Tip: Barcelona to Levy Hotel Tax

2011-12-20T16:45:00.001Z

Last month in "Catalonia increases subsidy to dub films in Catalan by 100%" I blogged about the doubling of the hand-outs distributed by the Catalan Government to enable Hollywood blockbusters to be dubbed into Catalan.

Now it is clear how they are going to pay for this largesse. They are going to impose a Hotel Tax on a per person per night and also raise charges on medical prescriptions.

So if you want to avoid this tax - avoid Catalonia. Oh and if you do get ill in Barcelona it will cost you more.

Catalonia is introducing a hotel tax

The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reports in "Cataluña cobrará un euro por receta farmacéutica y hasta tres por noche de hotel" that:

Catalonia will charge one Euro for a medical prescription and up to three Euros per hotel night.

Tourists travelling to Catalonia will have to pay the new fee, which will tax every night spent in the region per person in hotels, apartments and even cruises [presumably whilst docked in Barcelona]. The tax will be between one and three Euros, depending on the category of the establishment.

The rate will be per person and in the case of five-star hotels and cruises, is to be three Euros per person per night,

In four-star hotels it will be two Euros and one Euro in other establishments. All the charges will be per person per night.

The new Hotel Tax will be capped at a maximum of ten nights and if this is exceeded there will be no further Hotel Tax.

The [Catalan] Government hopes to raise 100 million via this Hotel Tax, as clear from the Government budget for 2012, which on Tuesday was tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell.

These new fees are on top of the public transport fare increase announced yesterday with an increase of 12% in the T-10 transport pass, the transport most used by the Catalans.

Whilst the six Euro per night charge for a couple in a 5 star hotel might not seem much, it is probably just a start and tourists will be seen as a cash cow to pay for local government wasteful spending - such as dubbing Hollywood films into Catalan.

They should be encouraging exports and incoming tourists and not taxing them.

Click here for more Travel Tips
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

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In Food and Wine, Yin and More Yin or Yin and Yang

2011-12-19T13:26:00.002Z

There was an interesting paper published last week in Nature, "Flavor network and the principles of food pairing".

The paper suggested that Western cuisine tends to be dominated by ingredient combinations where flavour compounds are similar.

On the other hand East Asian cuisine tends to the opposite. They have ingredient combinations where flavour compounds are dissimilar.

The cultural diversity of culinary practice, as illustrated by the variety of regional cuisines, raises the question of whether there are any general patterns that determine the ingredient combinations used in food today or principles that transcend individual tastes and recipes.

We introduce a flavor network that captures the flavor compounds shared by culinary ingredients.

Western cuisines show a tendency to use ingredient pairs that share many flavor compounds, supporting the so-called food pairing hypothesis.

By contrast, East Asian cuisines tend to avoid compound sharing ingredients. Given the increasing availability of information on food preparation, our data-driven investigation opens new avenues towards a systematic understanding of culinary practice.

Full article

I am not sure whether there is really a myriad of flavours in Asian cuisine and just a few in Western cuisine.

One can argue and probably disagree as to whether most European food is really devoid of contrasts. Just think of Mustard with roast beef or even sugar in tea and coffee.

And Japanese dishes can sometimes be quite plain devoid of all flavourings.

And remember that Chillies only arrived in Asia via the Portuguese who brought them over from America.

And pasta and risotto came to Italy and then Europe from Asia via Marco Polo. And Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow, not in Delhi.

So food continually evolves with contributions from across borders.

Just looking at the basis of the research it seems that this is about having similar things in a dish. Or sea of contrasts.

So Yin and more Yin or Yin. Or a contrasting Yin and Yang.

It is the same in Food and Wine Matching. Similarity or opposites.

Or indeed in clothing. Do you put on your favourite shirt with your favourite trousers? Or find a contrasting pair. But please do not wear a striped tie with striped shirts. Or just wear black like Steve Jobs did?

Or indeed in a relationship, be it personal or business. In a marriage similarities work but so often contrasts work. Similar personalities and interests work in the short term but contrasts allow both parties to grow and experience other interests and cultures.

In business, a management team that all think the same and look alike, be it dark blue suits or in polo shirts and chinos, is a sure recipe for disaster. It is important for a management team to have contrasting but complementary skills to spot flaws in thinking and move ahead and capture new ideas.

And a football team packed with attacking forwards and a weak defence seldom proves to be successful.

In matching wine with spicy food at the outset you have to decide if you are looking for similarities or contrasts. Yin and more Yin or Yin. Or Yin and Yang.

I go for a refreshing contrast that offsets the chilli heat.

See my earlier posts

Matching Wine with Asian Food - that's brave

Matching Wine with Spicy Food

Wine for Spice is my refreshing range of wines to drink with spicy food.

Wine for Spice is refreshing antidote to chilli-bite

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
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Wine for Spice on Facebook

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ASDW

Maury and Chocolate for a Longer Life

2011-12-11T01:27:00.000Z

Apparently the secret to a long life is nothing more complicated than a diet of Chocolate and Red Wine.

That is according to The Australian Herald Sun report "107-year-old Edith Bayne says red wine and chocolate keep her living":

Edith Bayne says red wine and chocolate keep her living

.. credits red wine and chocolate for keeping her with us since 1904.

Fresh air, sunlight and a good cup of tea also aid longevity, she says.

Born in Christchurch, [not sure whether that is New Zealand or Dorset or indeed another one] Mrs Bayne moved to Australia in the 1930s with late husband Oscar.

A talented artist, she drew cartoons for various journals in the 1940s and was an art teacher at Melbourne High School.

"I enjoy red wine, and I eat chocolate," said Mrs Bayne, adding wine was used by many as a life booster.

"It's no secret - it's common."

Ann Turnbull, head of Lynden Aged Care in Camberwell, where Mrs Bayne has lived since 2009, said the centenarian was an inspiration.
"If red wine and chocolate is the secret to a long life, there's hope for me," she said.

Full Article

Well I was interviewed on Wednesday by a Finnish TV crew working for the state broadcasting channel YLE and they gave me a bar of Finnish chocolate that they were proud of.

And I have some left overs of delicious red Grenache based Maury used for sampling from last weekend's Wokingham Wine Festival.

So I am going to have some Finnish Chocolate and French Maury for a good life.

Chocolate and Red Sweet Wine

The Maury red sweet wine is an excellent match for the dark chocolate. The wine has a touch of creaminess and gentle tannins. The acidity in the wine helps to cut through the bitter-sweet chocolate.

Have a Very Maury Christmas

Oh I have only 2 bottles of the Maury left but have a number of other sweet red wines in stock:

Farina Val de Reyes Tinto Dulce NV Toro Spain, 50 cl RRP £16.95 Offer £15 *

Smooth, mellow sweet red with a wonderful balance between the alcohol, body and fruit. Full-bodied, ripe and delicious with spicy red and black fruits galore

Etim Verema Tardana Negre NV Montsant Spain 50 cl RRP £10.95 - Offer £9 * [Only One Bottle Left]

Ruby red colour with a hint of amber. Fruit jam aromas with notes of dried figs, cocoa too. The palate is fresh and deliciously sweet with soft tannins supporting plum pudding, spice, blackberry and chocolate flavours

Fonseca, 10 Year Old Tawny NV Port, Portugal, 50 cl RRP £18.95 Offer £16 *

Hints of raisins along with silky, dried red berries and black-currant flavours and aromas. Balanced by fresh, clean acidic notes.

Recioto della Valpolicella Classico Nicolis 2004 Veneto Italy, 50 cl RRP £24.95 Offer £22 *

This sweet red is a great alternative to Port and although expensive is worth it. This is the sweet variant of Amarone. Complex aromas of coffee, marzipan and red berry. Sweet, but not overtly so, with fresh acidity, ripe tannins.

Els Pyreneus Maury Grenache NV Roussillon, France, 50 cl RRP £12.95 Offer £10 * [Only Two Bottles Left]

Deep purple hue and intense fresh fruit aromas. Beautifully balanced on the palate blending cassis and strawberries with chocolate in a luxuriously rich finish

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
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Fino and Oloroso - Not just from Jerez (Sherry)

2011-12-10T01:04:00.000Z

"If penicillin can cure those that are ill, Spanish sherry can bring the dead back to life." Sir Alexander Fleming

Well unfortunately I am a far too regular visitor to St Mary's Hospital in London's Paddington. I go there to get my prostate checked. It may be coincidence but a regular medicinal intake of Sherry seems to have lowered my Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) over the last 3 years since I was first diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. There is now no sign of the cancer as at mu last biopsy. [Oh this isn't scientific medical advice. It could be the regular curry I eat that is doing it. But if you are a male over 50 get your PSA measured annually.

Now I am great Sherry lover and fond of the whole range from Finos and Manzanillas to Olorosos and Pedro Ximénez.

But if you are a Fino, fan do explore beyond the confines of DDOO JEREZ-XERES-SHERRY, Manzanilla de Sanlucar y Vinagre de Jerez - the group of three Denominaciones de Origen in the Jerez area.

Three Finos from Montilla - made from Pedro Ximenez and not Palomina as in Jerez

One of the newest demarcated areas in Spain is Lebrija. Lebrija is part of the vine growing area for Sherry and has traditionally been used to produce grapes for both Jerez and Manzanilla. But in 2009 it was given its own demarcation "Vinos de Calidad de Lebrija".

Here is my earlier blogpost at the time "Flor de Lebrija and Vinos de Calidad de Lebrija"

30 Year Bone Dry Oloroso from Lebrija via Sticky Wines in London

And then there are wines from DO Montilla-Moriles near Cordoba famous particularly for Pedro Ximénez (PX).

In fact it may be a surprise to hear that there is a negligible amount of Pedro Ximénez grapes grown in the Jerez / Sherry area. Most of the Pedro Ximénez labelled as such in Jerez / Sherry actually originates from Montilla-Moriles.

A 40 year PX dating back to 1830 via Sticky Wines in London

DO Montilla-Moriles produces the full range of "fortified" wines but these wines are not in fact fortified but are naturally strong in alcohol.

And still in Andalucia there is DO Condado de Huelva to the West of Seville towards Portugal.

This DO in addition to Finos, Olorosos etc. is famous for its Orange Wine locally known as Vino de Naranja.

DO Vino Naranja del Condado de Huelva, Spain.
Orange wines can be sourced in England from Sticky Wines

But whilst both Lebrija and Jerez / Manzanilla are wines based on the Palomino grape, the "generoso" or generous wines of Montilla-Moriles and Huelva are based on the Pedro Ximénez and Zalema grapes respectively.

All three white grapes are fairly neutral and personally I am not overawed by the still wines made from all of them. They come into their own, however, when they are put through the system of soleras and criaderas.

My Sticky Wines specialises in sweet and fortified wines.
________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
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Sparkling wine producers should publish Lot Numbers versus Labelling Dates and Bottling Dates

2011-12-09T12:09:00.000Z

In Champagne and Sparkling Wine production, Disgorgement is the process during which the dead yeast sediments are frozen and expelled and replaced with the dosage or expedition liquor and then corked and labelled.

Wikipedia says on Disgorging

The lees removal process is called disgorging (dégorgement in French), a skilled manual process where the crown cap and lees are removed without losing much of the liquid, and a varying amount of sugar added.

Before the invention of this process by Madame Clicquot in 1816, Champagne was cloudy; this style is seen occasionally today, under the label méthode ancestrale.

Modern automated disgorgement is done by freezing a small amount of the liquid in the neck and removing this plug of ice containing the lees.

Over the years there have been several voices calling for Champagne producers to include the Date of Disgorgement on the wine labels.

See:

Just say yes to disgorgement dates

Are you for Champagne disgorgement dates? We are!

Disgorgement Dates

This is important because it is useful to know how long the wine has been maturing in the bottle after disgorgement. And if it is a vintage wine how long the wine was matured in the bottle on the lees prior to the removal of the lees. We already know the date of the Vintage from the front label.

But the disgorgement date for a Non Vintage Wine is only part of the story. We will still not know the bottling date.

Now all wines already include Lot numbers. This is legally compulsory for the purposes of tracing.

So I suggest that:

All Wineries, especially sparkling wine producers, should publish on their websites tables showing Lot Numbers versus Labelling Dates and Bottling Dates.

Lot Numbers are compulsory on wine labels

The information is all there already at the winery. No need to just start putting on disgorgement dates from now onwards. Why not just publish the information available on their websites that are so often content poor but very flashy and expensively designed by consultants.

Here is a video on disgorgement

________________________________________________

Warren EDWARDES

Hyde Park Wines
Sticky Wines and Wine for Spice and Veg Wines
Wine for Spice on Facebook

GrapesTALK
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