Links of possible interest

While catching up on my reading and email from vacation, I'll likely be doing lots of linking to other stories rather than the deeply intellectual thought-provoking essays you've come to expect from Alcademics.com. So it goes. I just discovered that the Wall Street Journal has a nice Food and Drink section page. On it right now, Eric Felten discusses the new Kingsley Amis compendium Everyday Drinking. I have the book at home but haven't had time to get into it. It's hilarious and deserves a thorough read. They also have a story on tips for wine tasting rooms, which is a follow up to tips for visitors to those rooms, and a very short review of some organic spirits. On other sites, Chow.com has a story on the history and return of punch. They mention that at Hawksmoor in London they serve punch at tables instead of bottle service. I think this sounds like a great idea, especially for all the new high-end cocktail bars. And the big shiny silver punch bowls would look better on a table in these places than a stupid light-up ice bucket for vodka.

Light drinks

New York magazine mentions wine bar Terroir and Marshall Altier's non-hard-alcohol cocktails. (I just met Marshall last week in SF. I think he likes it.)

His concoctions incorporate port, sherry, vermouth, whipped egg white, and bracingly smoky Lapsang Souchong tea. They even display a touch of molecular mixology in the La Terra Ferma’s Nebbiolo-porcini spuma—otherwise known as foam.

Out here, of course, the big opening this week was Uva Enoteca, where Camber Lay (Range, Frisson, Laiola, Epic) did the drink list with the same restrictions. Here are some of the cocktails:

MIELE FRIZZANTE Carpano antique, orange, peach bitters & heidrum sage blossom mead EVVIVA Tahitian green tea infused vya dry vermouth, lemon bitters, pinot bianco & lemon IN BOCCA AL LUPO Lillet blanc, chilies, basil, prosecco & coconut salt ULTRAS Birra bionda, ginger beer, lime, lemongrass & terragon

Lookin' good.

Reading material

- The LA Times story reporting on the closing of some of SF's old-time watering holes was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun. I'm so glad word on the street is we don't have any good old bars left. That's not entirely true, of course. Katy St. Clair, who was quoted in the LA Times story, writes about them in the SF Weekly all the time. - Eric Felten in the Wall Street Journal taste tests mass-market bourbons and finds Evan Williams his favorite. As usual, he has some great cultural anecdotes in the story as well. - The NYTimes has a story on a $10,000 home still that efficiently converts sugar into ethanol. Unfortunately, it's for car fuel. - Jeff Mortgenthaler (Morty) gives a simple recipe for ginger beer. Marleigh at Sloshed! reviews some commercial brands without high-fructose corn syrup. - Jamie Boudreau describes his individual component method for making any type of bitters. And I thought I was crafty for using my Chia herb garden to make tinctures. - Alder at Vinography has the complete list of wine blogs- in several languages! - Esquire's molecular Whiskyburger's recipe is now online.

More Booze News

I wrote this up last weekend (that's my secret to continual posting when I should be off writing paying stories) so I apologize if my news is not-so-fresh. -The Harbor Beach Marriott in Fort Lauderdale will send a "cocktail concierge" (aka "bartender") to your room to muddle your drinks by your bed. -Hillary Clinton throws back a shot of whisky. The brand? Crown Royal. -It's not on the market yet, but someone designed a wine bottle that includes fold-out cups on the label. That'll make your picnic basket lighter. [Complex] -A discount for newly-poor Americans at Harry's Bar in Venice. [The Liquid Muse] -Hansen's Natural Soda now has natural sugar (anyone else feel duped?) -Robert Simonson has a round-up of three new cocktail bars that have opened in Brooklyn. Four years later, I may finally visit friends who've moved there. - Too lazy to make a real mint julep? The people of Havana Mojito-flavored soda say Just Add Bourbon. I say Just No. -Cocktail shaker, or deadly weapon? [Liquor Snob]

Vodka is the new wine

I've been having a great time reading Lawrence Osbourne's The Accidental Connoisseur, a book about the wine world. It's been stimulating some thoughts in my small brain on spirits industry innovation and marketing based on what happened in the wine world. Around page 84, he's talking with winemaker Bill Cadman, who says:

"The sick thing is," he said, "that people want to spend more money. It makes them feel reassured."

The point he was making is that the price is the best indicator of quality to most people. (Heck, I still buy wine on price, lacking any real knowledge of it, but you know, the cheap price.) Thus, if you want your brand to stand as the highest-quality product in a crowded market, you need to charge the most. "Well, duh!" I said to myself on the elliptical trainer at the gym where I do all of my best reading. It was more of a "Duh me" than a "No duh." Absolut vodka set a high price point early on and was the standard of high-quality vodka until other brands caught up on price. Then Grey Goose took the next big leap in price and that's how people "knew" it was the best. And now we have a slew of vodkas priced at over 60 bucks for 750 ml, so those are now the best. I have in the recent past blamed the marketing departments for inflated vodka and other spirits prices, and would now like to issue a partial apology. It's consumers' fault too for needing to be told what is best. And it's also the many spirit tasting competitions' fault for telling us a new batch of spirits are the best each year, making the terms "best tasting" and "award-winning" nearly useless. Anyway, just some thoughts.

San Francisco wine events

Courtney at Hip Tastes has scheduled a slew of new wine events in the days and evenings, with themes like "blind tasting boot camp," "salty and sweet," and "Austrian odyssey." Check 'em out.

A different kind of grog

Eco-friendly French to ship their wine under sail 60,000 bottles on a 19th-century barque from Bordeaux to Dublin is just the start

Interesting tactic, and a great PR move. Coincidentally, I'm reading Scotch on the Rocks, a book about a ship full of scotch that crashed off the coast of a small Scottish island and lead to looting and police chasing after looters and then a movie about it all. Let's hope the wine suffers not the same fate.

Whine Snob

Alder at Vinography has a fun list of wine marketing techniques that need to stop. It includes Green Wines and Critter Wines, and:

Wine Brands for the Millennials Ditto on the insult, folks. You're not going to convert new wine drinkers by pandering to them and repackaging wine as some hip new beverage. The much coveted Millennial generation spends more money on eating out than any other generation before, and we're not talking about fast food. This generation may have some of the most refined palates of any American consumer, and what they're going to care about is how your wine tastes. Not how it's packaged. So just go make great wine, and then think about how to get the story of your wine out in ways that Millennials can easily find it. Your winery does have a Facebook page, right?

Ha! You know it would be fun if booze brands all had Facebook pages, and Lillet could be friends with gin and vodka, but hit the "ignore" button for other vermouths.

Screwy math

This story says that screw tops release four times as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as corks. This is mainly because corks come from trees that suck up carbon dioxide, not because the aluminum is so much more labor intensive. While I think the whole cork-versus-screwtop debate is silly (science versus romance), I don't mind seeing battles reduced to their impact on the environment.

Wine's carbon footprint

Neat article. I'm sure it's the same for beer and spirits, but at least you don't (often) drink a whole bottle of vodka in a night.

Frankenwine

The Economist has a nice article on genetically modified wine.

They are creating what the producers want (disease-resistant grapevines) rather than making tweaks that also appeal to consumers.

What sort of traits might consumers want, you ask? More reliable flavours for one thing. No longer need you doubt whether a wine truly does possess flavours of exotic coffee, chocolate, Asian spice, roast duck and blackberry and prune liqueur. Genes from those very animals and plants could be spliced straight into the grape's genome. Forget hours spent swilling, swirling, sniffing, gurgling and spitting—it will all be there in black and white, in the sequence data.

Check it out here.

Journey

In my Bay Guardian story that came out today I made reference to Gestalt Haus, the beer bar where they "put in a double-decker bike rack that lures fixie-riding Mission hipsters like a free Journey concert." Now that it's cool to sing along to Journey again the kids just can't stop believing. In a bit a great timing, I just got this press release tonight:

Healdsburg, CALIF. December 18, 2007 — Legendary rock band, Journey, and De La Montanya Winery have come together for the second year in a row to produce a limited edition wine. The De La Montanya family and the band Journey have elected to donate all proceeds to the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish foundation.

They're promoting wine for charity to their fellow Boomers but if Journey wanted to make more cash for kids they'd could just sell a couple songs to Schlitz.

ChocoCaberYoga

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Raise a Glass to Yoga Class A sense of relaxation, the loss of calories and increased flexibility are some of the benefits that come with yoga practice, but the just-opened Cocoon Urban Day Spa and Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant have teamed up with some rewards that are a bit more tangible. On Dec. 20, from 7 to 9 p.m., they'll be running their "Yoga, Wine, Chocolate and Cheese" workshop. (So much for that loss of calories.) It begins with a 90-minute yoga flow class lead by the spa's yoga coordinator Danielle Marie Giovanello and attended by Local's sommelier Mark Bright, followed by a session of decadent gluttony, or as they put it, "delve deep into your visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory and olfactory senses." Either way, it's a tasting of two kinds of wine plus organic cheese and chocolate pairings after class. $95. 330 First St. (at Folsom), San Francisco; (415) 777-0100.

Roshambo!

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

While most wineries sponsor genteel sports like croquet and polo, Roshambo stages a battle of fists. At high noon this Saturday, the fifth annual RockPaperScissors Championship gets under way. Competitors, who must register in advance ($20 at roshambowinery.com), come dressed for battle in opponent-concentration-breaking costumes like blue wigs and wrestling gear. The winner of the event takes home $2,500, which buys a lot of wine and better outfits in which to defend the title in 2008. Tickets for spectators (spectating costumes also encouraged) go for $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

Noon-6 p.m., Flamingo Hotel, 2777 Fourth St., Santa Rosa; (707) 431-2051

Hip Tastes Review

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Is that a sommelier in your pocket?

This Thursday is the release of local "personal sommelier" and wine-tasting party host Courtney Cochran's first book, "Hip Tastes: The Fresh Guide to Wine" (Viking Studio, $18.95). The surprisingly practical wine tutorial for newbies and reference for shoppers is broken into memorable one-point paragraphs. (Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been "Wine: The Short Answers.")

Mixed in with the overview are useful solutions to modern dilemmas like what to drink when all the wine is lousy at the business reception (white, with a couple ice cubes), what to pair with Mexican food (depends on whether you're getting the carnitas), and how to shop for it online (try not to order anything in the peak of summer).

She keeps the endless lists of beginner-befuddling producers, regions, and French vocabulary out of the main text (so you can focus on the whys rather than the whats) and includes her recommendations instead in the Appendix, along with the pronunciation guide we may not admit we really want.

The website for the book is here.

Snob versus Snob

Here's a great idea: Sam's Wine & Spirits in Chicago is sponsoring an "Ultimate Wine IQ Challenge" to see which consumer knows the most about wine. The winner of the multi-month contest earns a $1,000 shopping spree at the store. I would love to see the final contest, and I would especially love to see it get really, really nasty. Wait a minute, has anybody done a wine IQ challenge on the Food Network, or a wine snob reality show, or a show where people have to harvest, produce, and blend their own wine with the winner getting their name on the label? Watching wine snobs pitted against each other would probably be the thing that finally inspires me to get cable.

Chuckie's Here

A fun story in Business 2.0 about Bronco wines' (Two-Buck Chuck) Fred Franzia.

Wine Month vs. Bourbon Month

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

It's going to be a wet September this year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared it California Wine Month, while the U.S. Senate calls it National Bourbon Heritage Month. The Senate may have been too busy with other matters to notice that specifying bourbon instead of American whiskey fails to recognize Jack Daniel's or even the rye whiskey made by George Washington at Mount Vernon. On the other hand, that's less liquor you'd be obligated to drink out of Californian/American pride. As a compromise between the competing beverage agendas, you may wish to use September to partake in some local wine events (californiawinemonth.com) while making plans for a trip on the American Whiskey Trail (americanwhiskeytrail.com) for a vacation - perhaps around President's Day.

Does this sex toy go with red or white?

Decanter.com reports on wine and sex toy parties thrown by sex toy shop Babeland. This is such a good idea I'm a bit disappointed it didn't originate in San Francisco. We have at least two wine bars in every neighborhood (even the ghettos), unionized strippers, and shame-free sex toy stores in boutique shopping districts. Kudos to Babeland for smart thinking. Here's an idea: Someone should open a sex toy shop/wine tasting bar in the wine country. That way all those bachelorette wine tasting limo tours could kill two birds with one stone. I have a million of these great ideas a day. I'd be dangerous if I had ambition...

Wine and Gin?

Night Harvest wines recently hired H. Joseph Ehrmann of San Francisco's Elixir to invent five wine-based cocktails. He'll have one on the menu each season in the bar, but last night they were all available for tasting. And when booze news breaks, Camper English is there to mop up the spill and drink from the bucket. I went to Elixir and sampled the selection. Though wine cocktails are beginning to be popular, usually the wine is used in small amounts in place of vermouth or as an agent to smooth out the burn of high-alcohol/acidy citrus drinks. The drinks H invented are all wine-forward in volume and taste, and are some of the first non-champagne cocktails I've tried that are designed to highlight the wine. The Stargazer is made with chardonnay and dark rum, the Yuletide Moon with merlot and bourbon, the Sunset on Dunnigan with Sauvignon Blanc and gin, The Red White and Night with cabernet sauvignon and vodka, and the Vinter's Nightcap with shiraz and coffee and cherry liqueurs. Don't they all sound terrible? It turns out they're not. You can find some of the recipes here. (Photo copyright Night Harvest .)

Sick Day Sommelier

Career fantasy vacations are growing in popularity, with people signing on to be interns as chocolatiers, fashion designers, brewmasters, and other dream jobs. Now the Fifth Floor Restaurant and Hotel Palomar offers a Weekend Sommelier package. For $250 guests work with Fifth Floor wine director (and excellent teacher- I've taken one of her "Wines on Wine" classes) Emily Wines, visiting the wine cellar, sampling the night’s dinner with the staff to develop the daily wine specials, serving wine alongside Wines during the dinner course, and of course, engaging in a couple of tasting sessions throughout the day. And you don’t need to be from out of town or stay at the Palomar to do it- the Weekend Sommelier program is open to the public, and you can complete the program on a weekday if you want. That way, locals can enroll in the program as a Sick-Day Sommelier. They don't have any information about the program on the Fifth Floor website, but you can call (415) 348-1555 for the goods.

Wine vs. Beer

Great story on Slate.com today about the dominance of wine over beer in America. Must of it the author attributes to an easier and less class-based language about wine, along with the idyllic pastoral image of wine as opposed to the industrial image and mass-production of beer. He doesn't mention, and I don't have the numbers to back this up but pretty sure I've seen them, that the sales of microbrews are way up while the overall sales of beer are flat. He does point to an example of Bistro 8, an upscale beer produced by Budweiser that was a total flop- and implies that quality beer just doesn't sell to the American public. These two things seem contradictory. I think people just don't believe in quality beer from Budweiser and maybe the company should not have branded it as such. Maybe part of the problem isn't that beer is industrial and wine is agricultural, but that when you think of wine, all the brands seem small- even Gallo and Two-Buck Chuck. Beer, on the other hand, seems nearly monolithic: Your choices are Bud or Miller, a cheap variation thereof (Milwaukee's Best, Genesee Cream Ale), or a microbrew at twice the price. In comparison to beer, all wine seems snooty and hand-made and that's what's selling. Maybe beer companies, many of which own a lot of smaller brands, should put their marketing push towards those smaller brands and brews and the overall industry would benefit from connoisseurship of the consumers like wine. Because when it comes time to grab a 12-pack for the tailgate party, you're still going to buy Bud.

Wine Crime

There's a cool wine crime story in today's SF Chronicle:

Many in Sausalito still can't believe who is at the center of the tale -- a man so woven into the civic fabric that he called himself "Joe Sausalito" in his slice-of-Marin-life newspaper column. He was a gregarious city commissioner with influential friends, and an oenophile who belonged to the local wine society -- that is, until the society's 1959 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vanished.

Police say Mark Anderson abused the trust he built, starting a wine storage firm for collectors and then selling 8,000 bottles out the back door to fund a lavish lifestyle. Facing embezzlement charges, police say, Anderson kept right on selling -- then really fouled things up when he tried to cover his tracks.

Federal prosecutors recently accused Anderson of setting an October 2005 fire at a warehouse in Vallejo where he rented space for the wine. The flames spread through the building, consuming 6 million bottles owned by 92 Napa Valley wineries and 43 collectors. Their value: $250 million.

Read the story here.

Non-Threatening Chatter

Are you a gay or just want to surf the internet like one? Then you should really join my groups on the website GLEE.com. It's a social networking site that's an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else. I'm working with them to bring more people to the site and am in charge of the Cocktail Chatter and Wine, Beer, and Sake groups. So go sign up and say howdy (it's free, of course) and then not only will I look better to the boss-man, I won't be having conversations with myself on the bulletin boards anymore. I hate to be (typing about) drinking alone.

Not that I'd drink it, but

CHOW.com has an article about how nonalcoholic beer and wine are made. Read it here.

How are nonalcoholic beer and wine made?

Put simply, you make alcoholic beer or wine, and then remove the alcohol. You do this by distilling the beverage, as if you were going to make liquor. But rather than save the booze and throw out the rest, you throw out the booze.

Warm and fuzzy wine

Critterwines.com just launched. It's a website that makes judging a wine by the label extra-easy. You select the critter you like, and it tells you the brands of wine that have pictures of the critter on the label, from antelopes to zebras. The world needed this!

Woot! Tacky device for gadget drunks

Woot.com's special of the day (Tuesday) is a pair of gadgets (Brew Master and Wine Master) for ten bucks that give you information and reviews of wine and beer. So ghetto. I so bought a set.

Whining and Dining

So far there are only two of them, but I love these Whining and Dining videos. Brenda and Brenda (Cintra Wilson and Nancy Balbrier) sample wine and cheeses, then compare them to celebrities. Note: the audio on the second one is not safe for work.

Get Drunk to Support Gay Marriage

O'Brien Cellars are donating 20% of their profits on wine sales until the end of 2006 to Equality California, an organization in support of gay marriage in the state. Now you can give the gift that says, "I want to subvert the will of the ignorant voting populace of California." link via Towleroad

Top Wines

In case you don't get the Sunday Chronicle, they've released their annual Top 100 Wines list.