They call economics the dismal science and they are right; it is dismal. Nothing could be more far removed from the enjoyment of wine than economics. Nonetheless, given the huge amounts of money changing hands over wine one cannot escape economics when studying or trying to understand wine.
The Phuket lifestyle places great emphasis on quality and the out of doors. From dining to relaxing it seems we are always either outside or, at the very least, the doors and windows are always open. When it comes to dining an island, a lifestyle like ours presents some interesting challenges for wine lovers. Here, then, are my tips for knowing which wines to choose to get the most out of our outdoor pleasure.
I was at a restaurant in Chiang Rai recently when I came across the menu item, ‘Fish and Ships.’ Everyone at the table with me had a good laugh at this and all the other silly English errors we discovered on the menu. And I found myself recalling all the ridiculous wine descriptions I have come across in Asia over the years at various restaurants large and small, famous and not so famous.
What is the difference between Muscadelle and Muscadet grapes?
Muscadelle is a lackluster white wine grape commonly grown in the decidedly low rent Bordeaux district Entre-Deux-Mers and in the not so stylish unclassified growing regions of Eastern Europe. Basically, the most generous one can be in describing wines made from this grape is to say they are ‘vinous,’ which is to say that they possess the characteristics of wine. Put another way, the wine is bland. Muscadelle was in the past mistaken for a grape called Tokay in Australia, where it is used to make fortified dessert wines. Tokay in turn is a misnomer for Pinot Gris in Alsace. In California Muscadelle in coastal Sonoma County was for decades mistakenly thought to be Melon, which is one of the approved grape varieties of?Muscadet.
Wine is the oldest processed food and the most natural. Take grapes, squeeze, add yeast to the juice and you’ll get wine. Wine tastes good, its nutritious and healthful in moderation, it even looks beautiful in a glass. But sometimes things can go wrong and even a great wine can become flawed. Here’s my list of helpful tips to avoid buying wines with issues.
Winemaking is usually a straightforward endeavor. You take grapes, squeeze them to get the juice out, then add yeast and wait. Rosé wine is probably the most elemental example; take some red grapes and drain away the juice from the colored skins before the juice becomes too darkly pigmented, then ferment and you have made a rosé wine.
After a particularly grueling work day that saw a truck from our Bangkok warehouse arriving at 6 a.m. instead of 2 p.m., as scheduled, and two hotels simultaneously ordering the wrong wine and each expecting a second tip back with the right wine within 30 minutes of closing time, the little sign along the trail that read, ‘This way go to the beach’ seemed like divine inspiration. The idea of slipping away for a few hours with a cold bottle of Riesling, getting a beach massage and taking a dip in the Andaman Sea when I should be returning my e-mails was an irresistible temptation. Read more »
Everyone seems to have their personal worst commercial airline experience. I have more than a few; many of them hair raising. I once was aboard a flight to Guatemala City that was forced down by the cannon fire of British fighter jets because it strayed into British Honduran airspace. I have watched as the door fell off my plane somewhere over the jungles of Costa Rica and I once helped put out a fire aboard a Bangkok bound plane moments before departure. I have spent 12 hours out of Auckland sandwiched between two All Blacks rugby players on a full flight because they got the window and Isle seats, and I didn’t. I have learned the hard way not to order the vegetarian meals on Varig and that Alitalia thinks non smoking means the left side of the airplane. I have been subjected to the in-flight entertainment of mothers breast feeding their infants in the isles of budget carrier Southwest, and I have deplaned in New York only to discover that my dog went on to Frankfurt. And the way some people snore like mutant amphibians while their children prance about the isles like feral goats is enough to create a spiritual bond with Islamists who want to blow up aircraft in mid air simply because their fellow passengers are infidels.
If the smash hit movie of a few years ago, Sideways, did much to popularize Pinot Noir, it also fairly demonized Merlot. What prompted the fictional Sideways character Miles and his many real life minions in the wine world of today to loathe Merlot so resolutely? The story begins back in the early 1980s with the king of red wine, Cabernet Sauvignon.
There is more life in the eyes of a squirrel nailed to a plaque by a taxidermist than in the eyes of someone who has just waded through 800 words on the subject of chemistry but something happened at Sunday Brunch today that caused me decide to write about the subject, anyway.
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