Wine News: wine and sex, Canada, iPhone, Riesling, Austrian red wine
Welcome to a new category of Wine Rambling: Wine News. Wine News is not really news in the sense that it brings you all the most important events and news from the day, it is much rather a quite random summary of bits of news, blog posts and other randomia I come across. The useful, the interesting, the weird. So let's jump right into it...
Canada seems to have a minority complex with regards to wine. Or why else would you think that the country would have to turn to a men's web portal to demonstrate it does good wine? Canada.com featured an AskMen.com article on the top 7 emerging wine regions, Canada being no. 5. This means that Canadians take pride in having beaten the English (#7) and Brazilians (#6), but being beaten by the Greeks, Romanians, Ukrainians and Swiss (#1)! For a German with Alemannic roots such as me being beaten by the Swiss is like the worst possible nightmare. Why the Canadians would be proud of this, I don't know. It is true, however, that Canadian ice wine does get more interest these days.
More interesting, perhaps, than to dwell on how much better Swiss wine is compared to Canadian might be to have another look at the wine section of AskMen.com. For some of you this may be because of the barely covered cleavage that Eva Mendes shows off next to the lovely wine pictures. The Wine Rambler, however, only cares for wine news tonight.
AskMen.com do really love their lists. There is, for instance, a list of 5 wines you should know. Why care about wine at all? For AskMen, it is all about the chicks, as I suspected yesterday when dealing with the issue of why Riesling gets you all the girls. But in the words of AskMen.com:
Being a man who understands and appreciates wine signifies to others [Wine Rambler: chicks] a degree of sophistication [Wine Rambler: that makes chicks go all weak in their knees] not found with any other alcoholic drink. For any man [Wine Rambler: who wants chicks], knowing of a few good bottles of wine is good, but not good enough; a man [Wine Rambler: who wants chicks] should be familiar with wine-making regions of the world, the different grape varietals and vintages, and the factors that separate a good bottle from a great one and so much more.
So what are the five wines then that will get you all the girls? Kanye West will be disappointed, as Riesling is not on the list. Apparently, the cool grape varietals are: Cabernet Sauvignon (rather obvious, almost boring choice), Shiraz, Gewurztraminer
If you’ve ever tasted had and enjoyed Riesling, you’ll be swept away by your new mistress -- Gewurztraminer.
(a more unusual and hence interesting choice), Chardonnay (you will surely impress every girl if you have heard of this unusual grape!) and, the wonderful example of a really cool wine: Merlot. I reckon that latter choice will not work that well with girls who liked Sideways...
AskMen.com do also feature other lists, such as Number 10 wine regions you need to know, starting with Baden, 'unique among the German product as they are recognized for their strong flavor and low acidity', which is an appropriate choice to compare to 'Bordeaux, France' (the winner for 'high quality and orgasmic flavors') and 'Southeastern Australia'. Still, I find it hard to find this of any use. But perhaps this is because of Eva Mendes cleavage competing for attention with the letters on every single page. So best to move on to the Top 10 Political Sex Scandals.
Moving back to wine though. The recipe site AllRecipies has made a shocking yet not un-welcome discovery: Riesling: The World's Most Underrated Wine -
Good Riesling can range from bone dry to almost honey sweet, and all can be quite wonderful.
Who am I to disagree? Especially as the author goes on to say:
Unlike Chardonnay, America's most popular white wine, most Riesling lies lightly on the palate and is not tiring as a cocktail wine. It works with a wider range of food because of its sharper acidity. [...] Riesling is made in many countries, but the great Rieslings are made in Germany.
A man to warm my nationalist heart!
For all you nerds out there, the PalatePress reviews the top 5 iPhone wine applications. This also made me learn a new acronym: POP, which stands for 'point of purchase' - i.e, when you stand in front of a bottle of wine and need your iPhone to tell you whether to buy it or not. Mean as that sounds, I think having Internet access while shopping can be quite helpful, and I surely would have profited from that in the past.
The Wall Street Journal has a rather well documented article on the renaissance of Austrian red wine, cleverly entitled On Red Alert. I can only recommend reading it; sadly though, you will also learn that Austrian red can be quite pricey. The wines mentioned in the article range form €35-65.
Maybe best to go back to Eva Mendes' cleavage for free? Or go for a German red for less than €10 perhaps...