The Wine Bong

One of the guys in our wine club did a blind tasting of three wines. Here's the summary of the tasting (I'm not about to start my own review blog as you can tell):

Wine 1: No nose. None. Zero. Zilch. Nadda. This wine was dead. Followed by a taste that had the same qualities as the nose. Nothing? Was this corked? It was terrible. Could not tell what it was supposed to be at all as there was nothing to go on. My guess? A corked Cab Sauv.

Wine 2: Wow - full fruity nose, intense aromas. Taste again followed the nose with a huge bounty of "slap you in the face" fruit. Big. Bold. Definitely an Aussie Cab Sauv.

Wine 3: Interesting nose on this one. Not nearly as strong a bouquet as the second, but more than the first. Flavours were subdued, but at least present. Almost seemed like a French Cab but the nose was definitely Australian.

Now here's the cool part. When he uncovered the three bottles, they were all the same wine! He had chosen an Australian Cab Sauv that was about 2-3 yrs away from when it should have been ready and served them through different means. All of them were opened at the same time. Here's what he had done:

Wine 1: Straight from the bottle.

Wine 2: Using a wine aerator (what I like to call the "wine bong"):

3) The Magnet (a magnetic base that is supposed to age the wine by drawing the tannins to the bottom...I think).

Conclusion: The wine bong really does work to enhance the flavours and nose of the wine. I got one as a gift (mine is the one from "Final Touch" )I haven't had a chance to compare it against a large surface area decanter, but the fact that you can aerate as you pour makes it pretty convenient. The magnet did do something but it's pretty expensive and if it doesn't work as well as the "bong", why bother?

White Chocolate Bread Recipe

I found this recipe in a pile of paper in the basement. I think it was from a resort in the Caribbean of all places. Makes about 4 small loaves.

Ingredients:

1 kg (2.2 lbs) white flour
20 gm (little less than 1 ounce), or about 4 tsp) yeast
10 gm (little less than 1/2 an ounce, or about 2 tsp) puratos (or gluten)
600 mL (2 1/3 cup) water
20 gm (little less than 1 ounce, or about 4 tsp) salt
450 (1 lb) gm white chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix together yeast, water, gluten, and flour.

Add salt. Mix. Add white chocolate chips. Mix.

Cut dough into 4 loaf-sized portions and roll lightly to resemble a french loaf (not a baguette). Let sit 20 minutes.

Bake at 225 Celsius for 2 minutes on wax sheet and flat tray.

Featherstone Estates 2007 Gemstone

We tried this wine on the weekend. I don't remember it being that good, but it was the 6th (of 7) vineyards we hit, and we'd already been drinking for 6+ hours when we got there.

This wine has a ton of body and a deep plum colour unlike anything I have seen out of Ontario. It's a blend of Baco Noir and Cabernet Franc and captured a gold medal at the 2008 Ontario wine awards.

We only bought 2 bottles of it...I think I am going to have to order more as it was a mere $13.95 Cdn (that's about $2 US).

http://www.featherstonewinery.ca/

Dripit

Dripit.org is a little group of folks from triiibes that wanted to make a difference. Some interesting articles, and content changes fortnightly (that's every to weeks for us people that don't speak proper).

Each main story ends with actions YOU can take to effect change:
Drip = small actions
Trickle = medium actions
Flood = harder actions

They are always looking for contributors (they were desperate enough to take contributions from me even!), so take a look, and then Drip, Trickle, Flood!

Seth's New School

Seth Godin is offering a new type of schooling for those that dare to make a difference. Do you dare? Could you? Would you?

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/if-you-could-ch.html