Gigondas Domaine Clos des Cazaux 2004

By mthomas

I love this single vineyard Gigondas made by a relatively small family run Domaine. So much so that I mentioned it in a Decanter interview as an example of a really good value big red. The Romans recognised the potential of this area and the best Gigondas can out perform Chateauneuf made from a similar blend of grapes but costing three times as much. This is great value if you’re a lover of hand-picked GSM made in a traditional style.  It has tons of characteristic spice with a structure and balance that gives it serious longevity (not that I can resist it for long).

On opening this 2004 from the Wine Society it was somewhere between plum and ruby in appearance. Still relatively young but drinking well with perfectly integrated tannins. Despite its ‘bigness’ and 14.5% alcohol it is typically French and quite unlike an over-extracted new world fruit bomb. There is a deceptive lightness of touch that is often under-appreciated in good Rhones. Less on the nose than when tasted. It has tons of  liquorice, tobacco and dark fruits without being at all ‘raisiny’.

This demands big, robustly flavoured food. Perfect with a Daube of beef or Haggis and all the trimmings. I should buy some 2007 asap given the success of the appellation across tastings. Justerini and Brooks have it at the equivalent of ten quid a bottle in bond. Superb!

Sacred spirits

By mthomas

My favourite tipple this week has been G and T made with Sacred Gin which is produced by a micro-distillery in London (Highgate). I like to have breaks from wine and am a bit disillusioned with the wine world at the moment. Badly organised tastings, boring wines and blatant vested interests making a nonsense of ratings, reviews and awards. It all seems a bit overblown, biased and pointless. I hope the break will reinvigorate me and my writing on the topic will not be overly negative.

On a more positive tone I was awarded a Fellowship last week, in part for developing Problem Based Learning approaches to support training on a Psychology Doctorate programme. This approach was developed to give medical students a ‘real world’ context for their learning. I always think of ‘House’ and the (outlandish) cases he and his team face. Anyway it was nice to receive this recognition and was much appreciated.

Back to the Gin. I really like G and T and usually drink Bombay Sapphire. I have no commercial interests in BS or in Sacred so if this reads like an ‘advertorial’ it is simply because I like the product - which is local and high quality.

The ‘Sacred’ name comes from Boswellia Sacra (aka Hougary Frankincense) used in the distillation. The makers also refer to information from the botanical Encyclopedia, Hortus Indicus Malabaricus.  It is creamier than most gins and is heavily perfumed with 12 different botanicals. These include Juniper, Cardamom and Nutmeg. I really like the Cardamom notes, and the distinct citrus flavours mean you do not really need a slice of lemon. Wine drinkers interested in smell and taste might be interested in trying Sacred.

The cold vacuum approach to distillation is explained on the website (Website here) and a synopsis follows;

“Reduced temperature distillation is achieved by distilling each botanical separately under a vacuum ranging from 1/12th atmosphere to 1/6th atmosphere. There is also a “negative activated carbon effect” from distilling the botanicals separately which can best be explained by considering the distillation of all botanicals together, in which the presence of just one single aroma absorbing element will affect the entire gin. If this hypothetical mix of botanicals were distilled separately, the single aroma absorbing element would be unable to absorb flavors from its neighboring botanicals, and hence the overall flavor of the resultant gin is enhanced. This reduced pressure/reduced temperature also means that the complex 3 dimensional terpenes such as limonene, geraniol, pinene, eucalyptol and terpenoids such as citral, menthol etc. do not get the opportunity to stereoisomerise into their more “stewed” versions, which would be recognised as “marmalady” and bitter flavours so prevalent in gins distilled at higher temperatures.”

Sacred Vodka is produced using the same technique but with a different range of botanicals including Indonesian Cubeb and Nutmeg. I haven’t tried it yet but hope it is as good as the gin.

Newcastle and Polyphenols

By mthomas

A really enjoyable trip to Newcastle last week following an invitation to speak to fellow Psychologists about wine as part of a Seminar series organised by Northumbria and Newcastle Universities.  It was really good to meet Professor David Kennedy, Director of the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre (website here) who is leading on research in to the role and function of dietary Polyphenols. He and his team are undertaking ground-breaking work into the cognitive effects of polyphenols, such as resveratrol, and it was fascinating to talk with them about their studies.

The centre has state-of-the-art testing facilities including their own COMPASS assessment system, internet and mobile phone testing technology, neuro-imaging capability (Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Transcranial Doppler and EEG) and physiological sampling facilities. They use these to assess the neurocognitive effects of “the most basic units of brain fuel – oxygen and glucose – as well as investigations of the cognitive mechanisms and mood effects of herbal extracts, nutraceuticals and food supplements”. Their projects focus on the psychopharmacology of commonly consumed everyday substances such as caffeine, social drugs (wine included), and chocolate. Special thanks to Emma who arranged the enjoyable wine reception at the University and meal in town.

I took some leave the next day to explore Newcastle as I hadn’t been there since the 1980s (when I went on an undergrad jaunt with friends to see a band). It was a cold but bright day so I walked for hours and managed most of the sights. I liked the Baltic gallery (pictured above), a ‘mini Tate Modern’, and enjoyed the Jenny Holzer exhibition (including ‘Waterboard’ - a tellingly censored document and very moving piece of work).  I also trawled the retro shops and got lucky when I found a pot made by the Roth factory. I collect post-war German ceramics and am especially interested in Roth, a small high quality ’studio’ that made wonderful pieces inj the 60s and 70s, so was chuffed with the find (pictured). This glaze and design is uncommon and I have the same shape in the more distinctive and archetypal ‘fat lava’ glazes.

I found a great pub called The Forth (website here). It had a good wine list but the Mordue bitter came highly recommended and was a fine pint. I hope to return to Newcastle much more quickly next time as it is a welcoming city full of authenticity and charming people.

The Social Economics of Drinking

By mthomas

Jan Heufer’s article “In vino veritas signaling and drinking,” uses Game Theory as a theoretical and conceptual framework to explore the idea that a moderate consumption of alcohol within a social context can be beneficial. It is argued that social drinking can help reveal a person’s personality, particularly their trustworthiness. The example of playing a game of trust is used; if a trustworthy person plays a game of trust and his or her trustworthiness is common knowledge, the player would be trusted by others and this would lead to a higher pay off for everyone. However if their trustworthiness is not observable then other players might not be willing to take the risk of trusting them. Therefore the trustworthy player has an incentive to employ alcohol in order to credibly reveal information about their personality.

Heufer argues that as alcohol is not addictive for moderate consumption and has only short term effects so there is not too much of a trade off between the gains due to the revelation of trustworthiness and the effects of alcohol on productivity. The model presented in this paper included the use of a noisy signal to reveal information about personality types. For example if a player in the game of trust (involuntarily) emits a noisy signal this gives the other player information about their personality type. It was found that drinking had an impact on the distribution of the signal, specifically, that drinking reduces the standard deviation of the noisy signal. However it has been argued that the introduction of noisy information alone can reduce the overall level of trust, as some trustworthy players with low noisy signals will not be trusted, even though they may have been trusted without the noisy information.

In this article only trustworthiness was analysed. It is also possible that the ability of one player to exploit another intoxicated player decreases with their own intoxication. In that case using the drug together and simultaneously can decrease the risk of being exploited for both players, for example each player could take one sip of alcohol at a time and wait for the other player to follow in suit. Therefore players can also signal trust by using the drug simultaneously.

Game theory seems to be relatively rarely applied to drinking behaviour but is still a popular (albeit much criticised) paradigm within economics and the social sciences. I would be interested in seeing an analysis of competition tastings from a Games Theory perspective as I think it might identify a number of interesting forces at work.

Heufer, J. (2009) In Vino Veritas: The Economics of Drinking (Ruhr Economic Paper No. 158). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1532171