By mthomas
I am increasingly enjoying Sauternes and this one from Marks and Spencer is a sound example from a good year at an affordable price (compared to the ‘big 5′ makers of Sauternes i.e. those that get invested in). The 2003s do not have the prestige of the ‘perfect’ 2001s but there are some really lovely wines available whilst the more recent, very good, vintages come on-line (2005 onwards).
This is already a gorgeous deep gold and developing complex layers of flavour. Lots of pineapple and apricot with a twist of barley sugar. It also has some wood (cedar?) and aniseed notes and spent 30 months in French oak. The acidity stops it from being cloyingly sweet and it is a sophisticated and enjoyable dessert wine.
It has 13.5% alcohol and is made by Jean Christophe-Barbe from 85% Semillon, 13% Sauvignon Blanc and 2% Muscadelle (which probably accounts for the surprising aromatics). If you think medals mean something, this won a Decanter Silver. I only bought a half-bottle but might go back and get a couple more to see how they develop over the next few years.
By mthomas
Well done to the Wine Society for a commitment to lower alcohol wines (see their Website for their ‘Lighter dozen’ and other offers of red and whites all under 12.5%) including the Vin de Pays d’Oc pictured. These have an important place in the market and are sought after by drinkers for a number of reasons (not only health but also cognitive function, driving safety etc.).
A sommelier told me that he has noticed increasing numbers of customers asking about alcohol levels in wines on his list and that the next edition will give levels for all wines. He was less secure about the accuracy of the alcohol levels on some labels though.
A few years ago I went to a well known restaurant in California and ordered a bottle of Lodi ‘Earthquake’ Zinfandel (California should make more Zin and less Cab based wines) thinking that the earthquake was a play on the belief that they influence wine quality or that the vineyard had some strange fissure as the result of tectonic activity (it is actually a reference to the 1906 quake). I asked the waitress the story behind the name but she had no idea and by the time the wine waiter appeared I had already had half a glass and worked out that the ‘ground moving’ potential of the wine was due to 15% alcohol (it felt like more). It overpowered the food and is not one of my favourite Zins. My headache later was about force 5 on the Richter scale.
I always keep a few bottles of relatively low alcohol Riesling or Vinho Verde handy for times when I want a glass of white with a light lunch but really don’t want to feel at all intoxicated. I find lower alcohol reds harder to find and was impressed that the Wine Society selection includes decent Cotes de Bourg and Chinon.
I am also trying to keep up my interest in Chilean wines and am mindful that, like Haiti, they are still recovering from a real earthquake. The amazing photographs of twisted stainless steel fermentation tanks perfectly illustrated the destructive power of earthquakes but I guess I am right in saying that alcohol (directly and indirectly) kills many more people than earthquakes and that campaigns such as drink aware are important (website). Have a look at some of the useful tools available on the site and reward makers and responsible retailers by trying their lower alcohol offerings.
Here is link to UNICEF if you want read about how you can help children in Haiti, Chile and other countries experiencing difficulties such as those mentioned above.
By mthomas
I was really pleased to see that the British Psychological Society Research Digest Blog (here) has been voted the best psychology blog in the inaugural Research Blogging Awards. I subscribe to the digest and it is a great round-up of interesting and topical studies such as the one below (which is relevant given some of the current stories about wine and health).
Well done to Dr Christian Jarrett who does a great job with it.
A short while ago there was a shocking advert on British TV that used slow motion to illustrate the bloody, crunching effects of a car crash. The driver had been drinking. Using these kind of scare tactics for anti drink-driving and other health issues makes intuitive sense. The campaigners want to grab your attention and demonstrate the seriousness of the consequences if their message is not heeded. However, a new study makes the surprising finding that for a portion of the population, scare tactics can back-fire, actually undermining a message’s efficacy.
Steffen Nestler and Boris Egloff had 297 participants, 229 of them female, average age 35, read one of two versions of a fictional news report from a professional medical journal. The report referred to a study showing links between caffeine consumption and a fictional gastro-intestinal disease ‘Xyelinenteritis’. One version was extra-scary, highlighting a link between Xyelinenteritis and cancer and saying that the participant’s age group was particularly vulnerable. The other version was lower-key and lacked these two details. Both versions of the article concluded by recommending that readers reduce their caffeine consumption.
Before gauging the participants’ reaction to the article and its advice, the researchers tested them on a measure of ‘cognitive avoidance’. People who score highly on this personality dimension respond to threats with avoidance tactics such as distracting themselves, denying the threat or persuading themselves that they aren’t vulnerable.
The key finding is that participants who scored high on cognitive avoidance actually rated the threat from Xyelinenteritis as less severe after reading the scary version of the report compared with the low-key version. Moreover, after reading the scary version, they were less impressed by the advice to reduce caffeine consumption and less likely to say that they planned to reduce their caffeine intake.
On the other hand, highly cognitive avoidant participants were more responsive to the low-key report than were the low cognitive avoidant participants. In other words, for people who are cognitively avoidant, scary health messages can actually back-fire.
‘Practically, our results suggest that instead of giving all individuals the same threat communications, messages should be given that are concordant with their individual characteristics,’ Nestler and Egloff said. ‘Thus, the present findings are in line with the growing literature on tailoring intentions to individual characteristics, and they highlight the role of individual differences when scary messages are used.’
Nestler, S., & Egloff, B. (2010). When scary messages backfire: Influence of dispositional cognitive avoidance on the effectiveness of threat communications Journal of Research in Personality, 44 (1), 137-141 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.10.007
Author weblink: http://www.psych.uni-mainz.de/abteil/pp/nestlers.html
By mthomas
I know the tilde is missing from Albarino but this always defeats me on a UK keyboard. When I lived in Seville it took me some time to master the use of accents (I didn’t really ‘master’ them) but still have an Andalucian accent when I speak (unconjugated verbs etc.) and never learned to roll my rrrrrs - I think the ability to do this has genetic roots, like bottom shuffling.
Anyway, this is the last bottle of a long and lovely Easter weekend in Sussex, and at under £7 from Tesco it is a really sound buy. We had it with salmon smoked by a friend and warm salad potatoes with new asparagus from Middle Farm near Firle. I had packed some of my own wine to bring down and enjoy whilst house-sitting, writing and catching up with friends but forgot the box so had to do a quick ‘in and out’ in Tesco. I am not fond of supermarkets but when ‘push comes to a shove’ 24 hour opening and some decent wines amongst the dross, I can’t really complain.
The Albarino from the Salnes Valley in Rias Baixas is typically salty with a bit of astringency and greeness but enough fruit and body to manage the acidity. I would have had a light red with the salmon if I had remembered the wines from home but this probably worked better with the smoke than a red. I would like to try it with a bowl of prawns at Matalascanas some time.
Am going to walk off lunch with Sarah and the boys and coo over the new lambs before the drive back to london. The weather has been kind and we have managed walks along the beach and up on the South Downs Way as well as a visit to Charleston (picture left), where some of the Bloomsbury set hung out, and a few pints of Harveys over a roast at the Ram Inn. The boys have enjoyed their easter eggs and some of the rural stuff they don’t get in London (although Saul regrets holding a rifle sight too close to his eye and has a good little scar to show for it).
During the trip I managed to write most of the article for GRAPEStalk plus a bit of ‘the book’. I am also ’devouring’ the Montalbano novels, by Andrea Camilleri, about an eccentric Sicilian detective who loves his food. I am recharged and ready for the run in to our third year trainees on the doctorate submitting the final drafts of their theses. They are a lovely cohort and have done some great work during their three years with us.
I am increasingly enjoying Sauternes and this one from Marks and Spencer is a sound example from a good year at an affordable price (compared to the ‘big 5′ makers of Sauternes i.e. those that get invested in). The 2003s do not have the prestige of the ‘perfect’ 2001s but there are some really lovely wines available whilst the more recent, very good, vintages come on-line (2005 onwards).
