Wine Diva-isms
Thoughts and miscellany
October 19 2006
Corked Wine-the agony and the attitude
is it a girl thing...?
Another article on corked wine-borrrring!
You probably already know what cork taint is-
TCA-Tricloroanisole a
chemical compound that affects the cork which transfers to
the wine causing a
wet/musty/cardboard-like aroma.
Its not pleasant but unknowingly many people don't recognize it (is ignorance
bliss?) or don't pick it up in minute amounts.
I do. And so do most of my peers.
But do women pick up cork taint more than men?
Do women have better sniffers?
That would be a pretty big generalization but many studies have said yes, women
do have better sniffers and more refined palates.
What I do know is that many women I know can smell a corked wine instantly and
my husband jokes that if there's a corked wine within 100 paces I'll pick it up.
Obviously that's a huge exaggeration but I do seem to be able to find cork even
in minute amounts. Thanks in part to training but mostly my mother-who's
remarkable sniffer-bility I inherited. Good for my profession but bad
when it comes to foul odors, perfume and...bad breath.
The question is...do I say anything?
Sometimes.
I gauge the situation and the company I'm in.
Why? Because over the years I've discovered that when I waive the 'cork
flag' I am often challenged, sometimes aggressively, sometimes passively. Oddly,
people react very personally to being told a wine is corked.
Why I don't know, its not their fault, its the cork.
I've bitten my tongue in professional tastings so many times I'm surprised its
still there.
But in a restaurant, where I am paying for wine I always speak up. The agony is
the moment when I have to tell the server-and it really sucks. Good servers
react instantly, remove the offending wine and offer to bring more or an
alternative.
Then there's scenario two.
The server hesitates, makes you repeat what you just said...then retorts with a
raised eyebrow.
I've had a server (in a prestigious restaurant) pick up my glass, sniff it
and say "I get pear and mineral, this is how the wine smells", before deciding
to give me a lesson in wine.
Sometimes I'm not in the mood for a face off and tell my husband to say
something-he never gets questioned when he says a wine is corked. Why do I?
Because I'm a woman?
Curiously, I've never been given attitude from another female on corked wine,
why only men? And, since my husband now always defers the sample taste to me
(even if he orders the wine) I am generally the one to turn it down.
Last week we went out for lunch and ordered a half litre of white wine. The male
server brought it out and poured a sample in my husbands glass. We were in
conversation so he tasted it and said thanks. The server poured the wine in both
glasses and left.
I picked up the wine-it was corked.
Tough situation, my husband had approved a tainted wine because his allergies
were acting up. I had to signal the server back and apologetically explain the
situation-twice. But he recovered quickly and brought us wine from a new bottle.
So I suppose the answer is this.
I know my nose, I trust my judgment but not everyone else does.
If need be, I will taste through cork in a professional setting-its not always
worth saying something and being challenged. Am I always correct in my corky
assumptions? No. But if I do speak up, I am pretty damn sure.
But in a restaurant I will always send it back.
Of course I can just make sure to order a wine with a screw-cap.
Tirelessly I go into the juice...
WD
Girls in Pink
Russell Smith 'Best Dressed' Globe and Mail Oct.7th 2006
Russell's weekly review on the attraction of pink was an interesting perspective
on men's view of this uber-feminine colour.
Of course pink is attractive and feminine.
I grew up surrounded by it. I reveled in it and it defined me to some extent as
a real little girl-no dirt and certainly no tree climbing.
I was the little girl with the pink canopy bed.
When I got older I tried to dismiss it as childish and frivolous and if I wanted
to be taken seriously I had to wear serious colours and be surrounded by adult
colours.
Well everything comes full circle and oddly enough pink is defining me again...
Duh.
And according to Russell, as much as we love to wear it, men love to see it on
us.
Sept 23 2006
Unbreak my heart
Mikasa's space age-y new Open Up l
line of Kwarx (almost) unbreakable stemware arrives in Vancouver next week.
Six unique styles allow the wine to breath and you to relax when your clumsy
guests knock one over. And from an industry perspective-the sharp angle in the
bowl lines up a perfect pour and will withstand up to 2000 dish washing
cycles. Non-tempered and lead free these glasses are also virtually seamless. Go
ahead, take a close look, no seam where stem meets bowl or base.
Wine Diva absconded with a sample from
Puddifoot
and is going to do some test runs and see if these babies hold
up to rigorous drinking and how the clarity stands up to competitors.
Stay tuned for more...
www.mikasa.com
September 6 2006
BAMN!
The Return of the Automat!
If you've ever been to Europe (I seem to remember them
mostly in Amsterdam) you've seen the Automat. It looks like a candy machine
for weird hot foods like croquettes or sandwich-type things. Drop your coins into
the slot of your chosen (whateverthehellitis), open the corresponding door and
retrieve a tasty, artery clogging, diabetes inducing edible product.
Well, a trio in New York decided it was time to revisit the Automat.
They
decided to sexy up its image (with pink of course) dust
off the old machines and add a few gourmet selections such as spam sushi, and
piggies-in-a-blanket, grilled cheese sandwiches, pork buns and fried mac&cheese all
for around $2 a pop.
Obviously perfect for the "after-bar crowd".
Now, the important detail is that the food is being made fresh behind the
scenes (or machines) by four cooks and refilled as needed. Each machine has a timer and
apparently, if the food product has not been liberated from its prison and
gobbled up within 15 minutes it's trashed.
Brilliantly retro or an addition to the already overwhelming problem of fast food in
America?
Bamn! 37 St. Mark's Place New York City (open 25 hours a day)
www.bamnfood.com
June 2006
Generation X,Y and...G?
Last Wine Diva heard,
we 'thirty-something's' were considered generation combo 'X&Y' end of
'X' beginning of 'Y' the follow
up to our 'Boomer' parents.
I always thought it comparable to being a Gemini and having to live up to 'two
personalities'.
Thank goodness (I think) to simply be a gruppie.
The newest buzzword used to label those of us who are thirty-plus but like
Peter Pan, we refuse to grow up into adulthood.
Gruppies live the good life; $250 jeans and dining out. Gruppies enjoy fine wine,
designer sunglasses, traveling the world and spending their money on the newest electronic devices.
Gruppies like their lives and have no intention of sliding quietly into middle
age or taking on additional responsibility. This doesn't mean they don't own
their own
home or have a child. It means they don't let getting older change them or
get in the way of the life they have been living.
Yummy mummy's and daddy's are living Yaletown lofts, dining at Provence
and jogging the False Creek seawall with junior-in-tow. Kitsilano has
become gruppie heaven whereas it used to be single-ville for
twenty-something beach dwellers looking to share inexpensive rent.
This peculiar label comes to us via Start Trek of all places. In an
old episode in which Captain Kirk and crew land on a planet ruled
by children, who call grown-ups "GRUPS".
Personally I think whomever came up with this ditty hit the nail on the head.
Confusing me with
science...
February 2006
Since the powerful release of information regarding the ‘health
benefits’ associated with daily consumption of (dark)
chocolate-strange how that happens
so close to Christmas and Valentines Day-we are all feeling
pretty darn good about self-medicating.
Now, what the Wine Diva is a little
confused about is this…New studies out of the U.S are claiming to have
discovered that soy, and soy products are not as heart-healthy as first
thought, in fact there is no reason to think that they are really all
that beneficial at all.
Smells like a conspiracy to me.
Why, with North American eating habits as ‘bad’ as they are,
would anyone want to dis’ tofu? You cannot tell me that a diet of
poutine, donuts or fast food burgers is heart healthy.
No wonder the average North American is so confused about healthy diets!
Thanks goodness we are all in agreement about the
health benefits
of wine!
Fetishes
& Flavours
May 2006
Jelly Bean Wine Bars.
A brilliantly cheeky way of introducing wine newbie's to the flavours found
in wine by utilizing and blending original Jelly Belly flavours. Brought
to you by the hip wine-chugging group at Wine X magazine. These bean bars
are
similar to the concept behind Le Nez du Vin (a pricey, sniff-able
set of vials containing classic wine aromas) or the Aroma Wheel by Anne
Noble (a visual guide to aromas found in wine).
But Jelly Belly blending is not a new concept. The
Wine Diva has been
dining on PB & J's (one grape bean and two peanut butter is the perfect blend) for
years.
Or chewing on hangover free strawberry margaritas (one margarita bean and one strawberry jam
bean).
'O'
Kay?
Spring 2004
A few months back I
made a few comments about the ‘O’ series Stemless Riedel
glassware being flogged shamelessly to the urban hipster. I bemoaned
fingerprints, and warm hands warming wine and I was not going to buy
(like a pair of pastel hued Ugg’s) into it.
Well, after a couple of parties with expensive broken stemware, and a recent trip to Lee, where all wine was served in ‘O’ the Wine Diva had an ‘O’piphany. Perhaps the ‘O’ was not the enemy after all but a hip new way to serve wine to friends or at least a controversial conversation scheme, so we invested in some (inexpensive and chic).
Speaking of Glassware...
Fall 2004
I recently read an article in Gourmet
Magazine (August 2004) by Daniel Zwerdling called ‘Shattered
Myths’. The premise of the article being, ‘does it really matter what
type of vessel you drink your wine out of’? It is a well-written article
that focuses mainly on the scientific evidence (or lack of) that wine
tastes better when served in the proper vessel. That vessel being a Riedel
glass designed for that particular type of wine. Being a Riedel believer,
I own many different styles of their glassware proudly displayed in a
backlit, glass door cabinet beside my requisite Wine
Diva wine cellar.
So of course my curiosity was piqued.
The first ‘myth’ the article blasted
me with was that of the ‘tongue map’. The ‘tongue map’ is a tool I
have used for teaching, and I (as well as others of my wine kind) was
taught with. Basically it is a triangular ‘map’ of the tongue that
shows where the ‘salty, sweet, bitter, acid’ taste buds are located.
Thus, Riedel designed glassware with bowls shaped to release wine aromas
to their fullest and when drinking, the angle of the rim directs the
liquid to the proper taste buds thereby giving you the truest most
sensually heightened wine experience.
Apparently this ‘tongue map’ is,
according to scientists, complete hoo-haw.
This was of course disappointing to the Wine
Diva, but not devastating, I was never that taken by the whole
theory anyway.
Next ‘myth’ the article hit me with
were the attempts of major research centres in Europe and the U.S to prove
once and for all if these 'specially' designed stemware really worked as
they claimed . By putting ‘non-wine connoisseurs’ in a room with
several glasses, ranging from discount store (fat lipped and stout)
varieties to 'scientifically designed' Riedel glassware, all filled with
the same wine, to study the results.
Yada, yada, yada…
This research apparently gave no real,
positive proof of a significant difference between the alleged $3 and $40
glassware. So Georg Riedel himself called upon a physician and researcher
in Dresden, Germany (of course) to prove otherwise. Unfortunately again,
there seemed to be no positive proof to support the Riedel claims, that
their glasses did/do make wine taste…better.
Wine Diva-ism, I really don’t care about the research, or the claims, or the ‘tongue map’. I do know that when I hold those wonderful Riedel glasses in my hand, they are clear, delicate and balanced. The weight, the size of the stem and the thin lip make my wine experience a sensually heightened one!
Psychological?
Perhaps.