Greetings, Many thanks to Warren and Ruth. A most excellent time. This week, we're going to the 510 for Pinot. Any Pinot from anywhere. Pinot blanc/gris/grigio/noir/etc. From OR or CA or Burgundy... Should be fun. 510 Groveland Yes: Russ/Sue McCandles Betsy Lori Dave Turan Jim/Louise Annette Bill S. The reservation is for 10 people (we're at 9, can/will update w/ the 510 on Thursday.) We can accomodate 10 pours in Pinot/Burgundy glasses (we're at 7 so far). I'm willing to act as "Steward du jour". Since Bob's out of town, please contact me, or someone els e who's active on the list, if you plan to join us on Thursday. My work phone is 763 494 1907. I've included Russ's notes from last December's Brgndy affair, as well as an article on the DNA mapping of cats. Cheers, Jim The 510 Restaurant 510 Groveland Ave MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55403 Phone: 612-874-6440 W1: sharp/thin on nose, full and smoky midpalate, thins out on finish. Ballot-Millot, 2002 Bourgogne Chardonnay. W2: rich oaky chardonnay nose, midpalate lacks structure, pedigreed white Burgundy flavor, finish emphatically alcoholic, pretty good though. Verget, 2002 Saint-Veran "Vigne de St-Claude." W3: excellent smoky nose suggestive of Chablis, midpalate lacks structure, interesting and attractive tasting wine but lacks W2's flavor distinction, finishes with good length but only fair power. Mestre-Michelot, 1999 Bourgogne Chardonnay. W4: amylic licorice nose, OK midpalate, citric finish, lacks interest. Bouchard Pere & Fils, 2002 Puligny-Montrachet. (Highly disappointing, if this was a representative bottle.) W5: mute nose with SO2 showing, big sweet citric and characteristically chardonnay midpalate, touch unconcentrated but tasty, good length, nice wine. Joseph Drouhin, 2002 Beaune 1er Cru, Clos des Mouches. (Still needs some time.) 1.1: young looking; small but round and rather new world pinot nose, astringent and medicinal mouth entry, tannic, decent fruit and structure, some alcohol showing and short on fruit at the finish, good wine though. Antonin Rodet, 1998 Bourgogne Pinot Noir, Vieilles Vignes. 1.2: lighter young color; pure but bashful nose; lacks concentration but OK fruit, some tannin; aromatic finish, more attractive tonight than 1.1 but generally a smaller wine. Louis Auguste, 2002 Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits. 1.3: color suggests more age; very reticent nose of spice, licorice, acid; full-smooth mouth entry, medicinal fruit; quite alcoholic on finish, shortish too. Pierre de Champvigne, 1996 Mercurey 1er Cru, Clos Voyen (Chevaliers de Tastevin bottling). (Some doubt expressed at table about whether this was a perfect bottle, although of course this is pretty old Mercurey.) 1.4: deep red, sizeable pure nose with the alcohol showing, big spicy alcoholic wine in the mouth, some tannin, lots of structure, big aromatic finish is the best feature, lacks length though. Mestre-Michelot, 2002 Santenay 1er Cru, Gravieres. 2.1: full purple; rich and meaty nose; full and smooth, lots of fruit without much sweetness, focused and true; finishes as it tastes, some alcohol but considerable finesse, excellent length, extremely good bottle. Vincent Girardin, 2001 Santenay 1er Cru, Gravieres. (This has put on weight since release and was showing very attractively tonight.) 2.2: medium to light red, nose medicinal but characterful, smooth mouthfeel but still tannic, midpalate lacks fruit, at an awkward age? The wine has presence all the way thru to the finish but seems to be sleeping? Jean-Jacques Girard, 2002 Savigny-les-Beaune. (Needs retasting. As a 2002, probably not "asleep" in the sense of what wines often do around their fourth year, but could be suffering from shipping shock or some such.) 2.3: medium red, color showing some age; very reticent nose; hard, medicinal, peppery, lacks fruit in this company, big wine though; in this company, no finish. Rene Engel, 1999 Vosne-Romanee. (This one, on the other hand, may well have been asleep. Good producer, fine vintage.) 2.4: dark red; sizeable cola nose, big astringent, medicinal unsweet fruit in the mouth, really good, moderately aromatic finish with more sweetness showing, decent length, could use time, this is very good. Maurice Ecard, 2001 Savigny-les-Beaune 1er Cru, Narbantons. (This one has REALLY put on weight since release.) 3.1: light red, lovely if not large sweet nose, smells of pure young red berry fruit; smooth midpalate, lots of darker fruits, tannic at the back end, highly aromatic finish, lovely wine, extra long. Bouchard Pere & Fils, 2002 Beaune 1er Cru, "Beaune du Chateau." (Reportedly available at Surdyk's priced in mid-$20s; remarkable value at that sort of price.) 3.2: dark color showing some age, distinguished maturing nose, mineral and vegetal components in addition to the fruit; smooth, smoky midpalate with BIG fruit, vegetal tastes following thru from the nose, very well structured; big aromatic and alcoholically hot finish, still needs some time. Joseph Roty, 1995 Gevrey-Chambertin, Cuvee de Champs-Chenys. 3.3: quite dark; big tarry nose; some lack of concentration and fruit but the flavor is distinctive; some tannin left but seems mature, power and length not all one could wish for. Faiveley, 1990 Beaune 1er Cru, Champs-Pimont. 3.4: dark color, sizeable nose still mostly primary, midweight in the mouth, balanced, smooth and pure, very attractive, minerals and tar with the fruit, flavor almost suggests nebbiolo, dark red cherry, touch of alcohol showing; excitingly smooth transition to finish, sweet and aromatic, good length, this is excellent. Bertagna, 1995 Vougeot 1er Cru, Clos de la Perriere. (Reported to be currently available at Haskell's. Caveat emptor.) February 15, 2005 With Genetic Mapping, Cats' Mysteries Will Be Unraveled By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Genetically speaking, every dog has already had its day. In 2003, a standard poodle named Shadow became the first canine to have his genome mapped, and in 2004 a boxer, Tasha, became the second. Now scientists are turning their attention to the genome of the domestic cat, and it is Cinnamon's turn to donate a blood sample. Cinnamon is not just any cat. She comes from a carefully bred colony at the University of Missouri, and her lineage can be traced back for decades. Scientists therefore know exactly what they are getting when they look at her DNA. Researchers hope to have the cat genome mapped by the end of the year - perhaps as soon as this summer - and when the job is done, humans will be the ones to benefit. Americans own (or serve) more than 60 million cats, spend over $4 billion a year on cat food and are so dedicated to feline health care that their veterinarians have identified more than 250 genetic diseases and hundreds of infectious agents that afflict them. But the genome will usher in a world of knowledge with immediate practical application, not only for veterinarians and cat owners, but for geneticists, zoologists and conservationists as well. When the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, chose the cat as one of the select group of species to have their genomes mapped, it conferred no small honor. It will cost $5.5 million to do the job, said a spokesman for the health institutes, and though the project will produce a map that is far less detailed than that of the human genome, scientists firmly believe it is worth every penny. The sequencing is being carried out under contract with Agencourt Bioscience Corporation, a biotechnology firm in Beverly, Mass., which was started five years ago by scientists originally involved in the Human Genome Project. The cat genome is large, and even though automated equipment is used at every step, sequencing it is labor intensive; more than 100 people are involved in one way or another in the project. The raw material - Cinnamon's DNA - is delivered to Agencourt by the N.I.H. Then the work begins, essentially a process of chopping up the DNA into tiny usable pieces in a process called library construction, and then putting it all back together to create the map. Producing a usable first draft sequence takes about nine months. The Cat Genome Project was announced along with plans to sequence the genomes of eight other mammals: the elephant, the orangutan, the shrew, the hedgehog, the guinea pig, the tenrec, the armadillo and the rabbit. Each new genome map adds something to the understanding of the human genome, but the cat was chosen, among other reasons, for its importance as a medical model in studying human disease. "The genes on the cat chromosome and the human chromosome correspond to each other like two strings of beads made of different colors," said Dr. Stephen J. O'Brien, chief of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity of the National Cancer Institute, adding that cats have "the same genes, one after another, strung together across every chromosome." This resemblance means that many of the cat's genetic diseases are inherited exactly the same way as genetic illnesses in humans. Diabetes, hemophilia and lupus, for example, have precise genetic homologues in cats. Cat retroviruses, like those that cause feline leukemia and feline sarcoma, although slightly different in their gene structure from the human versions, produce lesions that look almost identical to human cancers. Perhaps even more significant, feline immunodeficiency virus, or F.I.V., resembles H.I.V. so closely that it follows the same progression that, untreated, leads to the wasting syndrome of AIDS in humans. It is the only known naturally occurring AIDS syndrome in any nonhuman species, and provides a perfect model for studying the progression of the disease. Cats also get feline versions of many other human infectious diseases, including rotavirus, poxvirus, herpes, Q-fever, chlamydiosis and dozens more. On top of that, they are resistant to anthrax infection, a fact of considerable interest to scientists. Once the genome is mapped, said Dr. O'Brien, "research on feline stem cells will blossom, along with gene therapy applications." Zoologists and wildlife managers are just as eager as medical researchers to start using the completed cat genome. The domestic cat is the only one of the 37 species in its family that is not either threatened or endangered. Yet despite their rapidly shrinking territory, and their limited genetic diversity within species, wild cats endure on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, at the top of the food chain wherever they live. "The free-ranging species are survivors," Dr. O'Brien said. "Cheetahs, for example, get infected with F.I.V., but they don't get sick," though no one knows why. On the other hand, wild cats can become infected for reasons that are just as mysterious. This happened in 1994 when the canine distemper virus, which normally infects only dogs, suddenly jumped to lions. Wildlife managers watched, appalled, as the virus swept through the population, killing one-third of the lions in the Serengeti ecosystem in only nine months. Zoologists want to know what explains these evolved genetic defenses and susceptibilities. The genomes of the domestic cat and its wild relatives are almost identical, and the genetic information developed for the domestic cat will apply widely to all the species in its genus. "The full genome," Dr. O'Brien said, "will empower people with tools to discover innate disease defenses, recognize pathogens and other threats and assess the present status and future of these species." Cats were probably first domesticated about 6,000 years ago, making them much newer guests in the human household than dogs or barnyard animals, which have lived with humans for almost twice as long. Yet they are the domestic animal closest to our hearts in more ways than one. "At least from a genomic perspective," Dr. O'Brien said, "cats share a striking ancient affinity with humankind." ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *