2 Apr
2008
2 Apr
'08
3:42 p.m.
I stumbled accross this while looking for something
unrelated:
Hey Warren, Annette (s). Is this on the exam?
Cheers,
Jim
FYI/FYE
March 3, 1999
A Sommelier's Little Secret: The Microwave
By WILLIAM GRIMES
A NEW question is creeping into wine service in New York: How do you want that cooked?
For many years, Americans have confounded the rest of the world by drinking their white
wines too cold and their red wines too warm. Sommeliers no longer hesitate when diners ask
that a luscious Corton-Charlemagne be plunged into an ice bucket. They just do it.
It's easy.
Red wine poses a different problem, since it often arrives at the table with a slight
chill. If the diners want their wine the temperature of a blood transfusion, and fast, the
sommelier must resort to wiles, and the wiliest wile of all, it turns out, is the
microwave oven.
Sometimes it's the customer who wants his wine 'waved. Sometimes it's the
hard-pressed sommelier who makes the decision to go nuclear. But it happens. There really
are wines that go into that silent chamber at 58 degrees and come out, like a client at a
tanning salon, flush with radiation and 7 to 10 degrees warmer.
''There is no way any sommelier is going to admit to doing it,'' said
Dan Perlman, the wine director at Veritas. ''They'll say, 'I've
heard of it,' like I just did. I'm in the clear, though, because we don't
have a microwave.''
The practice is by no means widespread, or even widely known, but it is something that
happens at even the top restaurants. Alexis Ganter, the wine director at City Wine and
Cigar, reacted with stunned silence when informed about the microwave trick. Then he let
out a long, shuddering sigh and moaned, ''Oh my God.''
Like other members of the ''wine is a living thing'' school, Mr.
Ganter expressed deep fear of this new technological breakthrough. Others showed a native
American willingness to at least experiment. ''It makes sense,'' said
Ralph Hersom, the wine director at Le Cirque 2000. ''I don't see that it
would harm a wine, but I'd recommend doing it with a younger wine.''
Still others fessed up, some expressing shame but others not. ''I did it once
when I was working at a wine bar in Madison, Wis.,'' said Eric Zillier, the wine
director at the Hudson River Club. ''It was an '85 Burgundy from Verget,
one of my favorites, but I made the customer, who was very insistent, swear he would never
tell anyone I did it.''
Christopher Cannon, at the Judson Grill, has used the microwave and doesn't mind
saying so. It's a method of last resort, but it is a method that works, and he will
use it. ''I zap it for 5 to 10 seconds,'' he said. It seems more
reasonable than the customer who wanted his Gaja barbaresco served with ice cubes.
And why not? Most Champagne houses turn their bottles by machine, not hand. The plastic
cork and the screw top work just as well, if not better, than a cork. So why resist the
microwave?
''The microwaves are heating the water, which is the main constituent of
wine,'' said Christian E. Butzke, an enologist at the University of California
at Davis. ''If you do that for a very brief period -- 10 seconds maximum -- no
other chemical reactions are going to take place, and nothing will be
destroyed.''
The phenolic structure of the wine, Mr. Butzke said, should not be disturbed by the
microwaves. ''It is awkward,'' he admitted, ''because you
associate a microwave with TV dinners.''
Wine makers, somewhat surprisingly, do not run screaming from the room at the idea.
''It's not something I'd do with a fine wine,'' said Richard
Draper, the wine maker at Ridge Vineyards, ''but if it's an industrial
product, which 90 percent of wine is, it's been through a lot worse
already.'' As for fine wines, Mr. Draper said that his objection to microwaving
was philosophical rather than rational.
Some wine lovers even see magical powers in the microwave. Richard Dean, the sommelier at
the Mark Hotel, used to serve a wine club that gathered once a month at the Honolulu hotel
where he worked. The members were convinced that warming a red wine in the microwave for
five seconds put an extra five years of age on the wine.
A professional to the tips of his fingers, Mr. Dean did not laugh. He did not argue. Nor
did he tell his customers that the hotel had no microwave. He simply disappeared with the
wine, reappeared after a decent interval, served it, and everyone was happy -- until a
rival hotel snitched on him. ''That was embarrassing,'' he said.
The same sommeliers who shrink before the microwave do not mind employing all sorts of
nontechnological tricks, like running a decanter under warm water before pouring the wine
in it, replacing glasses on the table with glasses that have just come out of the
dishwasher, or even putting the bottle in the dishwasher. Joseph Funghini, the wine
director at the Post House, said that he has wrapped a bottle in a warm towel. Others
plunge the bottle into a bucket of warm water.
Nearly every restaurant, bending to American preferences, has raised the storage
temperature from classic cellar temperature, which is 55 degrees, to about 60 degrees.
(Wines in long-term storage remain at 53 degrees to 55 degrees, with a humidity of 70
percent.) ''Ninety-five percent of customers will object to 55
degrees,'' Mr. Hersom of Le Cirque said.
Some object to 75 degrees. ''I had a customer, very sophisticated, who simply
liked to drink red wine at body temperature,'' said Mr. Perlman of Veritas.
''He asked that it be decanted and then placed on a shelf above the
stove.'' Mr. Perlman has a lot of stories like that. There's the customer
who wanted the Champagne decanted, to get rid of those annoying bubbles, and the one who
wanted to add fruit juice to his Mouton-Rothschild to make a sangria. Mr. Perlman
suggested a more modest red. The customer said no. He wanted a good sangria.
The microwave, however, seems to be the philosophical point of no return. Some sommeliers
simply cannot cross the threshold.
''You're destroying everything in the wine that makes it wine,''
Mr. Zillier of the Hudson River Club said. ''It's catastrophic.''
When informed of Mr. Butzke's line of argument, he dug in his heels.
''Instinct tells me the fragile biochemical ingredients are going to be affected
by the highly excited water molecules,'' he said. ''You're
cooking it. If you put wine in a saute pan to bring the temperature up, people would laugh
at you. What's the difference?''
Convenience, for one thing. Efficiency for another. And one thing more.
''You get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, but you do these
things,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''After all, the customer is paying for
the bottle of wine.''
Now for the Gory Details: How to Nuke a Wine
THERE is a very simple way to bring a chilled wine up a few degrees in temperature. Let it
sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. This technique, known to the ancients, produces
spectacular results with minimal effort. But there are times when the harried host does
not have 15 minutes. That's where the microwave comes in, for those with the nerve to
put a cherished bottle on the hot seat.
The microwave moment presents itself more frequently than one might think. True, most
people do not have wine cellars, and therefore their wine is more likely to need chilling
than warming. They do, however, have refrigerators. The red wine that was left to cool off
a bit can come out cold, and white wine is almost certainly well below cellar temperature
after several hours on the shelf. This is not a good thing. Cold helps mask the
deficiencies of a white wine, accentuating its crispness and thirst-quenching properties,
but it kills the taste of a complex white. Enter, to boos and hisses, the microwave oven.
Before enlisting its help, remove the metal cap from the top of the bottle and discard. It
is not necessary to remove the cork, since warming the wine a few degrees will not
significantly expand the volume of air between the cork and the wine. Set the microwave on
high power. Every five seconds of microwaving will elevate the wine's temperature by
two degrees. Five degrees is probably the most extreme variation anyone would want to
shoot for. A big-bodied red wine should be served at 60 to 65 degrees, a complex white
wine from 55 to 60 degrees, and a light, fruity red at 50 to 55 degrees. Roses and simpler
whites can be served at 45 degrees or even a little cooler. A digital thermometer inserted
in the bottle neck will provide an instant progress report. WILLIAM GRIMES
--
------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
2 Apr
2 Apr
8:07 p.m.
New subject: [wine] Re: Wine Temp ASAP
I've actually done this many times and I'm pretty attuned to a Riedel
Overture Red and my little 20 year old Panasonic microwave. It took about
three years to perfect. But then again I freeze wine, too.
In Australia, I was incredibly surprised at how often many different
WINEMAKERS served wine at totally inappropriate temperatures (especially big
reds too warm). They didn't care ... it was the stereotypical 'live fast
die hard' aussie attitude showing. But beer was always served cold as can
be ... they have a 200ml size from the tap just for that purpose. Only
foreigners step up to the bar and ask for a pint.
J.
-----Original Message-----
From: wine-bounce(a)thebarn.com [mailto:wine-bounce@thebarn.com] On Behalf Of
Jim L. Ellingson
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 3:42 PM
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: [wine] Wine Temp ASAP
I stumbled accross this while looking for something
unrelated:
Hey Warren, Annette (s). Is this on the exam?
Cheers,
Jim
FYI/FYE
March 3, 1999
A Sommelier's Little Secret: The Microwave
By WILLIAM GRIMES
A NEW question is creeping into wine service in New York: How do you want
that cooked?
For many years, Americans have confounded the rest of the world by drinking
their white wines too cold and their red wines too warm. Sommeliers no
longer hesitate when diners ask that a luscious Corton-Charlemagne be
plunged into an ice bucket. They just do it. It's easy.
Red wine poses a different problem, since it often arrives at the table with
a slight chill. If the diners want their wine the temperature of a blood
transfusion, and fast, the sommelier must resort to wiles, and the wiliest
wile of all, it turns out, is the microwave oven.
Sometimes it's the customer who wants his wine 'waved. Sometimes it's the
hard-pressed sommelier who makes the decision to go nuclear. But it happens.
There really are wines that go into that silent chamber at 58 degrees and
come out, like a client at a tanning salon, flush with radiation and 7 to 10
degrees warmer.
''There is no way any sommelier is going to admit to doing it,'' said
Dan
Perlman, the wine director at Veritas. ''They'll say, 'I've heard
of it,'
like I just did. I'm in the clear, though, because we don't have a
microwave.''
The practice is by no means widespread, or even widely known, but it is
something that happens at even the top restaurants. Alexis Ganter, the wine
director at City Wine and Cigar, reacted with stunned silence when informed
about the microwave trick. Then he let out a long, shuddering sigh and
moaned, ''Oh my God.''
Like other members of the ''wine is a living thing'' school, Mr.
Ganter
expressed deep fear of this new technological breakthrough. Others showed a
native American willingness to at least experiment. ''It makes
sense,'' said
Ralph Hersom, the wine director at Le Cirque 2000. ''I don't see that it
would harm a wine, but I'd recommend doing it with a younger wine.''
Still others fessed up, some expressing shame but others not. ''I did it
once when I was working at a wine bar in Madison, Wis.,'' said Eric Zillier,
the wine director at the Hudson River Club. ''It was an '85 Burgundy from
Verget, one of my favorites, but I made the customer, who was very
insistent, swear he would never tell anyone I did it.''
Christopher Cannon, at the Judson Grill, has used the microwave and doesn't
mind saying so. It's a method of last resort, but it is a method that works,
and he will use it. ''I zap it for 5 to 10 seconds,'' he said. It
seems more
reasonable than the customer who wanted his Gaja barbaresco served with ice
cubes.
And why not? Most Champagne houses turn their bottles by machine, not hand.
The plastic cork and the screw top work just as well, if not better, than a
cork. So why resist the microwave?
''The microwaves are heating the water, which is the main constituent of
wine,'' said Christian E. Butzke, an enologist at the University of
California at Davis. ''If you do that for a very brief period -- 10 seconds
maximum -- no other chemical reactions are going to take place, and nothing
will be destroyed.''
The phenolic structure of the wine, Mr. Butzke said, should not be disturbed
by the microwaves. ''It is awkward,'' he admitted, ''because
you associate a
microwave with TV dinners.''
Wine makers, somewhat surprisingly, do not run screaming from the room at
the idea. ''It's not something I'd do with a fine wine,''
said Richard
Draper, the wine maker at Ridge Vineyards, ''but if it's an industrial
product, which 90 percent of wine is, it's been through a lot worse
already.'' As for fine wines, Mr. Draper said that his objection to
microwaving was philosophical rather than rational.
Some wine lovers even see magical powers in the microwave. Richard Dean, the
sommelier at the Mark Hotel, used to serve a wine club that gathered once a
month at the Honolulu hotel where he worked. The members were convinced that
warming a red wine in the microwave for five seconds put an extra five years
of age on the wine.
A professional to the tips of his fingers, Mr. Dean did not laugh. He did
not argue. Nor did he tell his customers that the hotel had no microwave. He
simply disappeared with the wine, reappeared after a decent interval, served
it, and everyone was happy -- until a rival hotel snitched on him. ''That
was embarrassing,'' he said.
The same sommeliers who shrink before the microwave do not mind employing
all sorts of nontechnological tricks, like running a decanter under warm
water before pouring the wine in it, replacing glasses on the table with
glasses that have just come out of the dishwasher, or even putting the
bottle in the dishwasher. Joseph Funghini, the wine director at the Post
House, said that he has wrapped a bottle in a warm towel. Others plunge the
bottle into a bucket of warm water.
Nearly every restaurant, bending to American preferences, has raised the
storage temperature from classic cellar temperature, which is 55 degrees, to
about 60 degrees. (Wines in long-term storage remain at 53 degrees to 55
degrees, with a humidity of 70 percent.) ''Ninety-five percent of customers
will object to 55 degrees,'' Mr. Hersom of Le Cirque said.
Some object to 75 degrees. ''I had a customer, very sophisticated, who
simply liked to drink red wine at body temperature,'' said Mr. Perlman of
Veritas. ''He asked that it be decanted and then placed on a shelf above the
stove.'' Mr. Perlman has a lot of stories like that. There's the customer
who wanted the Champagne decanted, to get rid of those annoying bubbles, and
the one who wanted to add fruit juice to his Mouton-Rothschild to make a
sangria. Mr. Perlman suggested a more modest red. The customer said no. He
wanted a good sangria.
The microwave, however, seems to be the philosophical point of no return.
Some sommeliers simply cannot cross the threshold.
''You're destroying everything in the wine that makes it wine,''
Mr. Zillier
of the Hudson River Club said. ''It's catastrophic.'' When
informed of Mr.
Butzke's line of argument, he dug in his heels. ''Instinct tells me the
fragile biochemical ingredients are going to be affected by the highly
excited water molecules,'' he said. ''You're cooking it. If you
put wine in
a saute pan to bring the temperature up, people would laugh at you. What's
the difference?''
Convenience, for one thing. Efficiency for another. And one thing more.
''You get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, but you do these
things,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''After all, the customer is paying for
the
bottle of wine.''
Now for the Gory Details: How to Nuke a Wine
THERE is a very simple way to bring a chilled wine up a few degrees in
temperature. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. This technique,
known to the ancients, produces spectacular results with minimal effort. But
there are times when the harried host does not have 15 minutes. That's where
the microwave comes in, for those with the nerve to put a cherished bottle
on the hot seat.
The microwave moment presents itself more frequently than one might think.
True, most people do not have wine cellars, and therefore their wine is more
likely to need chilling than warming. They do, however, have refrigerators.
The red wine that was left to cool off a bit can come out cold, and white
wine is almost certainly well below cellar temperature after several hours
on the shelf. This is not a good thing. Cold helps mask the deficiencies of
a white wine, accentuating its crispness and thirst-quenching properties,
but it kills the taste of a complex white. Enter, to boos and hisses, the
microwave oven.
Before enlisting its help, remove the metal cap from the top of the bottle
and discard. It is not necessary to remove the cork, since warming the wine
a few degrees will not significantly expand the volume of air between the
cork and the wine. Set the microwave on high power. Every five seconds of
microwaving will elevate the wine's temperature by two degrees. Five degrees
is probably the most extreme variation anyone would want to shoot for. A
big-bodied red wine should be served at 60 to 65 degrees, a complex white
wine from 55 to 60 degrees, and a light, fruity red at 50 to 55 degrees.
Roses and simpler whites can be served at 45 degrees or even a little
cooler. A digital thermometer inserted in the bottle neck will provide an
instant progress report. WILLIAM GRIMES
--
------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
3 Apr
3 Apr
11:49 a.m.
New subject: [wine] Re: Wine Temp ASAP
I have used this for years to taste specialty beers that have been too cold. I am always
very careful to use short bursts and have always just heated glasses of specialty beer. I
have warmed up red wine in the glass that has been too cold as well. "cooking too
long can have the same affect as can flash pasturizing of beer products. Breweries that
flash pasturize their product have to be very careful not to "over do it" or it
ages the product drastically and tastes old. That's my two cents.
Wayne> From: jkallsen(a)cpinternet.com> To: jellings(a)me.umn.edu; wine(a)thebarn.com>
Subject: [wine] Re: Wine Temp ASAP> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 19:51:05 -0500> >
I've actually done this many times and I'm pretty attuned to a Riedel>
Overture Red and my little 20 year old Panasonic microwave. It took about> three years
to perfect. But then again I freeze wine, too.> > In Australia, I was incredibly
surprised at how often many different> WINEMAKERS served wine at totally inappropriate
temperatures (especially big> reds too warm). They didn't care ... it was the
stereotypical 'live fast> die hard' aussie attitude showing. But beer was
always served cold as can> be ... they have a 200ml size from the tap just for that
purpose. Only> foreigners step up to the bar and ask for a pint.> > J.> >
-----Original Message-----> From: wine-bounce(a)thebarn.com
[mailto:wine-bounce@thebarn.com] On Behalf Of> Jim L. Ellingson> Sent: Wednesday,
April 02, 2008 3:42 PM> To: wine(a)thebarn.com> Subject: [wine] Wine Temp ASAP>
> I stumbled accross this while looking for something > unrelated:> > Hey
Warren, Annette (s). Is this on the exam?> > Cheers,> Jim> > > > >
FYI/FYE> > March 3, 1999> A Sommelier's Little Secret: The Microwave> By
WILLIAM GRIMES> > A NEW question is creeping into wine service in New York: How do
you want> that cooked?> > For many years, Americans have confounded the rest of
the world by drinking> their white wines too cold and their red wines too warm.
Sommeliers no> longer hesitate when diners ask that a luscious Corton-Charlemagne
be> plunged into an ice bucket. They just do it. It's easy.> > Red wine
poses a different problem, since it often arrives at the table with> a slight chill. If
the diners want their wine the temperature of a blood> transfusion, and fast, the
sommelier must resort to wiles, and the wiliest> wile of all, it turns out, is the
microwave oven.> > Sometimes it's the customer who wants his wine 'waved.
Sometimes it's the> hard-pressed sommelier who makes the decision to go nuclear.
But it happens.> There really are wines that go into that silent chamber at 58 degrees
and> come out, like a client at a tanning salon, flush with radiation and 7 to 10>
degrees warmer.> > ''There is no way any sommelier is going to admit to
doing it,'' said Dan> Perlman, the wine director at Veritas.
''They'll say, 'I've heard of it,'> like I just did.
I'm in the clear, though, because we don't have a> microwave.''>
> The practice is by no means widespread, or even widely known, but it is> something
that happens at even the top restaurants. Alexis Ganter, the wine> director at City
Wine and Cigar, reacted with stunned silence when informed> about the microwave trick.
Then he let out a long, shuddering sigh and> moaned, ''Oh my
God.''> > Like other members of the ''wine is a living
thing'' school, Mr. Ganter> expressed deep fear of this new technological
breakthrough. Others showed a> native American willingness to at least experiment.
''It makes sense,'' said> Ralph Hersom, the wine director at Le
Cirque 2000. ''I don't see that it> would harm a wine, but I'd
recommend doing it with a younger wine.''> > Still others fessed up, some
expressing shame but others not. ''I did it> once when I was working at a
wine bar in Madison, Wis.,'' said Eric Zillier,> the wine director at the
Hudson River Club. ''It was an '85 Burgundy from> Verget, one of my
favorites, but I made the customer, who was very> insistent, swear he would never tell
anyone I did it.''> > Christopher Cannon, at the Judson Grill, has used
the microwave and doesn't> mind saying so. It's a method of last resort, but
it is a method that works,> and he will use it. ''I zap it for 5 to 10
seconds,'' he said. It seems more> reasonable than the customer who wanted
his Gaja barbaresco served with ice> cubes.> > And why not? Most Champagne houses
turn their bottles by machine, not hand.> The plastic cork and the screw top work just
as well, if not better, than a> cork. So why resist the microwave?> >
''The microwaves are heating the water, which is the main constituent of>
wine,'' said Christian E. Butzke, an enologist at the University of>
California at Davis. ''If you do that for a very brief period -- 10 seconds>
maximum -- no other chemical reactions are going to take place, and nothing> will be
destroyed.''> > The phenolic structure of the wine, Mr. Butzke said,
should not be disturbed> by the microwaves. ''It is awkward,'' he
admitted, ''because you associate a> microwave with TV
dinners.''> > Wine makers, somewhat surprisingly, do not run screaming
from the room at> the idea. ''It's not something I'd do with a fine
wine,'' said Richard> Draper, the wine maker at Ridge Vineyards,
''but if it's an industrial> product, which 90 percent of wine is,
it's been through a lot worse> already.'' As for fine wines, Mr. Draper
said that his objection to> microwaving was philosophical rather than rational.>
> Some wine lovers even see magical powers in the microwave. Richard Dean, the>
sommelier at the Mark Hotel, used to serve a wine club that gathered once a> month at
the Honolulu hotel where he worked. The members were convinced that> warming a red wine
in the microwave for five seconds put an extra five years> of age on the wine.> >
A professional to the tips of his fingers, Mr. Dean did not laugh. He did> not argue.
Nor did he tell his customers that the hotel had no microwave. He> simply disappeared
with the wine, reappeared after a decent interval, served> it, and everyone was happy
-- until a rival hotel snitched on him. ''That> was embarrassing,''
he said.> > The same sommeliers who shrink before the microwave do not mind
employing> all sorts of nontechnological tricks, like running a decanter under warm>
water before pouring the wine in it, replacing glasses on the table with> glasses that
have just come out of the dishwasher, or even putting the> bottle in the dishwasher.
Joseph Funghini, the wine director at the Post> House, said that he has wrapped a
bottle in a warm towel. Others plunge the> bottle into a bucket of warm water.> >
Nearly every restaurant, bending to American preferences, has raised the> storage
temperature from classic cellar temperature, which is 55 degrees, to> about 60 degrees.
(Wines in long-term storage remain at 53 degrees to 55> degrees, with a humidity of 70
percent.) ''Ninety-five percent of customers> will object to 55
degrees,'' Mr. Hersom of Le Cirque said.> > Some object to 75 degrees.
''I had a customer, very sophisticated, who> simply liked to drink red wine
at body temperature,'' said Mr. Perlman of> Veritas. ''He asked
that it be decanted and then placed on a shelf above the> stove.'' Mr.
Perlman has a lot of stories like that. There's the customer> who wanted the
Champagne decanted, to get rid of those annoying bubbles, and> the one who wanted to
add fruit juice to his Mouton-Rothschild to make a> sangria. Mr. Perlman suggested a
more modest red. The customer said no. He> wanted a good sangria.> > The
microwave, however, seems to be the philosophical point of no return.> Some sommeliers
simply cannot cross the threshold.> > ''You're destroying everything
in the wine that makes it wine,'' Mr. Zillier> of the Hudson River Club said.
''It's catastrophic.'' When informed of Mr.> Butzke's
line of argument, he dug in his heels. ''Instinct tells me the> fragile
biochemical ingredients are going to be affected by the highly> excited water
molecules,'' he said. ''You're cooking it. If you put wine in>
a saute pan to bring the temperature up, people would laugh at you. What's> the
difference?''> > Convenience, for one thing. Efficiency for another. And
one thing more.> > ''You get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach,
but you do these> things,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''After all, the
customer is paying for the> bottle of wine.''> > Now for the Gory
Details: How to Nuke a Wine> > THERE is a very simple way to bring a chilled wine up
a few degrees in> temperature. Let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. This
technique,> known to the ancients, produces spectacular results with minimal effort.
But> there are times when the harried host does not have 15 minutes. That's
where> the microwave comes in, for those with the nerve to put a cherished bottle>
on the hot seat.> > The microwave moment presents itself more frequently than one
might think.> True, most people do not have wine cellars, and therefore their wine is
more> likely to need chilling than warming. They do, however, have refrigerators.>
The red wine that was left to cool off a bit can come out cold, and white> wine is
almost certainly well below cellar temperature after several hours> on the shelf. This
is not a good thing. Cold helps mask the deficiencies of> a white wine, accentuating
its crispness and thirst-quenching properties,> but it kills the taste of a complex
white. Enter, to boos and hisses, the> microwave oven.> > Before enlisting its
help, remove the metal cap from the top of the bottle> and discard. It is not necessary
to remove the cork, since warming the wine> a few degrees will not significantly expand
the volume of air between the> cork and the wine. Set the microwave on high power.
Every five seconds of> microwaving will elevate the wine's temperature by two
degrees. Five degrees> is probably the most extreme variation anyone would want to
shoot for. A> big-bodied red wine should be served at 60 to 65 degrees, a complex
white> wine from 55 to 60 degrees, and a light, fruity red at 50 to 55 degrees.>
Roses and simpler whites can be served at 45 degrees or even a little> cooler. A
digital thermometer inserted in the bottle neck will provide an> instant progress
report. WILLIAM GRIMES > > > > > -- > ------------------------------
> * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *> * University of Minnesota, mobile :
651/645-0753 *> * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *>
> >
5 Apr
5 Apr
5:37 p.m.
New subject: [wine] Re: Wine Temp ASAP
I've been 'waving wine for years. When I have a partial bottle remaining, I use
a Vacu Vin and put the bottle in the refrigerator. Both reduce oxidation; the Vacu Vin
removes some of the air and cooler temperatures slow down oxidative reactions. Before
serving a red wine, I microwave the bottle, typically for 10 seconds at a time, to bring
the wine to a cool serving temperature.
I remember telling this to my students at Surdyks wine classes, drawing gasps from some of
them. But hey, it works!
Ted
----------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2008 15:42:18 -0500
From: jellings(a)me.umn.edu
To: wine(a)thebarn.com
Subject: [wine] Wine Temp ASAP
I stumbled accross this while looking for something
unrelated:
Hey Warren, Annette (s). Is this on the exam?
Cheers,
Jim
FYI/FYE
March 3, 1999
A Sommelier's Little Secret: The Microwave
By WILLIAM GRIMES
A NEW question is creeping into wine service in New York: How do you want that cooked?
For many years, Americans have confounded the rest of the world by drinking their white
wines too cold and their red wines too warm. Sommeliers no longer hesitate when diners ask
that a luscious Corton-Charlemagne be plunged into an ice bucket. They just do it.
It's easy.
Red wine poses a different problem, since it often arrives at the table with a slight
chill. If the diners want their wine the temperature of a blood transfusion, and fast, the
sommelier must resort to wiles, and the wiliest wile of all, it turns out, is the
microwave oven.
Sometimes it's the customer who wants his wine 'waved. Sometimes it's the
hard-pressed sommelier who makes the decision to go nuclear. But it happens. There really
are wines that go into that silent chamber at 58 degrees and come out, like a client at a
tanning salon, flush with radiation and 7 to 10 degrees warmer.
''There is no way any sommelier is going to admit to doing it,'' said
Dan Perlman, the wine director at Veritas. ''They'll say, 'I've
heard of it,' like I just did. I'm in the clear, though, because we don't
have a microwave.''
The practice is by no means widespread, or even widely known, but it is something that
happens at even the top restaurants. Alexis Ganter, the wine director at City Wine and
Cigar, reacted with stunned silence when informed about the microwave trick. Then he let
out a long, shuddering sigh and moaned, ''Oh my God.''
Like other members of the ''wine is a living thing'' school, Mr.
Ganter expressed deep fear of this new technological breakthrough. Others showed a native
American willingness to at least experiment. ''It makes sense,'' said
Ralph Hersom, the wine director at Le Cirque 2000. ''I don't see that it
would harm a wine, but I'd recommend doing it with a younger wine.''
Still others fessed up, some expressing shame but others not. ''I did it once
when I was working at a wine bar in Madison, Wis.,'' said Eric Zillier, the wine
director at the Hudson River Club. ''It was an '85 Burgundy from Verget,
one of my favorites, but I made the customer, who was very insistent, swear he would never
tell anyone I did it.''
Christopher Cannon, at the Judson Grill, has used the microwave and doesn't mind
saying so. It's a method of last resort, but it is a method that works, and he will
use it. ''I zap it for 5 to 10 seconds,'' he said. It seems more
reasonable than the customer who wanted his Gaja barbaresco served with ice cubes.
And why not? Most Champagne houses turn their bottles by machine, not hand. The plastic
cork and the screw top work just as well, if not better, than a cork. So why resist the
microwave?
''The microwaves are heating the water, which is the main constituent of
wine,'' said Christian E. Butzke, an enologist at the University of California
at Davis. ''If you do that for a very brief period -- 10 seconds maximum -- no
other chemical reactions are going to take place, and nothing will be
destroyed.''
The phenolic structure of the wine, Mr. Butzke said, should not be disturbed by the
microwaves. ''It is awkward,'' he admitted, ''because you
associate a microwave with TV dinners.''
Wine makers, somewhat surprisingly, do not run screaming from the room at the idea.
''It's not something I'd do with a fine wine,'' said Richard
Draper, the wine maker at Ridge Vineyards, ''but if it's an industrial
product, which 90 percent of wine is, it's been through a lot worse
already.'' As for fine wines, Mr. Draper said that his objection to microwaving
was philosophical rather than rational.
Some wine lovers even see magical powers in the microwave. Richard Dean, the sommelier at
the Mark Hotel, used to serve a wine club that gathered once a month at the Honolulu hotel
where he worked. The members were convinced that warming a red wine in the microwave for
five seconds put an extra five years of age on the wine.
A professional to the tips of his fingers, Mr. Dean did not laugh. He did not argue. Nor
did he tell his customers that the hotel had no microwave. He simply disappeared with the
wine, reappeared after a decent interval, served it, and everyone was happy -- until a
rival hotel snitched on him. ''That was embarrassing,'' he said.
The same sommeliers who shrink before the microwave do not mind employing all sorts of
nontechnological tricks, like running a decanter under warm water before pouring the wine
in it, replacing glasses on the table with glasses that have just come out of the
dishwasher, or even putting the bottle in the dishwasher. Joseph Funghini, the wine
director at the Post House, said that he has wrapped a bottle in a warm towel. Others
plunge the bottle into a bucket of warm water.
Nearly every restaurant, bending to American preferences, has raised the storage
temperature from classic cellar temperature, which is 55 degrees, to about 60 degrees.
(Wines in long-term storage remain at 53 degrees to 55 degrees, with a humidity of 70
percent.) ''Ninety-five percent of customers will object to 55
degrees,'' Mr. Hersom of Le Cirque said.
Some object to 75 degrees. ''I had a customer, very sophisticated, who simply
liked to drink red wine at body temperature,'' said Mr. Perlman of Veritas.
''He asked that it be decanted and then placed on a shelf above the
stove.'' Mr. Perlman has a lot of stories like that. There's the customer
who wanted the Champagne decanted, to get rid of those annoying bubbles, and the one who
wanted to add fruit juice to his Mouton-Rothschild to make a sangria. Mr. Perlman
suggested a more modest red. The customer said no. He wanted a good sangria.
The microwave, however, seems to be the philosophical point of no return. Some sommeliers
simply cannot cross the threshold.
''You're destroying everything in the wine that makes it wine,''
Mr. Zillier of the Hudson River Club said. ''It's catastrophic.''
When informed of Mr. Butzke's line of argument, he dug in his heels.
''Instinct tells me the fragile biochemical ingredients are going to be affected
by the highly excited water molecules,'' he said. ''You're
cooking it. If you put wine in a saute pan to bring the temperature up, people would laugh
at you. What's the difference?''
Convenience, for one thing. Efficiency for another. And one thing more.
''You get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, but you do these
things,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''After all, the customer is paying for
the bottle of wine.''
Now for the Gory Details: How to Nuke a Wine
THERE is a very simple way to bring a chilled wine up a few degrees in temperature. Let
it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. This technique, known to the ancients, produces
spectacular results with minimal effort. But there are times when the harried host does
not have 15 minutes. That's where the microwave comes in, for those with the nerve to
put a cherished bottle on the hot seat.
The microwave moment presents itself more frequently than one might think. True, most
people do not have wine cellars, and therefore their wine is more likely to need chilling
than warming. They do, however, have refrigerators. The red wine that was left to cool off
a bit can come out cold, and white wine is almost certainly well below cellar temperature
after several hours on the shelf. This is not a good thing. Cold helps mask the
deficiencies of a white wine, accentuating its crispness and thirst-quenching properties,
but it kills the taste of a complex white. Enter, to boos and hisses, the microwave oven.
Before enlisting its help, remove the metal cap from the top of the bottle and discard.
It is not necessary to remove the cork, since warming the wine a few degrees will not
significantly expand the volume of air between the cork and the wine. Set the microwave on
high power. Every five seconds of microwaving will elevate the wine's temperature by
two degrees. Five degrees is probably the most extreme variation anyone would want to
shoot for. A big-bodied red wine should be served at 60 to 65 degrees, a complex white
wine from 55 to 60 degrees, and a light, fruity red at 50 to 55 degrees. Roses and simpler
whites can be served at 45 degrees or even a little cooler. A digital thermometer inserted
in the bottle neck will provide an instant progress report. WILLIAM GRIMES
--
------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
_________________________________________________________________
Use video conversation to talk face-to-face with Windows Live Messenger.
http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/connect_your_way.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_W…
7 Apr
7 Apr
5:55 p.m.
New subject: [wine] Thurs. night
Hi
this week the wine group has reservations at Sapor.
The theme is spicy Spanish from lesser known regions
of Spain. Keep in mind that Sapor charges the five
dollars a head corkage, you can R.S.V.P. to me. I
believe most everyone knows where it is so I won't be
posting the address, let me know if you need
directions though I'd be happy to oblige.
Ruth
---
FYI/FYE
March 3, 1999
A Sommelier's Little Secret: The Microwave
By WILLIAM GRIMES
A NEW question is creeping into wine service in New
York: How do you want that cooked?
For many years, Americans have confounded the rest
of the world by drinking their white wines too cold
and their red wines too warm. Sommeliers no longer
hesitate when diners ask that a luscious
Corton-Charlemagne be plunged into an ice bucket.
They just do it. It's easy.
Red wine poses a different problem, since it often
arrives at the table with a slight chill. If the
diners want their wine the temperature of a blood
transfusion, and fast, the sommelier must resort to
wiles, and the wiliest wile of all, it turns out, is
the microwave oven.
Sometimes it's the customer who wants his wine
'waved. Sometimes it's the hard-pressed sommelier
who makes the decision to go nuclear. But it
happens. There really are wines that go into that
silent chamber at 58 degrees and come out, like a
client at a tanning salon, flush with radiation and
7 to 10 degrees warmer.
''There is no way any sommelier is going to admit to
doing it,'' said Dan Perlman, the wine director at
Veritas. ''They'll say, 'I've heard of it,' like I
just did. I'm in the clear, though, because we don't
have a microwave.''
The practice is by no means widespread, or even
widely known, but it is something that happens at
even the top restaurants. Alexis Ganter, the wine
director at City Wine and Cigar, reacted with
stunned silence when informed about the microwave
trick. Then he let out a long, shuddering sigh and
moaned, ''Oh my God.''
Like other members of the ''wine is a living thing''
school, Mr. Ganter expressed deep fear of this new
technological breakthrough. Others showed a native
American willingness to at least experiment. ''It
makes sense,'' said Ralph Hersom, the wine director
at Le Cirque 2000. ''I don't see that it would harm
a wine, but I'd recommend doing it with a younger
wine.''
Still others fessed up, some expressing shame but
others not. ''I did it once when I was working at a
wine bar in Madison, Wis.,'' said Eric Zillier, the
wine director at the Hudson River Club. ''It was an
'85 Burgundy from Verget, one of my favorites, but I
made the customer, who was very insistent, swear he
would never tell anyone I did it.''
Christopher Cannon, at the Judson Grill, has used
the microwave and doesn't mind saying so. It's a
method of last resort, but it is a method that
works, and he will use it. ''I zap it for 5 to 10
seconds,'' he said. It seems more reasonable than
the customer who wanted his Gaja barbaresco served
with ice cubes.
And why not? Most Champagne houses turn their
bottles by machine, not hand. The plastic cork and
the screw top work just as well, if not better, than
a cork. So why resist the microwave?
''The microwaves are heating the water, which is the
main constituent of wine,'' said Christian E.
Butzke, an enologist at the University of California
at Davis. ''If you do that for a very brief period
-- 10 seconds maximum -- no other chemical reactions
are going to take place, and nothing will be
destroyed.''
The phenolic structure of the wine, Mr. Butzke said,
should not be disturbed by the microwaves. ''It is
awkward,'' he admitted, ''because you associate a
microwave with TV dinners.''
Wine makers, somewhat surprisingly, do not run
screaming from the room at the idea. ''It's not
something I'd do with a fine wine,'' said Richard
Draper, the wine maker at Ridge Vineyards, ''but if
it's an industrial product, which 90 percent of wine
is, it's been through a lot worse already.'' As for
fine wines, Mr. Draper said that his objection to
microwaving was philosophical rather than rational.
Some wine lovers even see magical powers in the
microwave. Richard Dean, the sommelier at the Mark
Hotel, used to serve a wine club that gathered once
a month at the Honolulu hotel where he worked. The
members were convinced that warming a red wine in
the microwave for five seconds put an extra five
years of age on the wine.
A professional to the tips of his fingers, Mr. Dean
did not laugh. He did not argue. Nor did he tell his
customers that the hotel had no microwave. He simply
disappeared with the wine, reappeared after a decent
interval, served it, and everyone was happy -- until
a rival hotel snitched on him. ''That was
embarrassing,'' he said.
The same sommeliers who shrink before the microwave
do not mind employing all sorts of nontechnological
tricks, like running a decanter under warm water
before pouring the wine in it, replacing glasses on
the table with glasses that have just come out of
the dishwasher, or even putting the bottle in the
dishwasher. Joseph Funghini, the wine director at
the Post House, said that he has wrapped a bottle in
a warm towel. Others plunge the bottle into a bucket
of warm water.
Nearly every restaurant, bending to American
preferences, has raised the storage temperature from
classic cellar temperature, which is 55 degrees, to
about 60 degrees. (Wines in long-term storage remain
at 53 degrees to 55 degrees, with a humidity of 70
percent.) ''Ninety-five percent of customers will
object to 55 degrees,'' Mr. Hersom of Le Cirque
said.
Some object to 75 degrees. ''I had a customer, very
sophisticated, who simply liked to drink red wine at
body temperature,'' said Mr. Perlman of Veritas.
''He asked that it be decanted and then placed on a
shelf above the stove.'' Mr. Perlman has a lot of
stories like that. There's the customer who wanted
the Champagne decanted, to get rid of those annoying
bubbles, and the one who wanted to add fruit juice
to his Mouton-Rothschild to make a sangria. Mr.
Perlman suggested a more modest red. The customer
said no. He wanted a good sangria.
The microwave, however, seems to be the
philosophical point of no return. Some sommeliers
simply cannot cross the threshold.
''You're destroying everything in the wine that
makes it wine,'' Mr. Zillier of the Hudson River
Club said. ''It's catastrophic.'' When informed of
Mr. Butzke's line of argument, he dug in his heels.
''Instinct tells me the fragile biochemical
ingredients are going to be affected by the highly
excited water molecules,'' he said. ''You're cooking
it. If you put wine in a saute pan to bring the
temperature up, people would laugh at you. What's
the difference?''
Convenience, for one thing. Efficiency for another.
And one thing more.
''You get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach,
but you do these things,'' Mr. Perlman said. ''After
all, the customer is paying for the bottle of
wine.''
Now for the Gory Details: How to Nuke a Wine
THERE is a very simple way to bring a chilled wine
up a few degrees in temperature. Let it sit at room
temperature for 15 minutes. This technique, known to
the ancients, produces spectacular results with
minimal effort. But there are times when the harried
host does not have 15 minutes. That's where the
microwave comes in, for those with the nerve to put
a cherished bottle on the hot seat.
The microwave moment presents itself more frequently
than one might think. True, most people do not have
wine cellars, and therefore their wine is more
likely to need chilling than warming. They do,
however, have refrigerators. The red wine that was
left to cool off a bit can come out cold, and white
wine is almost certainly well below cellar
temperature after several hours on the shelf. This
is not a good thing. Cold helps mask the
deficiencies of a white wine, accentuating its
crispness and thirst-quenching properties, but it
kills
=== message truncated ===
____________________________________________________________________________________
You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total
Access, No Cost.
http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com
9 Apr
9 Apr
2:17 p.m.
New subject: [wine] Wine Labels
On Mon, Apr 07, 2008 at 03:49:08PM -0700, Ruth Gregory wrote:
Hi
this week the wine group has reservations at Sapor.
The theme is spicy Spanish from lesser known regions
of Spain. Keep in mind that Sapor charges the five
dollars a head corkage, you can R.S.V.P. to me. I
believe most everyone knows where it is so I won't be
posting the address, let me know if you need
directions though I'd be happy to oblige.
Ruth
---
>
>
> FYI/FYE
>
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-wine9apr09,1,6865251.story
From the Los Angeles Times
WINE RULES
A wine label overhaul: Meet the man who'd change your AVA
If the TTB's John Manfreda has his way, the name on your bottle might mean something
totally different, and the label will pack nutritional info, allergen warnings and a list
of ingredients. Grapes? We hope.
By Corie Brown
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 9, 2008
COLLEGE PARK, MD. — IN a small, windowless laboratory -- far removed from romantic
vineyard vistas -- scientists at the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
are attempting what most wine lovers would say is impossible. They are developing a test
for terroir, the seemingly indescribable site-specific character attributed to fine wines
(and named for the French word for soil).
The effort to find physical evidence of wine's geographic origin, spearheaded by John
Manfreda, TTB administrator and the nation's chief wine regulator, is decades from
completion. But whether or not Manfreda succeeds in quantifying terroir, that concept of
"place" is a focal point in a battle brewing between his agency and the U.S.
wine industry.
Should a winery using grapes from Carneros be permitted to name itself Calistoga? What if
the winery was there before the AVA (American viticultural area)? Should wines from an AVA
that's within the boundaries of a larger AVA (for instance, Rutherford within Napa
Valley) continue to be allowed to identify itself with both? Or does the smaller AVA trump
the larger?
If Manfreda has his way, more of the wines you buy will have brand names that also are AVA
designations, even though they may not contain grapes from that AVA, and wine labels,
along with those on all alcoholic beverages, will be jammed with other new information,
including nutrient serving facts and a list of potential allergens as well as a list of
ingredients.
The wine industry is reeling from Manfreda's grand plan, potentially the most
sweeping overhaul of industry rules since the 1978 creation of the AVA system, the
American version of certified wine-growing areas. The AVA proposals, in particular, are an
unwelcome surprise that will do nothing but confuse consumers, according to industry
insiders who asked not to be quoted for fear of offending Manfreda.
For his part, Manfreda says he is addressing issues that have been festering for years. He
is frustrated by the industry's desire to force his office to act as an arbitrator in
internecine conflicts, a role he says is inappropriate for government.
Outside the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, there is no governmental or
commercial support for the new AVA rules, says U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (D.-St. Helena),
who represents Napa Valley and is co-chairman of the 200-member Congressional Wine Caucus.
"The TTB seems to have taken this on its own initiative," he says. Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson, who oversees the TTB, appears intent on allowing Manfreda to
proceed, Thompson says, a conclusion he reached after meeting with Paulson.
"The juice to do this? It's all us," Manfreda says. The patchwork of wine
rules that has evolved since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 serves no one well, he
says. The 62-year-old government attorney doesn't expect to fix all of the problems
before he retires, but citing a mandate "to collect taxes, to protect consumers and
to make certain that the industry trades on a level playing field," he says it is his
job to start the cleanup. After all, during his 38 years at the agency, he had a hand in
creating the mess.
Nutrition info too
BY the end of this year, Manfreda hopes to finalize any AVA rule changes along with a rule
mandating nutrient serving facts (calories, carbohydrates, fats, proteins and alcohol
content) on labels. Other label requirements would follow, with all of the changes to be
reflected on labels for wines offered for sale as early as three years from now.
The wine industry is fighting Manfreda on all fronts, with the AVA rule changes generating
the fiercest opposition. "There is consensus within our group that the rules in place
have served us well. No new rules are needed," says Robert Koch, president and CEO of
the Wine Institute, which represents the California wine industry.
The Napa Valley Vintners Assn., representing Napa's winery owners, considers
Manfreda's initiatives a threat to decades of work establishing Napa Valley as
America's premiere AVA. If Manfreda is really the power at play here, says Pat
Stotesbery, association president and Ladera Vineyard owner, "I'm amazed what
one bureaucrat sitting alone in his office in Washington can do."
The immediate issue: Manfreda would allow Calistoga Cellars to continue to use its brand
name after the establishment of a Calistoga AVA regardless of whether it adheres to AVA
requirements that 85% of the grapes in its wines come from Calistoga. To Stotesbery, that
opens the floodgates to new brand names that are also AVA names. "Consumers should
not be deceived when they see a recognizable name on a label," he says.
"I know, I know," Manfreda says when asked about the wine industry's
vociferous opposition. "I'm not making fans in the industry." He plans to
address the industry's concerns in the final rules, and may even withdraw certain
provisions. But, he says, it would take an executive order from President Bush to
accomplish the full stop that the industry desires.
That can perhaps be arranged. Manfreda tried to institute one aspect of his sweeping
alcohol beverage label proposal -- the list of ingredients -- in the late 1970s. When
President Reagan entered office in 1981, he ended the effort with the stroke of a pen.
Geographic designations
GEOGRAPHY is a tricky topic for the U.S. wine industry. European wine regulators can
rationalize their appellations on centuries of tradition and grape-growing experience, but
American geographic indicators are created in a relative void. Brand names are real
property, whereas regional identities are collective initiatives that don't
necessarily translate to the bottom line. As a result, the U.S. wine industry has never
taken a stand that "place names" are essential to consumers. The industry
wanted, and got, an AVA system that did not confer any quality designations or controls.
Political boundaries are as relevant as viticulture criteria.
Manfreda wants to change that. According to the current rules, he says, an AVA simply must
be "distinct from the area outside of it." That vague standard also is applied
to smaller AVAs created within larger AVAs, compounding the lack of meaningful
distinctions in Manfreda's view. "I want to get away from random geographic
designations," he says. "We want more clarity, to be more specific, not
less."
As the rules read today, he says, the correct thing to do would be to cut the smaller AVAs
out of the surrounding AVAs, leaving something that looks like a circle of cookie dough
with holes where the cookies have been removed. In that case, the Napa Valley AVA would be
reduced to the bits and pieces of land that are left when Stags Leap District, Oakville
District and the rest of Napa Valley's 14 sub-AVAs are removed.
The industry, according to Wendell Lee, Wine Institute general counsel, thinks not. The
government has been granting AVAs within AVAs for decades and allowed both AVAs on wine
labels. Changing the rules now would create confusion.
Wine has been made in California since the 1800s. It wasn't until 1978 that the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the precursor agency to the TTB, established the
AVA system, stipulating that at least 75% of the grapes in wines with country, state or
county designations must come from those regions. AVA wines must source 85% of those
grapes from that AVA.
Originally, if a brand name was also an AVA, all it had to do to continue operation
without being subjected to the 85% rule was to add the word "brand" to its name.
In 1987, that rule was changed to allow brand names in existence before the AVA system was
established (such as Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Stags Leap District) to continue in
operation outside the 85% rule.
The rules, however, did not address future conflicts in new AVAs, such as Calistoga
Cellars’ clash with the pending Calistoga AVA, Manfreda says. He does not want to force
this vintner or any other in a similar situation to conform to the AVA rules when they
built their business long before the AVA was established. "I don't think the
government should make winners and losers out of people with established businesses,"
he says. "I don't think the government should be used as a weapon to eliminate
competition."
Right now, this is the only AVA-brand name conflict before the TTB. But those opposed to
Manfreda's proposal say they expect a rush of opportunists to file geographic brand
names hoping to be allowed one day to operate outside of AVA regulations.
The new wave of wine-label rules looks like a package, but it didn't start out as
one. In 2005, a federal law mandated that all prepared foods include health warnings for
allergens. (For wine, potential allergens include wheat paste, egg whites and fish
extracts.) When it became clear that there would be a change in wine label requirements,
Manfreda says, the opportunity existed to consider other changes without asking vintners
to incur additional costs. He accepted a 2003 request by the not-for-profit watchdog group
Center for Science in the Public Interest to consider requiring all alcohol beverage
labels to indicate serving size with percentages of recommended daily amounts of protein,
carbohydrates, calories and fats. In addition, Manfreda says, he decided to revisit a rule
proposed in the 1970s to list ingredients.
'CSI Napa Valley'?
BACK at the TTB lab, Manfreda's ambitious initiative to develop terroir tests
continues. Using a mass spectrometerand an array of computers, chemists are working on a
system to identify minerals and heavy metals in wines from individual AVAs. The
first-of-its-kind work is theoretical now, with no specific markers identified yet for any
particular AVA.
So far, the project's most concrete accomplishment has been to identify the chemical
markers for certain grape varieties. Like an experienced connoisseur, the lab can test a
glass of wine and determine whether it is Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir or
Zinfandel -- but only if the wine sample is made from 100% of one of those grape
varieties.
If the scientists can identify varieties and their relative quantities when more than one
is blended in a wine, Manfreda says, they'll be able to catch fraudulent vintners. Is
that bottle of California Pinot Noir really 100% Pinot, as the label indicates, or has the
winemaker beefed it up with Syrah? They'll be able to run the same tests on imported
wines.
Does Manfreda believe there's a lot of fraudulent wine in the market? No. The
industry is amazingly free of scandal and maintains high quality standards, he says. He
just wants to keep it that way.
corie.brown(a)latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-wineside9apr09,1,3749568.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Wine and the law: a
brief history of U.S. label regulations
April 9, 2008
1933: As Prohibition is repealed by the 21st Amendment, the first federal wine rules
require that varietal wines (e.g., Chardonnay, Syrah) contain 51% juice from that grape
variety, and that wines indicating country, state or county appellation contain 51% juice
from grapes grown in the specified appellation.
1978: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms amends wine label regulations.
Provisions include standards requiring that (1) varietal wines must include 75% juice from
that grape variety; (2) wines indicating country, state or county appellation must include
75% juice from grapes grown in the specified appellation; (3) wines bearing the name of an
American viticultural area (defined with this regulation) must include 85% juice from
grapes grown in that region; (4) vintage-dated wines must include 95% wine produced in
that vintage year. A provision is made for geographic brand names that were in conflict
with an AVA name to be differentiated by the addition of the word "brand" to the
wine name.
1980: Augusta, Mo., is the first American viticultural area (AVA).
1987: Exceptions are made allowing some wine brand names that are in conflict with AVA
names to be used without the word "brand" and without following the 85% rule.
Separately, a sulfite health warning is added to labels.
1988: The Federal Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act of 1988 provides health warnings on wine
labels for pregnant women and people who operate cars.
2005: Request for comments on proposed labeling rules concerning potential allergens,
nutrient information and ingredient labeling.
2006: Rule changes reduce the requirements for vintage-dated wines from state or county
appellations to 85% of the wine in the bottle (produced in a vintage year). The 95% rule
set in 1978 is unchanged for AVA designated wines.
2007: Rules are proposed to allow certain brand names that conflict with new AVAs, and to
differentiate AVAs from sub-AVAs.
-- Corie Brown
Source: The Wine Institute
--
------------------------------
* Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu *
* University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 *
* Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *
6450
days inactive
6457
days old
5 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
Jason Kallsen -
Jim L. Ellingson -
Jim L. Ellingson -
Ruth Gregory -
Theodore Trampe -
WAYNE THEUER