Recently, I signed up to receive news alerts from Google. It’s a
handy little service that keeps you apprised when a news story hits
Google’s news service pertaining to the user’s subject of
interest.
Recently, I signed up to receive news alerts from Google. It’s a handy little service that keeps you apprised when a news story hits Google’s news service pertaining to the user’s subject of interest.
One of the subjects I chose was “wine.” I’ll bet that comes as a big surprise.
The last few days yielded a few interesting items: It looks like Prince Harry (the younger son of the late, venerated Lady Di) is a bit of a lush. According to the Kerala, India, News, the Bad Boy of Buckingham was spotted swilling red wine from a half-pint glass.
He was also reported to have eaten several “fruit flavoured (sic) vodka ices.” There was no indication as to what vintage the Prince was chugging (or flavor of fruit vodka ices), but he’s 20, and my guess is that he really didn’t care.
And speaking of overindulging, Queensland, Australia’s The Courier Mail reported that the Australian government is considering raising the tax rates on cheap wine.
The problem is that “cask wine” is taxed at a much lower rate than higher-quality wines, and is so inexpensive that it has led to a high rate of alcohol abuse among Aboriginal peoples.
It seems that $15AU worth of this stuff ($11.61US) can “‘wipe out’ three or four people for the day.” Wow. That’s a lot of buzz for the buck.
Hollywood is getting into the wine act as well. A new film, Sideways, follows two guys on a trip through Santa Barbara wine country.
The San Jose Mercury News calls it “a buddy movie with brains.” Sideways may be one of those rare films that are made for people who are over the age of 12.
One of the characters, a wine snob, delivers my favorite line when he says: “this wine tastes like the back of an L.A. school bus.”
On a more serious note, one that will be of interest to those who like to experience wines that aren’t found in the local bodega, is the partnership of Sunset Magazine and Signature Wines named The Sunset Wine Club.
Members will be able to choose from a wide variety of wines, chosen by the editors of the magazine. For $34.95 per month, you get your choice of two reds or one red and one white.
While many readers will undoubtedly be familiar with Sunset, Signature Wines may be somewhat less recognizable.
That company specializes in setting up specialty wine programs for businesses and institutions and has established flourishing wine clubs for organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and – oddly enough – Elvis Presley Enterprises. Somehow, the image of The King sipping a sultry Chardonnay with his fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich doesn’t ring true.
This next item is just the ticket if you’re wondering what to get that gazillionaire on your holiday shopping list – you know, the one who really does have everything. The Hotel Seiyo Ginza, an absolutely fabulous-looking place in the heart of Tokyo (a “standard room” starts at ¥45,000, or $437, but you get 24-hour room service and twice-daily butler service) is offering a “Hedonist Dinner” in December.
The hotel consulted with the Judge Wapner of the wine world, Robert Parker, and French chef Joel Robuchon to create the meal, limited to 22 guests.
The wines featured will include an 1864 Lafite and a 1961 Latour a Pomerol. (Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the 1864 was found to be corked?) According to Christie’s auction house experts, the bar tab for the evening will top $200,000.
The cost for the dinner? Thirteen thousand dollars per person.
Think of this: let’s say that you get, oh, mediocre service at the dinner and choose to tip only 15 percent.
That would come to $1,950, or enough to buy 722 Big Macs at the McDonald’s on Airline Road in Hollister. Want to know how many Macs you could get for $13,000? More than 4,800. And you thought you didn’t learn anything from Wine Chat.
Another wine-related story ran in the Tuesday, Nov. 30 San Francisco Chronicle. Wine Country Helicopters owner Wayne Lackey operates a fleet of five helicopters from the Napa County Airport.
It’s the ultimate designated driver service, with custom-tailored tasting tours flying you right to some of your favorite wineries’ tasting-room doorsteps, starting at $800 per person. (I wonder if they would fly you to Tokyo for that dinner?)
Well, it seems that some of the residents around those wineries don’t cotton to the idea of choppers buzzing overhead and interfering with their (very costly) bucolic solitude.
One resident quoted in the story referred to the noise as “very Apocalypse Now.” Only in California would anyone say a thing like that.
So, outraged citizens have prevailed upon their esteemed elected officials to place a ban on Lackey’s ability to land his whirly-birds at Napa Valley wineries. Lackey is understandably upset, and vows to fight the decision.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t do it while flying his helicopters in formation and playing Wagner’s The Ride of the Valkyries really, really loud.
