Vinicultured: A Wine Blog

After a light day at school, I am at home relaxing with a tuna-and-olive oil sandwich and a glass of Brasserie Dupont’s Foret, a delicious organic Belgian Saison ale that clocks in at a very moderate 7.5% ABV.  It is a darker amber color, with a nice head and a taste evocative of pine and apples (maybe even a touch of pineapple).  It’s a good combination with the (canned) tuna, which I mixed with olive oil, a bit of mayo, dried dill, pepper, and a bit of Hungarian paprika.  The beer even goes well with the song I’m listening to: Dylan’s “Goin’ to Acapulco” as covered by Calexico and vocals by Jim James of My Morning Jacket.  (Thanks to my roomate Alex for this musical recommendation.)

Unfortunately, the reason I am drinking Foret at 2:15 in the afternoon is that I bought a bunch of single bottles of great Belgian, German, and American craftbrews at the Wine Specialist at a markdown of 20%.  A markdown of 20% is awesome for anyone, but that markdown was caused by a recent DC council resolution that bans single sales of beer, including 40s of malt liquor but including things like singles of Coors or 750 mL bottles of Brasserie Dupont’s Foret.

Apparently such a ban had been in effect in various DC wards for over a year, but is now being implemented on a larger scale.  Local liquor stores such as the Wine Specialist and Riverside Liquors are applying for exemptions, but the exemption process may take up to two or three months.

The ban takes effect on Monday, February 9, which means that you won’t be able to buy singles of any beer or malt liquor at most places until at least April or May.  You will, however, be able to purchase single bottles at Whole Foods, which was able to get an exemption.

This ban implicates issues of public safety, littering, alcoholism, crime, etc., etc.  I can see the logic behind it, but the method certainly seems draconian.  I am tempted to say that only certain types of alcohol should be subject to the ban, such as malt liquor, but then socioeconomic factors and equal protection concerns come into play.  Some suggestions are that beers below 70 ounces but above 40 ounces should be allowed, or beers above $4.00, but the same issues arise.  On the other hand, the Wine Specialist estimates that beer sales make up about 11-12% of their total sales, which could mean the difference between profitability and bankruptcy in these tough economic times.

In the short term: go to your local liquor/beer/wine shop and buy beers!  The Wine Specialist, as I mentioned above, is liquidating its singles stock at 20% until Monday, February 9.  Other shops probably have similar deals going on.  In the long term–tighten your belts around your livers.

Dude, what the fuck.

Sorry, I have to use profanity here.  Hersey, which bought Scharffen Berger back in 2005, said Tuesay that it plans on closing its West Berkeley chocolate factory sometime this year.

Hershey already makes most of the chocolate labeled as Scharffen Berger at its Robinson, Illinois plant.

Hersey spokesman Kirk Saville said: “We will continue to source the world’s best cacao to create our rich and distinct chocolate.  We will maintain the highest quality standard for all our artisan productions.”

That’s like someone saying they’re going to make Burgundy in California.  Californian pinot noirs can be great, but they are never going to be Burgundies.

What a terrible time for Sharffen Berger fans, Berkeleyites, and foodies everywhere.  What a terrible time, too, for John Sharffenberger, who in 1996 founded the company with his doctor friend Robert Steinberg.

Steinberg died of cancer in September of last year.  Deborah Kwan, a publicist for Sharffen Berger, uttered perhaps the saddest words I’ve read in a while: “I’m glad Robert is not alive to see this.

“If the lymphoma hadn’t taken him, this would have.”

(Thank you to the SF Chronicle for the primary article and North Bay Bohemian’s BohoBlog for the picture.)

During law school orientation we had a speaker talk to us about the dangers of drug and alcohol addiction.  As could reasonably be deduced, lawyers were disproportionately likely to become addicted to AODs.

(All throughout that presentation, heads turned back and forth and bodies shifted a bit in their seats.  If orientation was any indication of our future careers in law, we were all doomed.)

I came across an interesting blog post from the New York Times tonight regarding alcoholism.  What’s especially interesting about it is that it emphasizes the environmental or social aspect of alcoholism:

If alcoholism is an addiction — which it is — how can people control their drinking just because it is no longer acceptable to get drunk? What about smoking, another addiction? Addicts are supposed to be powerless; is a little social disapproval more powerful than all the rehabilitation centers and 12-step programs and fancy new drugs?

Does fashion trump addiction?

Addiction specialists and scientists have identified three causes of most addictions: early trauma, genes, and environment. Still, addiction has eluded all attempts at a precise definition or a complete understanding. In most models, environment is thought to be the least of the three so-called causes. But maybe environment is the elephant in the room. In an environment where it is not attractive to get drunk, no one gets drunk.

No one likes a sloppy drunk, but everybody likes to have a good time.

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There’s an interesting article on the drinking habits of presidents and our president-elect here.

(Thanks to Sarah over at First Crush for the article!)

America has a strange relationship with alcohol generally and wine specifically.  What other country could come up with the monstrosity of “near beer”?

According to Karen MacNeil, author of the fabulous Wine Bible, the American wine industry was nearly destroyed by that great experiment known as Prohibition.  Part of the reason why it took so long for American winemakers to “catch up” (if that’s even occurred yet!) to their counterparts in the Old World is that long, dry hiatus from drinking and making legal wine.

One could argue that American winemakers have done an admirable job of, in fact, “catching up.”  What is more the issue is the perception among a huge number of Americans that wine is something fancy or foreign.  Sure, wine is often used to celebrate milestones–or, in my case, Friday evenings–but wine has not as yet been incorporated into the daily lives of people in this country.  And that’s a shame because wine is so delicious.  And gets you drunk.

But then again, the American people are getting wise.  They want their cabs and now even their gruner veltliners and verdejos.  And now I can imagine if I were invited to the White House for dinner (any moment now, Mr. President-Elect) I’d be able to get a glass of something decent and not a tumbler of lemonade!

This post has nothing to do with wine. It doesn’t even have anything to do with alcohol.

Well, I’ll take that back. There was a magazine article a few years back that brought up the fact that the yeast from beer could basically digest oils, as in the sebaceous oils from human skin. While the research I conducted online yielded just as many counts for as against his hypothesis, the author of that article suggested that acne dropped off after the age of 21 because people drank more alcohol–specifically, beer–once they turned legal.

Well, here I was, 25 years of age and still suffering from moderate acne (sorry, ladies, for destroying your mental image of me). I tried Proactiv and a whole bunch of other treatments–salicylic acid, benzyl peroxide–and had at best mixed results. I even took the author’s advice and tried drinking beer heavily. There’d be periods of time when I’d be relatively clear, and then–BAM!!!!–the same problem spots.

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The New York Times reports that Robert Mondavi, that titan of wine, died this morning.  He was 94.

Robert Mondavi is best known for his eponymous label, though he is also behind Woodbridge, a line of budget California wines, and Opus One, a selection of ultra-premium cabernet sauvignon.

He was a champion of California as a wine-growing region, specifically one that could rival France and the rest of Europe in terms of quality.