Tag Archives: wine and health

Winebits 272: Randall Grahm, alcohol ads, wine and health

? Is the world upside down? The Wine Spectator ?s James Laube writes a mostly favorable profile of Bonny Doon ?s irrepressible Randall Grahm. Why is this so odd? For one thing, Grahm has never had any use for the Winestream Media, scores, the kinds of wines it likes, and how the system works. For another, he once wrote of Laube: ?I’d rather have a frontal lobotomy than a Laube in front of me.” Laube mostly let bygones be bygones: ?The latest wines are striking for their structure and individuality. Though, in true Winestream Media fashion, only one of the four wines reviewed in the piece scored higher than a 90. Which, given my experience with Grahm ?s wines, once again emphasizes how useless scores are.

? Ban ?em all! A British doctors ? group wants to phase out all alcohol advertising as part of its latest campaign to tackle the country ?s drinking problem. The Alcohol Health Alliance says children need to be protected from booze ads; hence its plan to restrict them to newspapers and magazines with an adult readership. Eventually, all ads and sponsorships for alcohol products would be banned. This is an amazing proposal from the country that gave the world civil liberties in the Magna Carta, and raises all sorts of constitutional questions. I wonder: What would Horace Rumpole, whose love of cheap wine was surpassed only by his respect for Magna Carta, ”our ancient rights of freedom,’ ? say to the doctors?

? One more silly claim: The Wine Curmudgeon would be happier if health claims for wine would be banned, which I ?ve done here on the blog. The only reason I ?m mentioning this one is that it demonstrates why all of this is so foolish. Red wine, in moderation, can help old farts like the WC make women happy. Does this mean my natural charm isn ?t enough?

One more reason why there’s no health news on the blog

The Wine Curmudgeon banned health news from the blog in 2009, after Italian researchers discovered that women who are drunk are easier to seduce. Did the world really need a study to know that?

Since then, I have remained ever vigilant. Wine, for some reason, has attracted the attention of researchers over the past decade in a way that ?s hard to understand. Let ?s cure cancer or AIDs; why all this fuss about wine?

The latest wine research that will make absolutely in difference in anyone ?s life comes from Rhode Island, where a study looked at the effects of red wine and vodka on pigs with high cholesterol. This raises so many questions that I don ?t even know where to begin: How do pigs get high cholesterol? They can ?t be eating too much fatty bacon or sausage, can they? Why vodka and not gin or bourbon?

The best part of the study? That moderate consumption of red wine and vodka may reduce cardiovascular risk, and that red wine may be more effective than vodka in doing so. I could have told you that, and the only medical degree I have is the one my mother wanted me to get.

So, once again, another reason to ban health news from the blog. We don ?t need research to know that drinking wine in moderation is a good thing; Julia Child was saying that 50 years ago.

(And a tip o ? the Curmudgeon ?s fedora to The Italian Wine Guy, who sent this item my way and whose sense of irony may be even more developed than mine.)

Five wine facts that aren’t necessarily facts

wine mythsThe wine world is full of people who know exactly what they ?re talking about, even when they don ?t. My pal John Bratcher loves to tell the story about the guy at a wine tasting who said in no uncertain terms that blended wines were inferior to varietal wines (those made with just one grape, like chardonnay or merlot, instead of more than one grape). John then mentioned that all of the great French red wines were blends; how did that fit into the man ?s world view?

So the next time you ?re buying wine, don ?t be afraid to be skeptical. Taste is in the palate of the beholder, but there are objective truths about wine and the wine business. After the jump, five of the most annoying facts that really aren ?t:

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Why there isn’t any health news on the blog

Several years ago, when Italian researchers reported that women who were drunk were easier to seduce, the Wine Curmudgeon banned all health news from the blog.

Haven’t regretted the decision one bit. Because that means we don’t have to read stuff like this: “New research by scientists at the University of Cincinnati has shown that too much alcohol can harm brain cells” and that binge drinking might be toxic. Leave your own punchline in the comments if you want, I’m wondering that if this was was new research, did the old research advocate binge drinking?

Winebits 179: Consumer spending, corporate wine, surgeons and wine

? Bring on the booze? The economy is picking up, so we're getting ready to spend more money on wine, says a study from business advisory firm AlixPartners. Almost 9 out of 10 of us — up from 7 of 10 last year — will spend the same or more on alcoholic drinks in the coming 12 months. We'll do it in bars and restaurants, says the study, though there was one note of caution. Said an Alix official: "When consumers were feeling more of the full frontal assault of the financial crisis and the recession, more of them were likely to say they were going to spend less in total. Fewer consumers are saying 'I'm going to spend less,' but they haven't swung over to say 'I'm going to spend a lot more.' "

? Another merger that didn't work: Australia's Fosters Group, which spent A$7 billion to put together a wine and beer company over the past decade, has decided that the combination wasn't such a good idea after all. It has spun off the wine division, which includes Beringer and Penfolds, to a separate company. But that may not be enough to save the company, reports the Economist. All told, Fosters may taken a A$4.3 billion loss in the deal, which is the second massive wine unraveling this year. Constellation Brands sold its Aussie labels for A$230 million in February; they had cost the company A$1.85 billion.

? Surgeons shouldn't drink and cut: Yes, we have a study. Researchers in Ireland have found that drinking too much alcohol appears to interfere with a surgeon ?s skills, even the day after. As regular visitors know, the Wine Curmudgeon announced an embargo on wine and health news in 2009; the studies and claims had just gotten too silly. But this story deserved mention, if only because it's difficult to believe that someone had to study the effect of a hangover on someone who cuts into people's bodies with a sharp object.