Study Finds Link Between Red Wine, Letting Mother Know What You Really Think

Just three glasses with dinner can support finally letting her have it!

CHICAGO—Health experts have long known that drinking red wine can have such positive benefits as reducing blood vessel damage, lowering the risk of heart attack, and preventing harmful LDL cholesterol from forming. But researchers at the Northwestern University Department of Preventive Medicine have recently found that the consumption of four to six glasses of red wine, most notably at dinner or a family function, may be linked to totally going off on one’s mom.

According to a study published Monday in The American Journal Of Medicine, a previously unknown ingredient in red wine has been shown to cause a marked improvement of vocal clarity and emotional acuity—while reducing overall inhibition—after only four glasses.

During routine trials, subjects who imbibed five glasses or more showed a remarkable increase in specific mental functions, such as the ability to recall every time their mothers had been unsupportive of their boyfriends or husbands.

A striking reduction in the time needed to translate personal epiphanies into loud, public epiphanies was also noted.

“It seems the benefits of red wine consumption are virtually limitless,” said Dr. Susan Zheng, lead researcher on the study. “Many were unable to recall a single time their mother had paid more attention to their sister’s soccer games than to their starring role in the school play. But after drinking only one bottle of standard Merlot, these participants could not only remember, but could actually sing whole stretches of Annie Get Your Gun, even while sobbing. It’s extraordinary.”

Dr. Zheng explained that the 100 women who participated in the study were split into two groups. One group was seated at the end of a long dinner table and subjected to backhanded compliments about their housekeeping abilities while steadily imbibing 8-ounce glasses of Turning Leaf Cabernet. The other group, a control group, was allowed to celebrate the holidays at home.

The positive effects of wine consumption were seen in as little as three hours, with 86 percent of participants showing greater resistance to unsolicited career advice, 77 percent displaying increased mental function in the area of the brain devoted to reminding you why Dad left you in the first place, and 60 percent demonstrating less concern to “play this little happy-happy game anymore.”

Subsequent tests revealed that, if the wine is consumed prior to dinner or on an empty stomach, the benefits are increased nearly tenfold.

“I highly suggest every woman between the ages of 21 and 39 allow a few glasses of wine to be a part of their healthy diet,” Dr. Zheng said before pouring herself the remains of an open bottle. “But what do I know. I’m just the lead researcher for an entire team of Northwestern grad students who look to me for the answer because I’m their boss. All my achievements are irrelevant because I never had any kids, right, Mom? Right?”

The long-term advantages of red wine consumption have also been noted among the well-adjusted and insightful people of France, where a bottle of claret is a regular part of mealtime from a much earlier age. In a recent survey conducted in the town of Saint-Florentin, researchers were unable to find a single person over the age of 20 who had not already reaped the benefits of letting loose on the soul-sucking banshee who brought you into this world just to torture you with endless comments about your hair and dress.

However, medical experts are quick to point out that red wine is not, in itself, sufficient to promote a healthy psyche. Similar positive effects have been found in other food and drink items, such as White Russians, vodka tonics, Canadian Club whisky with flat ginger ale, and anything served at a wedding.

“Thus far, we have been unable to determine any negative effects of increased wine consumption,” said Dr. Hugh Van Pelt, also with the Northwestern team. “Some women have reported feelings of nausea and headaches the following morning, but they said these feelings were no worse than the nausea and headaches they felt for the days leading up to the dinner, so the results are inconclusive.”

The Northwestern team is currently in the process of securing funding to determine what ingredient in bourbon enables one to finally wrestle one’s stepfather to the ground.

(courtesy of The Onion)

Forget Jenny Craig, Drink More Wine

Wine doesn’t make women fat, report claims

Women who drink wine are actually less likely to gain weight than those who are teetotal, according to a new report.

By Laura Roberts
Published: 10:36AM GMT 07 Mar 2010

Researchers found that regular moderate female drinkers were less likely to become obese after a 13 year study of more than 19,000 women.

The finding seems to contradict received dietary wisdom which has it that alcohol consumption leads to weight gain.

The body may use calories from alcohol in a different way from other foods which affects weight gain, doctors said.

It is thought that alcohol is broken down by the liver using a different metabolic pathway to create heat, rather than fat.

Lu Wang, from Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston questioned 19,220 American women with healthy body weight about their drinking habits.

About 38 per cent were non-alcohol drinkers.

Over 13 years this was the group that gained the most weight.

The more women drank the less weight they gained. Those who drank red wine gained the least weight with greater weight gain associated with beer and spirits.

The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, said there was no clear connection between alcohol consumption and weight gain.

However, Catherine Collins, a spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, said women should not look on wine as a weight loss aid.

She said: “If these women have a healthy diet and lifestyle and are having one or two units of alcohol a night then that has less calories than someone who instead has a chocolate bar to unwind. It’s a question of “what’s your poison?”

“Of course if women were drinking more than two units a day they would put on weight. What this survey shows is that moderation is key to a healthy lifestyle. People who drink wine may be more likely to snack on sugary and more calorific treats.”

The benefits of drinking red wine have already been documented.

A study by Barts, the London School of Medicine and the Queen Mary University in London highlighted a mechanism in red wine that appeared to interfere with a body chemical responsible for clogging up the arteries.

Research by the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen showed that a daily glass of red wine increased good cholesterol by up to 16 per cent, and reduced the clotting compound fibrinogen by up to 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, white wine has also been shown to have some beneficial effects, with a 2008 study by the University of Buffalo suggesting that while both red and white wine can bolster lung function, white wine seems to have a more positive effect.

from Telegraph.co.uk

At Least 12.5% Of Chile’s Wines Lost In Quake

Chile earthquake rattles wine industry as millions of bottles’ worth is lost

Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, March 4, 2010

SANTIAGO, CHILE — The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to one of the world’s most popular wine industries, sending rivers of merlot and cabernet sauvignon pouring from cracked barrels and vast storage tanks onto warehouse floors.”That was hard to watch,” said Pablo Morande Jr., who said he looked on as 2 1/2 million liters of wine sloshed into the ground at his vineyard in Chile’s battered wine country.

Vintners and analysts of an industry that is the fourth-leading wine exporter to the United States after Italy, France and Australia estimated that at least 150 million bottles’ worth of wine, and perhaps much more, was destroyed in the 8.8-magnitude tremor, which killed more than 800 people.

René Merino, president of Wines of Chile, the national association, said that at current retail prices in the United States, the loss was worth $975 million in spilled wine alone.

The full extent of the damage to the industry, which has annual sales of about $1.3 billion, is only now coming into focus as wine producers take stock of their losses. Some industry officials played down the damage, saying there would be little long-term effect on price or supply.

Officials from Chile’s biggest producers, representing 95 percent of the industry, met Wednesday and concluded that the earthquake’s effects on business were not as bad as initially feared. Merino, who led the meeting, said about 12.5 percent of the country’s cellared wine was lost.

But others said perhaps 20 percent or more of the Chilean industry’s stored wine was destroyed, which could create serious problems for Chilean exports in the coming months.

“Many wineries that lost 80 percent of their production are publicly saying just 15 percent was lost,” said one wine executive who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the fear that distributors would cut off wineries thought to be most heavily damaged by the quake. “This is an incredibly touchy subject.”

About 70 percent of Chilean production takes place in areas badly affected by the quake, including the Maule, Colchagua and Cachapoal valleys, all key areas for Chilean wine production.

Much of the damage came when massive storage tanks, stainless steel vats more than 15 feet high, toppled. Violent shaking snapped tank legs bolted to the ground, knocking the vats over and causing a domino effect as tank after tank crashed to the ground. Wine stored in barrels was also lost as the barrels rolled off racks, cracked open or popped the seal, flooding warehouses.

Winemakers who have visited the region said the damage extended far beyond finished wine. The quake also caused massive damage to infrastructure ranging from cracked underground irrigation tubing to collapsed warehouses. They said the damage has left major questions about the entire 2010 harvest and exports.

Although wine represents just 1 percent of Chile’s exports, the wine industry employs 80,000 full-time workers. In Chile’s central valley, wine is an important source of employment for thousands of temporary fruit pickers who flood the region every March. With roads and worker housing destroyed in the quake, the fate of this year’s harvest is unclear.

A mad scramble to buy grapes is expected as top producers seek to guarantee enough raw material to fill future wine orders. However, analysts said that after reduced sales last year because of the global economic crisis and a bumper harvest last year, wine storage at Chile was far above normal levels.

Still, with the fruit harvest just underway, Chile’s wineries are scrambling to find electrical generators to keep drip irrigation systems running. Centuries-old irrigation canals that bring fresh water from the mountains have collapsed, with water spilling down the hillsides long before it reaches the grapes.

“The vineyards still have no electricity in Maule, so they have not watered their vines since Saturday, so already we are talking five days. It is a hot time of year. . . . The fruit is going to raisin,” said Grant Phelps, chief winemaker at Casas del Bosque winery.

Phelps said his winery, in the Casablanca Valley, close to Santiago, was not severely damaged and lost just an estimated 5,000 liters. He said quick work by his employees to turn on an emergency generator to pump wine from damaged vats averted worse losses

He said wineries further south in Chile were harder hit. He said some who lost electrical power could do nothing but “watch it go down the drain.”

Alfredo S. Bartholomaus, a Chilean-born importer who is credited with helping to introduce U.S. consumers to Chilean wine in the 1980s, was scheduled to fly to Santiago from Miami on Saturday. Instead, he returned to Washington and began contacting associates and clients in Chile.

Bartholomaus was 19 when the 1960 earthquake struck Chile, and he said he has vivid memories of hillside coastal towns that were destroyed by that quake’s tsunami.

Bartholomaus said it was too early to predict the disaster’s impact on Chilean wine exports. Although there are reports of millions of liters lost, “we don’t know if that was wine intended for export or for the domestic Chilean market,” he said. “I don’t think it will have much influence on the price of Chilean wine for the moment.”

In recent years, Chile has seen its fourth-place U.S. market share challenged by its South American neighbor, Argentina, as U.S. consumers have become more fond of malbec wines grown on the eastern side of the Andes.

Ironically, the earthquake may give Chile a temporary boost in sales, by calling attention to the plight of its wine industry. Phil Bernstein, who manages the South American portfolio at Addy Bassin’s MacArthur Beverages in the Palisades area of Northwest Washington, said he noticed more customers hovering over his Chilean selections this week.

“Several people said they hadn’t tried a wine from Chile in a while,” Bernstein said.

“People tend to seek solidarity with a country after a natural catastrophe,” said Merino, president of Wines of Chile. Asked about reports that consumers were paying more attention to Chilean wines after the quake, Merino said, “We have our fingers crossed that this is true.”

Wine columnist Dave McIntyre in Washington contributed to this report.

Update: Earthquake Damage to Chile’s Wine Industry

Earthquake a major blow to Chile’s wine industry

Chilean wineries were hard-hit by the earthquake. The industry is trying to assess the damage.

The earthquake caused substantial damage in Chile’s wine region: Stainless steel fermentation tanks tipped over, wine bottles busted and wineries without power.

While it’s still too early to tell the full extent of the damage, early reports indicate that the damage to one of the nation’s major industries will be far-reaching.

The quake’s epicenter hit in the heart of the country’s largest wine production areas causing substantial damage in areas including the Cachapoal, Colchagu, Curicó and Maule valleys. These areas produce the majority of the country’s Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes.

“We’re talking about tens of millions of liters of wine down the drain,” said Alfredo Bartholomaus, importer Winebow’s brand ambassador for Chilean wines. “It’s going to be devastating. Some of the wineries, everything they had for sale is gone. Fortunately this happened before the harvest season started.”

Most Chilean wineries say they plan to get back in business and move ahead with harvest season either later this week or next.

“At the moment, we don’t see a major impact on the vineyards, so we are maintaining the enthusiasm regarding the quality of the upcoming grapes,” Salvador Domenech, managing director of Santa Rita, said in an e-mail statement. “We particularly trust that American consumers will support the Chilean industry, so our job now is to ensure resuming production as soon as possible.”

Chile in 2009 exported more than 670 million liters of wine, valued at $1.36 billion.

The country’s largest producer, Concha y Toro, whose most popular U.S. brands include Frontera and Xplorador, has temporarily suspended all production operations for at least one week, according to a statement on its website.

Concha y Toro suffered major damage at three of its 11 production facilities in Chile, plus minor damage at some of the others, said Jane Kettlewell, spokeswoman for Banfi Vintners, the U.S. importer for Concha y Toro.

But initial speculation that Concha y Toro had lost 40 million liters of wine in the earthquake is inaccurate, she said.

`It is considerably less, how much less remains to be determined,” Kettlewell said.

“The fact that the company is diversified in terms of wineries means that it can shuttle production around and try to compensate for the facilities that need to be repaired.”

Miguel Torres, a Spanish wine company with holdings in the Curico Valley just north of the Maule, reported no casualties but major damage.

“The losses are significant at the winery: around 300 casks smashed, one stainless steel vat with a capacity of 100,000 liters has been cracked, losing all the wine, thousands of bottles destroyed,” the company said in a statement on its website. “Luckily the main structure of the buildings has withstood the quake.”

At Caliboro Estate in Maule, owner Francesco Marone Cinzano said in an e-mail that “the cellar is standing” and about a dozen barrels have “fallen to the ground from the racks.” But the offices, laboratory and tasting room had “serious damage.”

At least for now, there should be no impact on U.S. wine drinkers, who have increasingly turned to Chilean wines because of their value prices.

“There is plenty still available in the United States and there shouldn’t be a shortage for awhile,” said Gus J. Suess, director of final sales for Southern Wine & Spirits.

“If things aren’t straightened out fast enough, there is going to be a shortage eventually.”

BY ELAINE WALKER

EWALKER@MIAMIHERALD.COM

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/03/1509089/earthquake-a-major-blow-to-wine.html

Drink Your Bike, Ride Your Merlot…I’m Confused

NOVATO — A federal judge in Wisconsin today tossed out a trademark-infringement case against tiny Novato-based Trek Winery LLC brought by Trek Bicycle Corp., one of the largest bike manufacturers in North America.

Waterloo, Wis.-based Trek Bicycle sued the winery and owner Andrew Podshadley in October, alleging the winery was violating federal and state trademark law by shipping three orders of wine to Wisconsin, according to the 15-page opinion by U.S. district judge Barbara Crabb.

She granted the winery’s motion to dismiss the case for lack of personal jurisdiction. In other words, the winery didn’t have sufficient contact with the state to make it fair to sue it in a Wisconsin court per the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Wisconsin’s “long-arm statute,” according to the judge.

“Plaintiff cannot argue seriously that three isolated sales show that defendants have made such purposeful availment of the benefits of Wisconsin’s laws that they could reasonably anticipate being hauled into court in this state,” Judge Crabb wrote.

Two orders went to Mr. Podshadley’s aunt and her son, and one went to the spouse of a Trek Bicycle employee “to confirm that defendants were able and willing to sell wine into the state,” according to the opinion. The winery shipped 226 cases last year, almost all of which were to California addresses.

The Wisconsin Revenue Department ordered Trek Winery to stop such shipments because it didn’t have alcoholic beverage or direct-shipment licenses, and Mr. Podshadley decided it wasn’t worth the expense, according to the judge.

Trek Bicycle alleged potential confusion in California wine country, where the manufacturer organizes bicycling tours and sells its energy drinks, but the judge wrote that the three sales mentioned before “could not possibly have resulted in consumer confusion over the source of the wine.”

Attorneys for Trek Bicycle could not be reached for comment.

Jeff Quackenbush, Business Journal Staff Reporter

http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/18921/tiny-novato-winery-wins-trademark-case-against-trek-bicycle/

Submitted by

Will Twomey

Looks Like Another Bad Year For Expensive Wine

The report by the American expert John Mariani, from Bloomberg group, predicts a hard 2010 for wine, in agreement with the less optimistic analyses from OIV

by Graziano Alderighi

The 2010 does not bode well for the wine market, according to American expert John Mariani, from the Bloomberg Group.

Mariani predicts a decrease in the price of wine around the world, either for the prized Bordeaux ou Bourgogne wines and for the cult wines from California. Italian, Spanish, and Chilean producers, who hoped to sell for prices in line with the oldest French brands, will have instead to cope with a general contraction of prices.

The American consumers, for instance, will buy more wine below $10 per bottle, and the number of online purchases will increase. Websites like wine-searcher.com or vinfolio.com allow to compare prices easily, and to obtain good discounts. The crisis of the market should also limit the invasion of new import wines from South America and Eastern Europe.

Even champagne wines will face problems. The overall situation of the market will have an impact on it, also because producers have excessively raised the prices over the last few years, pushing them up beyond 100$ per bottle. Other producers of similar wines, such as the Italian Prosecco, the Spanish Cava, and the Californian sparkling wines, have instead managed to give good visibility to their wines, which also received positive reviews and are sold for reasonable prices. In this period, the Champagne producers are reducing the production and storing bottles, in order to wait for a more balanced situation. The recession will also hit the wallet of high quality restaurants, that will purchase only small quantities of priced wines and will try to use stocks previously purchased with hefty investments.

From the point of view of production, Mariani is persuaded that many producers would switch from corks to screw tops, in order to avoid the problems due to oxidation and cork, but most of all to offer a product for a lesser price to the average consumer. On the other hand, many fear that these products would be considered of inferior quality.

by Graziano Alderighi
01 March 2010 Teatro Naturale International n. 3 Year 2

Chilean Wine Industry Hit Hard By Earthquake

Tragedy struck Chile overnight on Friday in the form of a massive earthquake that has displaced two million people, severed north-south bridges in the narrow country, and killed hundreds of people (see coverage on nytimes.com).

Chile has a large, export-oriented wine industry. Some of infrastructure, particularly in the regions of Maule and Rapel (including Colchagua), has been damaged or destroyed. Contacted via email, Lori Tieszen, executive director of Wines of Chile USA, says that Jose Manuel Ortega reports “devastation” in Maule and that his winery sustained some damage; Julio Bouchon of J. Bouchon, “is safe but his beautiful old winery is leveled,” Tieszen writes. In 2006, the Oxford Companion to Wine described Maule as “slowly changing its reputation of growing only bulk wine.”

“One can smell wine along the roads in front of the wineries. Tanks laying, collapsed buildings, barrels and glass everywhere,” winemaker Sven Bruchfeld told James Molesworth, wine critic for Chilean wine at Wine Spectator magazine.

Molesworth has been tweeting what he hears from wineries (follow his feedfor the latest). Another source told him, “Big damage to the industry. Millions of liters on the floor.” He also tweeted that Montes and Lapostolle were hit hard in Colchagua, an area that had seen lots of investment in the wine indsutry. Feel free to add news in the comments if you have updates.

Depending on the region and grape variety, the harvest has already started or was scheduled to start soon in the country.

http://www.drvino.com/2010/02/28/chilean-earthquake-wines-wineries-damage/

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