Monday, February 9, 2009

Odds and Ends

Hope everyone is doing well. Work has been riding me hard, so there's been a little bit of a posting drought. However, I did manage to visit two wineries yesterday, and will post tasting notes soon. In the meantime, here are a few odds and ends that have caught my attention in the past week or so:

Indiana Taste of Elegance Competition

Renee at Feed Me/Drink Me was a judge at the Taste of Elegance Pork Competition. Seems part of the competition included wine pairings featuring Indiana wines. Things did not go well, with the wines not being served at the proper temperature, and one bottle being corked and served to judges. Some pretty harsh words, comments of rebuttal by the Indiana Wine Grape Council, and then a harsh (but justifiable and deserved) retort. As Renee says "if you're going to compete with A-level chefs, you've got to bring your A game to the competition."

Slender Sugar-Free Wines by Chateau Thomas

Word is spreading far and wide about Chateau Thomas' Slender line of wines. Only problem, it turns out there may be such a thing as bad publicity. These sugar free wines are drawing nearly unanimous jeers from the online forums. Fellow Hoosier blogger Good Grape has some pretty harsh things to say about this project by the venerable Indiana winery. Dr. Vino is similarly scathing. The comments to the posts aren't pretty either. Besides the fact the science behind them is junk, I can't imagine they taste good. Maybe I can force myself to review them, but I am not sure I can be impartial.

Indiana in the top 10

Indiana makes the list of the Top 10 Wackiest Wine Laws That Still Exist. We make the list for not serving alcohol on Election Day while the polls are open. We are one of seven states that still have these laws. I remember this well from my days as a waiter. Some people became downright hostile when told they could order a drink on Election Day. While I think the law may be due for repeal, a nod in the article to the very good historical reasons behind this law would have been nice.

I'll be back this week with tasting notes from my winery visits.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've tried the Slender white and blush wines. Not the best wine I've ever had, but as a post-op gastric-bypass patient with limited tolerance to sugar, they are a good way to "reintroduce" my body to wine. I served the blush to friends, who liked it, but it's not something I would recommend unless an individual is in the same situation as I am. Came to you from Feed Me/Drink Me, btw.