Mike Rann should practice looking a little sheepish in public and refuse to answer any more questions about his private life, eunuchs can now vote in India, and wine critic Matt Skinner admits to recommending wine he’s never tasted.
Wine
Why wine critics are just taking the piss
The ratings and medals meted out to fine wines aren’t worth the fancy-pants label-paper they’re printed on, according to scientists. In blind tests, critics regularly give the same wine completely different reviews.
Twitter launches… a wine label?
Social networking phenom Twitter is making and selling its own branded wines, with profits going to help promote literacy in the third world. At US$20 for a bottle of Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, it better be a good drop.
A different kind of media bias: do food writers lean towards wine?
Beer is getting a lot more love from food writers lately, says Orr Shtuhl, but why is it still viewed as merely an interloper into wine’s sacred place on the dining table?
Jill Dupleix: Aussie restaurants need to embrace inner ocker
After ten years away, celebrity cook Jill Dupleix is back in Australia and throwing her critical eye over our restaurants: too dark, too loud and too expensive.
Video of the Day: Matching wines with breakfast cereals
A Riesling for your Rice Bubbles? A drop of Grenache for your Granola? How about a Sav Blanc for your Special K? Wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk pairs three wines with three breakfast cereals.
Wine online: a booming business
Vinfolio is a comprehensive site for the fine wine buff, with online bidding for wine, social networking and offline storage facilities. And it’s just raised $US4.5 million in venture capital. That’s a serious drop.
Sacré bleu! Climate change threatens French wine
Fifty of France’s leading chefs, sommeliers and chateaux have written an open letter to president Nicolas Sarkozy with a blunt message: climate change will kill the French wine industry. To make matters worse, rising temperatures could mean the best wines soon come from England — or even Scotland!
From news to booze: The NYT bottle-o
The New York Times is joining the WSJ and Forbes in the booze trade, launching its own wine club. A perfect match for the paper’s toffy readership, or just opening itself up to more “chardonnay left” jokes?
Political snippets: Wine powder: for when a cask is just too classy
Meaty chunks from Richard Farmer on Indonesia’s elections, innovation in the wine industry, casualties in Afghanistan and more.
Here’s to vintage London
London’s first commercial vineyard since medieval times was planted yesterday.
Obama Disapproves of French ‘Obama’ Wine
Sure it’s wine, and the money’s going to charity, but selling an Obama vintage leaves the White House nonplussed. Surely the French understand that. Sparkling white anyone?
