Posts tagged ‘cultures’
Muslim nations uneasy about wine production.
Source: The Independent. Moroccan Islamists demand crackdown on drink. By Elizabeth Nash. April 19, 2009.
It’s an uneasy balance between time-honored religious teachings and a flourishing wine-production industry.
By Elizabeth Nash
The Independent on Sunday
19 Apr 2009
The Islamic world has long had mixed feelings about wine: Muslims are supposed to abstain, but countries from North Africa to the eastern Mediterranean and beyond have for centuries cultivated vineyards. And today, wines from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia,…read more…
–S.S.
Circus haters, grab the next flight to Gladstone for free wine!
Source: The Observer. Gladstone, Australia. Circus guaranteed to be thriller. April 8, 2009
GREG Hall is betting Gladstone people are in for an “I can’t believe it” experience as a spectator at the Great Moscow Circus.
And the show’s general manager is offering a bottle of wine to anyone who’s not satisfied.
“The show still has all the fun and laughs, but we’ve added a little bit of devilry, a little bit of thrills and spills excitement,” he said.
“It’s got an edge of having to close your eyes. In the finale we have the globe of death where four motor bike riders, inside a four-metre steel globe, are all travelling at 80 km/hr at the same time.”
Mr Hall isn’t letting on what happens.
— S.S.
Chinese wine drinkers are an adventurous lot, and their numbers are growing
Source: Agence France Presse (AFP). Wine producers pin hopes on China in tough times. by Julie Desne. April 7, 2009.
No longer a luxury just for foreigners, wine has become a status symbol among China’s fast-growing middle class.
“China was one of the ten biggest wine consumers in 2008 and should be ranked number seven by 2012,” said Xavier de Eizaguirre, president of Vinexpo, the world’s biggest wine and spirits exhibition, which takes place in Bordeaux in southwest France.
In 2007, Chinese wine consumption topped 800 million bottles, according to Britain’s International Wine and Spirit Record Institute.
Between 2003 and 2007, wine consumption in China grew 61 percent and is expected to grow a further 36 percent between this year and 2012, according to the study.
And Chinese wine drinkers are becoming increasingly adventurous.
“Chinese have come a long way in being open to trying new wines,” said Vance Yeang, sommelier at Napa Wine Residence, a Shanghai restaurant that allows valued customers to store wines in private cellars on the premises.
— S.S.
Madonna rejects African wine; Africa rejects Madonna’s motherhood
Madonna rejects African wine; Africa rejects Madonna’s motherhood.
Madonna’s attempt to adopt a Malawa baby was unsuccessful. South Africa’s ability to please Madonna’s wine preferences were unsuccessful. Guess it all evens out.
According to ParentDish: “She travels exclusively by private jet with a large entourage that includes Israeli bodyguards, a trainer, and her treadmill (yes, she has that flown in). She also has French wine flown to the luxury lodge she rents out – apparently the South African wines they serve are not to her liking.”
More specifically, according to the Daily Mail: “In the rural areas, women walk miles each day to collect water; back in the luxury lodge which she has hired out in its entirety for the week.
Madonna, in contrast, has been enjoying a glass of two of fine claret in the evenings. She has flown in nine bottles of Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte 2000 – priced at a very modest $90 a bottle. The selection of South African wines available at the lodge aren’t to her very specific taste, apparently.”
— S.S.
Burglars who drink wine are SO better-behaved (than the rest).
Source: Manxradio, Isle of Man. Burglars told consequences of reoffending. 7/4/2009.
Wine drinking burglars are neat, tidy, and they don’t even actually burgle. That’s my kind of burglar. Of course, you might have to move to the Isle of Man to find this type of polite criminal.
The court heard the defendants entered the house by an unlocked conservatory door and stole the wine and spirits, which were mostly recovered.
…there was no forced entry, the house was not ransacked and no valuables were taken. They only entered the conservatory and kitchen and the offence was a “spur of the moment” decision taken while both were drunk.
— S.S.
How to get women to like beer? In Australia, serve it in wine glasses.
Source: The Courier Mail (Australia). April 7, 2009 Tuesday. Women like chic beer in a wine glass. by Rory Gibson.
From the article:
Kirkegaard’s business Good Beer Lunches (www.goodbeers.com.au), holds regular beer education classes, matching food and beer.
“We had a lot of ladies coming along with their husbands and partners who at first claimed to not really like beer. During the course of the lunch they suddenly discovered that there was a lot more to beer and a far wider range of flavours than they realised — and they liked them, especially when matched with food.”
“The beer classes for women have shown that if you present beers with flavour, that pair well with a whole range of foods, and you make the experience slightly more elegant by serving the beer in a wine glass, champagne flute or anything other than the large glasses that men customarily drink from, women will take to it with enthusiasm.”
— S.S.
Illegal to make wine in Kuwait, but cop does it anyway
Source: The Associated Press State & Local Wire, April 6, 2009 Monday 4:34 PM GMT
A Kuwaiti patrol sergeant was accused of making wine. That’s illegal in Kuwait. According to the article, “He resigned from the Reserve and tried to return to his job. The police refused to put him back out on the streets as a patrol sergeant…”
— S.S.
If it sloshes around and originates in South America, it may well contain coke (cocaine).
Book review of Escobar by Escobar. Read the Times Online article here.
One of the most successful tricks early on involved stuffing cocaine into the vaginas of mares being transported to America for racing.
But before long, the chemists of Medellin had perfected the technique of dissolving cocaine that allowed them to mix it with any liquid — wine, cooking oil, paint. If it sloshes around and originates in South America, it may well contain coke.
— S.S.
British women: wine in the tub or wine in the living room?
Just this week, a survey revealed that it’s women who buy eight out of every ten bottles of wine drunk at home.
Another intoxicating trend: a third of women are now drinking wine in the bath – proof enough that alcohol is being used as a way to relax and unwind. Threshers should introduce a ‘buy two, get one bubble bath free’ promotion.
Recent figures from the Office of National Statistics confirm the home truth. Sixty per cent of all female drinkers say the week’s heaviest drinking session happens in their living room.
Wine Teasers Wine Game 