InterWined recently attended the best wedding ever. (It was the best, cause I was the best man, LOL!)…

But on the serious tip; the groom gave us the nicest, sweetest gift. It’s like a wristwatch, but for wine. And instead of telling the time, it tells you the temperature of the wine, as it sits inside the bottle. One needn’t even open the bottle.

It’s manufactured by Scandinavian design firm ‘Menu’ and they simply call it the Wine Thermometer. The device easily wraps itself around the outside of the wine bottle. It is also chic and very durable, and comes with a temperature list for each type of wine, so you know when it’s ready serve.

Thanks again guys, it really was a lovely wedding…and it came with the perfect gift for a wine lover.

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It would be irresponsible for InterWined to say that Spanish wines have not come a long way. The advent of the so-called ‘high expression’ wine styles – more fruity aggression, less oak — in the early 2000s modernised the way we view, and drink, Spanish wines.

But now the country, or at least the consumers of its wine, is and are being let down.

Take the mass producer, Compania Vinicola Norte de Espana (Cune, for short), and its 2005 Vina Real Crianza available at The Bottle and Basket wine shop in Highgate for £8.50. Wait, make that £9.60. Actually, it costs both.

Back to that in a second.

Travel through Rioja and it is a region covered with vineyards. In some areas it seems that even the hardiest weeds wouldn’t have room to pop out, the rows of vines are so numerous and packed together. One bodega I visited claimed to have 57,000 barrels of wines aging in its vast, four-storey “cellar.” Not exactly romantic, but both are very useful in terms of major wine production.

Cune (never visited, mind you) uses thousands of hectares of vines (the fact that it is handpicked boggles the mind) to produce its crianza, the youngest of its quality Rioja Alavesa. And blends several grapes, but uses primarily Tempranillo and creates, in the case of the 2005, and decent, servable wine that caters to many tastes, but still maintains a touch of that herby Spanish-ness and the dryness of the chalky soil.

To continually produce wines on this scale and to keep a noticeable level of individuality and sense of place is remarkable, I find.

But according to the Bottle and Basket, this cost is unsustainable at current currency conversions. Yes the price differential is explained by one simple factor: the Euro is inflating out of control, people!

OK, stop panicking. Put out the car fire. Stop looting.

Truly the world has bigger shipwrecks to salvage.

But it is difficult, as a wine enthusiast, and a rather macho one at that, to see such a marked difference in the price of the same wine, in the same shop (just ordered from Spain at different times) and to know deep inside the painful truth:

Vina Real Crianza is not worth more than £9.

In fact, even £8.50 seems kinda pushing it, considering the looming recession. They do have 1,000 of hectares of vineyards after all.

The other thing, come to think of it, is why haven’t American wines dropped in price?

So, this all leads to one all-important question:

Why do wine consumers only seem to get robbed with currency conversions, but never rewarded?

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Welcome to InterWined.com’s weekly liquid refreshment health news.

We have two interesting studies. The first shows another fruit, other than grapes (and therefore wine), that may help provide powerful antioxidants for the prevention of arterial inflammation.

The second refutes the claim that dairy products help one lose weight…a claim InterWined has never heard before, but the study is adamant that there may me some sort of conspiracy on the part of the all-powerful dairy lobby.

An Apple (juice) a Day

Lead researcher Kelly Decorde from the Universite Montpelier in France found apples have similar cardiovascular protective properties to grapes. The research team also observed that processing the fruit into juice has the potential to increase the bioavailability of the naturally-occurring compounds and antioxidants found in the whole fruit.

The study reinforces prior research supporting similar properties in “cloudy” apple juice, but not in “clear.”

Using a variety of established analytical techniques, aortic plaque was evaluated to determine the effectiveness in decreasing plaque that is associated with atherosclerosis.

According to the research, “This study demonstrates that processing apples and purple grapes into juice modifies the protective effect of their phenolics against diet induced oxidative stress and early atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic hamsters.”

Researchers also noted, “These results show for the first time that long-term consumption of antioxidants supplied by apples and purple grapes, especially phenolic compounds, prevents the development of atherosclerosis in hamsters, and that the processing can have a major impact on the potential health effects of a product.”

In summary, the researchers stated that their work would help provide encouragement that fruit and fruit juices may have significant clinical and public health relevance.

The study was published in the April 2008 issue of Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.

Cut out the Diary Fat

A new review of the evidence published in the journal Nutrition Reviews reveals that neither dairy nor calcium intake promotes weight loss. According to the press release, “advertisements saying dairy products help you lose weight are misleading,” and the “dairy industry have asserted the claim using millions of dollars in commercial advertising.”

Amy Joy Lanou of the University of North Carolina at Asheville and Neal Barnard with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC, evaluated evidence from 49 clinical trials from 1966 to 2007 that assessed the effect of milk, dairy products, or calcium intake on body weight and BMI, with or without the use of dieting.

Evidence from the trials showed that neither dairy products nor calcium supplements helped people lose weight. Of the 49 clinical trials, 41 showed no effect, two demonstrated weight gain, one showed a lower rate of weight gain, and only five showed weight loss.

An association between calcium or dairy intake and weight loss seen in some observational studies may be attributable to other factors, such as exercise, decreased soda intake, lifestyle habits, or increased fiber, fruit, and vegetable intake.

“Our findings demonstrate that increasing dairy product intake does not consistently result in weight or fat loss and may actually have the opposite effect,” the authors conclude.

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Each Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine with one great meal and publishes the results along with the recipe in a little feature it likes to call ‘Blow the Bank’.

This week, ‘Blow the Bank’ brings you two of InterWined’s favourite pizzas.

Pizza with Parma Ham, Basil, and Red Onion

Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza with Ricotta and Pine Nuts

The 2006 ‘Taste the Difference’ Primitivo del Salento, from Italy and available exclusively to Sainsbury’s for approximately £5, is made by Cantina Due Palme, an Italian co-operative from Apulia known for their award- winning Primitivo. So, it doesn’t disappoint. In fact, it slightly astounds. For £5, this is one of the best wines that I’ve had in months; it’s also great for pairing with all manner of foods.

This wine is rich and flavourful, with a complexion that’s something of a cross between black cherries and dried blood. Thankfully, you can only taste the cherries. But even if wine could taste like blood, this wine would pull it off brilliantly. There’s such a good balance to it.

It’s also the perfect mix of spicy and sweet to match both pizzas. The sweetness really marries well with the squash and adds a little bit of a zip to the mellower flavour of the baked feta. Likewise, the sweetness helps counter any saltiness from the Parma ham, while the fresh basil, red onions, and ample cranks of cracked pepper help compliment the spice. A perfect threesome: 9.1.

InterWined’s Own Recipes in Full

Pizza with Parma Ham, Basil, and Red Onion & Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza with Ricotta and Pine Nuts

Ingredients:

2 Pizza bases, homemade or store bought
1 jar passata or simple tomato sauce

Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza:

Olive Oil
250g Ricotta cheese
1 small-sized butternut squash, deseeded
2 handfuls of pine nuts
50g Greek feta

Pizza Parma:

150g Buffalo mozzarella
1 red onion, chopped into rings
1 bunch of fresh basil leaves
Cracked pepper

Preparation:

Feta & Butternut Squash Pizza:

1. Preheat the oven to 200° C
2. After deseeding the squash, cut off the hard flesh of the squash, and chop into pieces
3. Place on a baking tray and coat with olive oil, before baking in the oven for approximately 20 minutes
4. With a couple of minutes left on the timer, cover the pizza base with a smooth layer of ricotta; be sure to leave a little ring around the edge of the base untouched
5. Remove the cooked squash from the oven and place on top of the ricotta-coated pizza base (do not turn off the oven)
6. Spoon the passata or tomato sauce over the toppings
7. Cover with sprinkles of pine nuts and crumbled pieces of feta cheese
8. Place in the oven to cook for approximately 10 minutes or until golden and serve

Pizza Parma:

1. If you are making the pizza on its own, preheat the oven to 200° C; otherwise, begin preparation as the butternut squash finishes cooking in the oven
2. Cover the pizza base with a layer of passata or tomato sauce; leave a ring around the edge of the base untouched
3. Layer the base with the onion and mozzarella, followed by wads or florets of the Parma ham
4. Rip the fresh basil with your fingers and scatter across the pizza toppings
5. Crack fresh pepper over the pizza, before placing in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until golden
6. Serve from the oven

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InterWined is no longer much of a beer drinker, especially in London.

A recent jaunt to New York and New Jersey represented the first trip to the United States in six years. And who could guess, that in that time, Americans have become relatively sophisticated beer drinkers?

This isn’t even to mention the superior wines by the glass in America. For $12, for instance, at a Hyatt hotel of all places, one gets a choice of several outstanding wines by the glass. In this case, the 2006 Erath Pinot Noir from Oregon. Served in the proper wine glass for Pinot Noir, it should be mentioned. Elegant and stunning. But the U.S. has always offered far superior wines (both in quality and quantity) by the glass in chain bars and pubs.

But even at dives serving horrible food, the beer choices were well beyond Bud, Bud Light, Miller. At one spot, for less than $6, a pint of Magic Hat dark lager was suggested, on tap, to pair with my rosemary-encrusted pork chop with lobster tail. It was one of many suggestions this hole in the wall had for its customers. And it tasted so good, InterWined found it depressing. Depressing because beer is so bad back in Britain.

A beverage analyst for Fitch Ratings recently put out a report that, in the wake of the smoking ban, pubs needed to diversify in order to survive. This is likely to take the form of breakfast offers and more child-friendly environments. In rural areas, little country shops may open adjacent to the pub in order to bring punters in.

But of all these changes, the simplest improvement never crossed anyone’s mind: stop serving crap beer.

The big drinks companies have placed a rather effective stranglehold on the market so that our choices are not based on styles, as in the U.S. Instead, we are forced to choose between several horrible brands that all taste basically the same way.

Blind taste Kronenberg, Carlsberg, Foster’s, Stella, etc. and see if you can guess which is which.

There is nothing special or original about beers in British pubs.

And until the servicing model wakes up to try something different, the trend of pub closures will continue. And it won’t bother me one bit.

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