The Loire Valley Wine Bureau, representing wines from that area in France, sponsored what it called a Thanksgiving dinner, paired with Loire Valley cabernet franc wines at Rubicon in San Francisco last week. We won’t go into the entire menu except to say that the second course is smoked bacon-wrapped turkey, so apparently that’s the Thanksgiving connection. Nothing else on the menu appears on our Thanksgiving dinner table — no Dungeness crab sticks or sweet potato risotto croquettes as an appetizer nor lobster and caramelized pear as the second course. But then again, France doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so how would they know?

(Maybe we can go to Paris and pour some Napa Valley cab to go with escargot, foie gras, crepes Suzette or pommes frites on Bastille Day.)

Grapes on steroids?

Scientists in Australia have found the biochemical mechanism in grapes that controls ripening, and an item on the Internet said that by applying brassinosteroids to grape skin can speed up the ripening process. Brassinosteroids are chemically similar to human steroids, the Web site said.

They can also slow down the ripening process, although this year Napa Valley vintners aren’t much interested in that.

The scientists applied brassinosteroids to the skins of some grapes as soon as color started to appear, and applied brassinazole, a steroid inhibitor, to others. “After one month the brassinosteroid berries were 13.4 brix, compared to 12.7 for the (untreated) berries and 11.7 for the brassinazole treatments,” they said. The trial results were published in Plant Physiology.

(If I don’t identify my source on this steroid story, will I go to jail? OK, OK. I’ll tell. It’s www.decanter.com.)

Paris Tasting re-redux

Looks like it’s French week (and decanter.com week, too). The Web site reports that a group of tasters called the Grand Jury Européen plans to conduct a tasting of Napa Valley cabernets and French Bordeaux wines today because the founder of the organization said he is not satisfied with the results of the 30th anniversary tasting held earlier this year.

He said that the results were discredited because it was held in two locations (Napa Valley and London) and there was an unfair selection of vintages and tasters.

But, he added, the purpose is not to stir up bad feelings but to find out once and for all whether there is a wide or narrow difference in taste between U.S. and U.K. tasters and continental European tasters.

Decanter.com reports that the panels will comprise 15 continental European tasters and “up to 15 tasters from Anglo-Saxon countries.”

(I wonder what French food pairs well with sour grapes.)

More wine and health

News continues to come in on the health benefits of wine. Some New York researchers have discovered that drinking red wine (and they specifically indicated cabernet sauvignon) may help reduce the possibility of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists, at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said the study indicates that “cabernet sauvignon delivered in the drinking water for about seven months significantly reduces Alzheimer’s disease-type-a-amyloid neuropathology and memory deterioration in 11-month-old transgenic mice that model Alzheimer’s disease.”

(Now, if only I could remember where I put that bottle of cab.)

Pour one for me, Pope

Pope Benedict XVI has had his political troubles of late, but he was given an honor recently  — he was named an honorary sommelier by the Italian Sommelier Association. Decanter.com reports that the pope attended the initiation ceremony and was given a silver tastevin — the little metal dish used by sommeliers to taste wine. “He asked all sorts of questions about the work of a sommelier and the use of a tastevin,” an IAS representative said. Now he could be ready to go to work.

(If the pope were to serve you, how much should you tip?)

Would you buy wine in an aluminum container?

Schmitt Sohne Inc., an importer of German wines, has introduced  RELAX juniors, wine in a 375ml aluminum bottle with a screw cap that it said is ideal for picnics or pool and patio parties. Riesling and Cool Red, described as a chillable red wine, are available in the new packaging and retail at about $4.99 per bottle. The company has packaged them in a point-of-sale case that will fit on a store counter, which, it said, will encourage customers to pick up one or two at a time.

(It may or may not have TCA, but by using aluminum, they’re also eliminating the possibility of rust.)

Icewine is nice wine - and expensive

The wine world was agog recently with the announcement that futures of the 2005 Bordeaux wines hit record prices, with Chateau Petrus going for nearly $38,000 per case, or about $3,135 per bottle.

But folks are even agogger (if that’s a word) at the announcement on decanter.com that an icewine in Canada is selling for nearly $27,000 for a half-bottle. Only five cases of the wine, known as the Billy Meyers series, were produced. The company, Royal DeMaria, produces 18 different varieties of icewine from its vineyard in Ontario and doesn’t seem to have much trouble selling it, although at the time of the decanter.com article, no bottles of the $27,000 wine had yet been sold.

(Just think what it will be worth on the collectors’ market in a few years.)

Deep thought from Jack Handy

Someone e-mailed me the following comment from Jack Handy:

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.’”

(Amen. Hopefully, more folks will adopt this attitude and help increase wine consumption.)

Jack Heeger can be reached at jheeger@napanews.com