Many readers of wine publications and columns may have problems understanding the language of the writers and the descriptions they use. Just think how some of that language might sound to a foreigner.

Jeannie Cho Lee, Master of Wine from Hong Kong, has an article in the current Decanter magazine urging wine writers to discover new ways to communicate with Asian wine drinkers, but warns that it may take as long as two generations to come up with relevant language.

Asians need more familiar reference points that relate to their cuisine and dining habits, the article said. She points out that while wine drinkers in the West might refer to a shiraz as having notes of black pepper, licorice, game and bacon fat, Asian drinkers might refer to Tandoon spice, roasted goose or char siu (roasted pork).

Cho Lee also said regular drinkers of tea or bitter vegetables such as ginseng and radishes would enjoy a full-bodied tannic red wine.

(I wonder how they’ll translate “fruit bomb”?)

Sharks in Tuscany?

Amateur paleontologists in Tuscany have uncovered some fossils that suggest the possibility that eel-like sharks roamed the area       3 million years ago, according to an item on wineciencenews.com.

The scientists found hundreds of fossilized teeth in the Tuscany region, which indicates the site might have been an underwater canyon that had a sufficiently deep connection with the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar.

“We know that million-year-old minerals and deposits enrich this region,” said Albiera Antinori, of the famed wine producing family. “It’s this special earth that makes our wines really unique.”

(This raises the question whether the sharks’ teeth were stained red.)

Getting to know

your barrel

French researchers have found a way to analyze   10-year-old wines and figure out exactly what barrel the wine came from. The results of the tests “were so precise that the researchers could determine the exact ‘metabologeographic signature’ of each bottle’s barrel,” it was reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The rest of the item on wired.com was highly technical — like this paragraph: “‘Our systems oenology approach provides an unprecedented example of metabologeography translated into chemical representations of the way such noble nectar can shape on the papillas of the wine taster some of the outlines of the scene of its birth,’ write the researchers, who seem to have imbibed a bit of noble nectar while drafting their manuscript.”

(It was that last phrase that forced me to use this item.)

   

New use for pomice

A company in Romulus, N.Y. has come up with a way to utilize pomice produced by wineries. A story on winesandvines.com said Seneca BioEnergy converts it into three products: grapeseed oil, which can be sold as a health product in tasting rooms and to restaurants and specialty shops; biodiesel fuel, which can be used in tractors and other vehicles; and manufactured soil, which can be returned to the land, including vineyards, as soil replenishment.

Beginning with the 2009 harvest, the company will begin grapeseed production, picking up pomice from wineries within a 70-mile radius, drying it and separating the seeds. Production of biodiesel fuel will begin in 2010.

The economics figure out to about $45 per gallon for the grapeseed oil, $3 to $4 per gallon for biofuel and about $20 per ton for manufactured soil.

A few years ago, we reported on a Canadian company that made flour from pomice and sold it as being high in resveratrol, the compound that’s believed to have health benefits and high levels of iron and calcium, although we suspect the flour might have produced pink bagels.

(With these developments, plus recycling of bottles and corks, wine production may just become the greenest of all industries. Getting it to the market is another story, though.)

Beauty vs. wine

We recently reported on a study that indicated women seem to be drinking more wine, but another survey just contradicted that.

Professionalbeauty.co.uk reports that women are drinking less wine to preserve their appearance, and the Web site blames flushing in the face that comes with drinking alcohol. A spokesperson for a dermatological association said, “One of the effects of alcohol is to dilate the small blood vessels in the skin, which can make the skin appear redder … Repeated reddening in this manner can also lead to thread veins. Likewise, alcohol also causes the tiny blood vessels on the surface of the eye to widen, making them more visible and resulting in bloodshot eyes.”

(But women get prettier after another glass of wine.)

Craziest wine glass ever? 

Perhaps the most impractical wine glass ever devised was revealed recently. Dvice.com describes it as having a gravity-defying reserve tank, and it appears that the tank will hold nearly a full bottle of wine.

Air pressure keeps the glass filled, working on the same principle as a pet water feeder. But there has been no explanation on how to get the wine into it, nor does the photo give a clue. Or how to hold it, for that matter.

(The designer said, “It’s a glass for drinking a lot.” Or a lot of drinking.)

Quote of the week

“Excellent wine generates enthusiasm. And whatever you do with enthusiasm is generally successful.” — Philippe de Rothschild

Jack Heeger can be reached at jheeger@pacbell.net.