Tasting Room will be on hiatus until Monday, August 25.

I got a call day before yesterday and within a couple of hours was over at the NPR studios (conveniently located two blocks from our offices) weighing in for All Things Considered on the Italian Ministry of Agriculture's decision to allow DOC wines to be sold in "alternative" packaging, e.g. bag-in-box. You can listen to the clip here, should you be so inclined. It is, I hope, somewhat more lively than the topic would seem to allow.

I love Spain. Seems a scientist there has invented an electronic "tongue" which uses sensors to determine both grape variety and age in wine. What the Science Daily article doesn't go into is what, exactly, an electronic tongue looks like. Regardless, this tongue is a definite advance over earlier electronic tongues that could taste cholesterol levels in blood or cocaine in urine, much less pleasant jobs. And it makes a fine companion piece to the electronic nose, too.

Well, I attended a screening of Bottle Shock last night. The movie, which will be in limited release around the country in a couple of weeks (see this article in the NY Times about the troubles it's had picking up a distributor), is a fanciful recreation of the events leading up to the famous 1976 Paris Tasting, in which American wines bested the best of France in a blind tasting judged by a variety of powerful French wine-folk. The movie concentrates on Chateau Montelena, whose 1973 Chardonnay won the white wine side of the tasting. And, in the movie, it does win. So that's nicely accurate.

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Was up early and on the Today show this morning, talking with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotbe about great wine values under $10. It was a hoot, even if they didn't agree with all my wine picks (shameless! what do they want from me?). Anyway, if you want to check it out, the video is here.

I had lunch yesterday with Ghislaine de Montgolfier, the somewhat impish but very elegant chairman of Bollinger, which has just released its first non-vintage rosé Champagne. Madame Lily Bollinger is of course responsible for the classic Champagne statement, "I drink it when I'm happy and when I'm sad. Sometimes I drink it when I'm alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I'm not hungry and I drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it— unless I'm thirsty." She also said, according to M. de Montgolfier, that rosé Champagne was the wine of the bordello, so Bollinger wasn't going to make any.

Well, things change. I don't know if they still serve rosé Champagne in bordellos, but Bollinger decided about six years ago that they would make some non-vintage pink bubbles. "Part of the problem," de Montgolfier said, "is that you need great red wine. The red wine makes the rosé. We have very low yields for our red, and use Burgundian techniques." Bollinger also, as the few and the lucky have experienced, makes a stunning red coteaux Champenois from vineyard in Aÿ, La Côte aux Enfants. I had it once, several years back; my memory is that it had Pommard-like muscularity, which surprised me. In other words, they've got no problems on the red wine front.

Anyway, the Bollinger NV Rosé Brut ($100) is very Bollinger—substantial generosity backed up with the spine to carry it off. The scent recalls wild strawberries and flowers; it's not a savory Champagne, more fruit driven, but the flavors are very pure. I liked it just fine, but it was overshadowed by the Bollinger 1999 La Grande Année ($115) that we also drank. Creamy and dense, with layers of flavor (sweet dough, apple, tangerine, spice, yeasty notes), this was simply stunning Champagne. So as much as the rosé is fun, I'd happily drop the additional bucks and drink the Grande Année. If I had the bucks in the first place, that is. Oh well!

This just in, thanks to the ever-inquisitive folks at foodnavigator.com: wine lees slows the melting rate of ice cream. In fact, thanks to the even-more-inquisitive folks at the Chung-Hwa University of Medical Technology, National Kaohsiung Hospitality College, and Asia University in Taiwan, we can now state that adding wine lees to your super-duper-fudge-
ripple-chunk or what have you will not only slow its melting rate by up to 80 percent (!), it will also increase its anti-oxidant activity! In fact, a distinct increase in the DPPH radical scavenging activity was observed! Holy obscure chemistry terms, Batman!

The good professors do note, however, that adding too much grape lees did also show unpleasant effects, such as "an increase of particle size of fat globule." 

Hm. To the tune of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head: "Fat drops keep slidin' cross your lips, but that doesn't mean the ice cream's too gross to digest...it's only mixed with lees...'cause we need tenure and our clone was a failure...da da da..." 

It's been a long morning. 

OK, perhaps not a rocket car, but it sounded good, didn't it? Seems that Prince Charles over there in Merrie Olde England likes to use bioethanol made from excess wine to power his 38-year-old Aston Martin, the Telegraph reports. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "drinking while driving," doesn't it?

There's a heartening story on KXAN, an Austin news station, about Dan Brinkman of Lost Creek Vineyard's attempts to—and success at—rebuilding his winery following a devastating flood last year. Not too long ago, Thomas O. Ryder wrote about Brinkman's plight in F&W, too, in the terrific story he did on Texas wine and barbecue. If you missed it, it's well worth checking out.

Amusing item in the Mirror (UK) about Johnny Depp shipping cases of wine from his south-of-France vineyard to the set where he's currently filming, in Illinois. I somehow doubt he went through the whole importer-license rigamarole, but who knows. Also nice to know that if you're Mr. Depp's pal, you get unlimited Pétrus poured for you. Why aren't my friends doing the same for me?