Is Coke worse for you than alcohol?

This article from The Telegraph is interesting from several viewpoints:

1) We all know that alcohol can cause damage to liver, but fizzy drinks?

We found people who drink more than two cans of Coke a day have increased their chances for a fatty liver, and if left untreated their chances for heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver also increase...

The testers were in Israel, and Coke was the fizzy drink they tested.

2) Fructose does the damage.

The ingredient in fizzy drinks causing the damage is fructose, which is highly absorbable in the liver. It does not affect insulin production and goes straight to the liver where it is converted to fat.

That's probably true, but in the UK, Coke is made with sucrose not fructode, in fact about 6 spoonfuls of sugar goe into every can, so is Coke harmful to the liver in the UK? Probably not as much as in the US or Israel.

3) An curiously, in the US, Coca Cola make a special blend of Coke for the Jewish folk at Passover, and guess what? Yep, no fructose, they use sugar instead.

It really pays to check your facts these days, seems you can't trust anybody. Thank God for the web thingy.

Bye for now!

Pete, tasting wine in California so you don't have to.

Are English wines good enough?

I wouldn't get too excited yet, but experts are saying that due to global warming, by the end of the century, the Sussex Downs could enjoy the same climate as the Medoc in Bordeaux. This is causing increased enthusiasm among English winemakers in Sussex, who are now planting grapes that make up champagne (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier) just 80 miles north of the Champagne region, on similar chalk soils.

Now, England's 416 winegrowers produce just three million bottles, compared to France's eight billion, so there's a long way to go. But according to winemaker Stephen Skelton MW the industry is expanding fast, with a 50 per cent increase in plantings over the last 20 years.

So, if we do grow many more grapes, will people buy the wines? In this year's two biggest wine competitions, the International Wine Challenge and Decanter Wine Awards, English wines scooped 24 medals – and two top prizes went to Cornish and Kent bubbles.

The award-winning Cornish bubbles comes from Camel Valley near Bodmin moor – from a vineyard set up by ex-RAF-pilot Bob Lindo in 1989. His winemaking son Sam Lindo is wowing critics.

So what do English wines taste like? Well, they're vividly acidic and aromatic with crunchy apple, grapefruit, elderflower cordial flavours and a distinct hedgerow herbaceousness.

Alongside fizz, aromatic whites show most potential – particularly Martin Fowke's wines from Three Choirs in Gloucestershire. Rosés are improving, but reds are limited. One of the biggest snags is the price, and just in case you're asking, that's the biggest reason that we at 'The Hogget' can't get hold of the wines from our suppliers. Do remember our 2 house fizzes though, at £15.30 a bottle you can't get better!

Cheers!
Pete in sunny California.

Alabama gets all sticky about a bike

We all know that prudes abound, and none more so than in local councils and government, in fact anywhere that 'the righteous' hold sway. In the USA, one story has caught the imagination of bloggers and main stream media alike. It's the story of a century-old logo for a French bicycle company (well, we all know about those bohemian Frenchies don't we?).

I'll let Jordan Mackay take up the story:

There's been much kerfuffle over a wine label. Evidently the Alabama state Beverage Control Board has banned the wine label of Cycles Gladiator, a bargain Cabernet Sauvignon from Monterey County. The label, named for an 1881 bicycle company, uses a belle-epoque-style advertising print that shows a nude nymph soaring along with a bike. This was evidently too hot for Alabamans, their government decided, so the label got the heave-ho. The wine is available in California in all its voluptuous glory for only $10. And, I'll have you know, it's quite a good wine for the money. And I'm sure all the sales in Alabama were not worth as much as the free publicity its getting from this story.

Of course, California winemakers would not be surprised at this feat of censorship. Talk to enough of them and you'll hear plenty of stories of the rigors of our own state's label approval board. And its not all just about nudity. In a famous case, Ralph Steadman's drawing of a wine-spattered clergyman for Bonny Doon's Cardinal Zin was banned in Ohio. Likewise, a nipple-depicting bottle of Australian Semillon was banned in 2001. And, famously, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, one of the most important producers in france, changed a label with a Balthus nude on it because of protests from Napa prudes. Mouton released the wine in the US, but with a conspicuously blank label.

Now, we should know better than to be shocked about Alabama's state legislature. After all, it was just 2 months ago that it approved beer over 6% alcohol. Prior to that, it was impossible to get good Belgian beer and, well, many American craft brews. What's really shocking, though, is that the wines of Domaine Gangloff in France make it into this country at all. All the labels featured stylized paintings of full-frontals by the winemaker's brother and yet are somehow approved. Check out this photo of "La Sereine Noire"--a fabulous Cote Rotie, by the way--to see what I mean. Where's the pubic outcry over this?

Here's the label:

How rude!