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You are here: Home » Food + Drink » Archive » February 2008-1
February 2008-1
Food and Drink Archive: February 2-27, 2008
Italians scorn Sarkozy’s food boast
AFP. Feb. 27, 2008
The Slow Food movement for sustainable cuisine rejected Sarkozy’s call
for French gastronomy to be added to UNESCO's world heritage list. “Why
should French gastronomy be considered better than any other?" asked
Carlo Petrini, head of the influential Italian-based Slow Food movement
which promotes high-quality, local food as a remedy to fast-food
culture. "To make gastronomy part of world heritage is an excellent
idea, but all countries should do so, not just France!"
> More
Sarkozy wants French food declared a world treasure
AFP. Feb. 25, 2008
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Saturday he wants to see French
gastronomy classed as a world heritage by UNESCO, at the opening of the
country's huge annual agriculture show here in Paris. “I want France to
be the first country to apply to UNESCO (United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for our gastronomic tradition to
be recognised as a world heritage. We have the best gastronomy in the
world," he declared. His proposal has been ridiculed as yet another
loopy Sarkozy brainwave, and declared unmanageable. However, the UN
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has already refused a
similar request from Mexico.
> More
Bordeaux upbeat on climate change
Decanter. Feb. 25, 2008
Michel Rolland, Bruno Prats and other Bordeaux notables claim climate
change may have a positive effect on the region. At the recent 2008
Climate Change and Wine conference in Barcelona, Prats and Rolland,
along with consultant Pascal Chatonnet and veteran oenologist Jacques
Lurton, argued that global warming offered possibilities that were not
available in the past. 'The last 10 vintages at Cos d'Estournel have
been the best ever,' said Prats, the former owner of the Medoc 2nd
growth chateau. But the potential combination of less cold winters and
hotter summers - and less water in both winter and summer – makes the
overall impact of global warming hard to predict.
> More
French truffle crisis
Guardian. Feb. 25, 2008
One of the world's most sought-after gastronomical treasures, truffles
fetch astronomical prices, But for the past five years, drought has
been parching the Var region of southeast France as well as
truffle-producing regions in Italy and Spain. Farmers say production is
down by 50-75 percent this winter season and they blame global warming,
warning that if thermometers keep rising - as many scientists predict
they could - France's black truffle will one day be just a memory.
> More
French wine exports rise
UKTelegraph. Feb. 21, 2008
French wine sales abroad rose by 7.7 per cent in 2007 to reach €6.75
billion (£5 billion), after three years of crisis. The gains were in
large part down to higher demand from Britain, Germany and America.
Bordeaux, Côtes du Rhône and Champagne registered the biggest rises in
volume, said UbiFrance, the French government export agency which
published the figures.
> More
Bottled water 'is immoral'
UKTelegraph. Feb. 19, 2008
Drinking bottled water should be made as unfashionable as smoking, says
Tim Lang, the UK Government's naural resources commissioner. New
research shows that drinking a bottle of water has the same impact on
the environment as driving a car for a kilometre. Bottled water
generates up to 600 times more carbon dioxide than tap water.
> More
Champagne announces carbon dioxide emissions, strategy
Decanter. Feb. 19, 2008
Champagne has become the first region in France to announce a clear
breakdown of its carbon dioxide emissions, and set out strategies for
reducing them. The region produced 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per
year – or approximately 700g per bottle, in 2003. 24% of the emissions
came from viticulture and winemaking, 13% from transport (of wine and
workers), 39% from bottling and packaging, 8% from products used in the
cellars and vines, 11% from machinery and 5% from ancillary services.
> More
France’s healthy hearts
UKTelegraph. Feb. 19, 2008
Britons are three times more likely than the French to die from heart
disease, according to a new European league table. The findings have
reopened a debate among experts as to why the French lifestyle appears
to be so successful in keeping down rates of heart disease - despite a
high-fat diet, high cholesterol levels, and rates of smoking and
drinking that match the UK's.
> More
Why the French don’t get as fat as Americans
ScienceDaily. Feb. 19, 2008
Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the
baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat? Because they use
internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating,
reports a new Cornell study of Parisians and Chicagoans. . Americans
tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they
have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.
> More
French town battles to keep Perrier at source
FinancialTimes. Feb. 19, 2008
The French town of Vergèze where Perrier water is bottled is taking on
Swiss food giant Nestlé in a fight to stop water from elsewhere being
put into the distinctive green bottles. Nestlé wants to call anything
Perrier water, since they own the brand, but Vergèze is afraid of
losing its biggest employer. So far, the town has suceeded in renaming
the springs Source Perrier-Les Bouillens, much to Nestlé’s anger.
Nestlé already had a public relations disaster in 1992 with Perrier
water when it was found to contain traces of carcinogenic benzene.
> More
Tasting Highlights: 2005 St.-Joseph
WineSpectator. Feb. 18, 2008
St.-Joseph is probably the least understood appellation in the Northern
Rhône, due mainly in part to its lack of an identifiable flavor
profile. With large variations in quality and style, it's an
appellation desperately in need of some focus. The good news is that
quality-conscious producers make outstanding Syrah within the
appellation, and the wines often cost much less than either Hermitage
or Côte-Rôtie.
> More
France bans alcohol at gas stations
UKTimes. Feb. 18, 2008
The sale of alcohol will be banned from French gas stations in a new
campaign against drunk drivers that includes the permanent confiscation
of their vehicles for a second offence. French petrol station owners
were angered by a measure that is part of a package to bring down
France’s road deaths from the present 4,600 (compare that to the
British total last year of 2,989). A tough enforcement campaign has
halved the French death toll since 2000.
> More
Legal technicality bans alcohol from French internet
Decanter. Feb. 18, 2007
A French appeals court has found against brewer Heineken in a case that
will see all alcohol advertising banned from French websites. The
draconian 1991 Evin law strictly regulates alcohol and tobacco
advertising. The judge in the case found that the internet was not
named in the original 1991 list of media allowed to promote alcohol,
even though the internet was not fully developed at that time. Rather
than update the law, the court enforced the outdated ban. The decision
has drawn condemnation from wine professionals in France. Patrick
Bernard, director of Millesima, a major Bordeaux wine merchant, calls
the decision “ridiculous” and threatened to ove his business abroad.
> More
Tasting Highlights: 2004 White Bordeaux
WineSpectator. Feb. 15, 2008
The 2004 Bordeaux vintage was a very good one for dry whites, falling
somewhere in between the ripe and powerful 2003 and the structured and
layered 2005. The wines are enjoyable now but they will improve with
age. The top names such as Haut-Brion or Domaine de Chevalier will age
for decades.
> More
French to make foie gras in China
UKTimes. Feb. 15, 2008
A French farmers' co-operative is to produce pâté de foie gras in China
for the first time after buying a duck farm in Yangquing, near Beijing.
The aim is to sell the fatty liver product to rich Chinese. Euralis has
chosen to produce foie gras from ducks, rather than geese, because of
the Chinese preference for duck meat.
> More
Tasting Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Burgundies
NewYorkTimes. Feb. 13, 2008
The Domaine de la Romanée-Conti makes some of the greatest and most
sought-after wines in the world. D.R.C. makes six grand cru reds, and
it is fascinating to taste them beginning with Échézeaux and ending
with Romanée-Conti. There is a progression in these wines, both of
increasing intensity and also of increasing delicacy. Together they are
the hallmark of great Burgundy.
> More
In Tavel, Paying Homage to the Rosé of Kings
NewYorkTimes. Feb. 11, 1008
TAVEL, a town of 1,600 perched at the edge of the Languedoc, on the
brink of Provence, is the veritable cradle of French rosé. A staple of
the ancient papal court in nearby Avignon and a favorite of Louis XIV
and Philippe le Bel (earning it the dual sobriquets Rosé of Kings and
King of Rosés), Tavel was the first rosé to be designated AOC
(Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée). The appellation has stayed true to
its roots; to be called a Tavel, it must be a rosé.
> More
Bordeaux pricing 'immoral'
Decanter. Feb. 9, 2008
The polemic over exorbitant Bordeaux primeurs continues.
Alain-Dominique Perrin, former head of the world's second biggest
luxury group, Richemont, told French magazine la Revue du Vin de France
that first growth pricing is “immorally” high, and must fall. He claims
that the production costs of a bottle of first growth wine is around
€12 (US$17), so consumers were paying about 80 times cost price for top
Bordeaux primeurs.
> More
Champagne sales up 5% in 2007
Decanter. Feb. 7, 2008
Russia has joined the club of about 15 countries that drink over a
million bottles of Champagne a year. Champagne sales went up by more
than 5% last year, with an extra 17m bottles sold, and an increase of
over 40% in Russian imports, accoridng to the Comité Interprofessionnel
du vin de Champagne. Top selling brands in 2007 were Moët and Veuve
Clicquot, both owned by luxury goods company, Louis Vuitton Moët
Hennessy, LVMH.
> More
Bordeaux’s a "Bargain"
New York Times. Feb. 7, 2008
It’s been said that the distinctions between Bordeaux and California
are rapidly diminishing, and that the singular finesse, elegance and
longevity that have long characterized good Bordeaux wines have given
way to a New World emphasis on powerful fruit flavors and easy
accessibility. Not so, says Times wine critic Eric Asimov. The idea
that Bordeaux has lost its distinctiveness has been woefully
exaggerated.
> More
Bordeaux en primeur is 'madness'
Decanter. Feb. 5, 2008
Former Chateau Petrus winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet has become the
latest high-profile wine professional to attack en primeur – calling it
'madness' and 'a disaster for wine'. Berrouet says the en primeur
barrel tastings, held the year after the harvest in Bordeaux, are a bad
influence on the wines of the region, because the wines have to be 'as
seductive as possible far earlier, to the detriment of the Bordeaux
style. As soon as it becomes a financial product, it is no longer a
wine.”
> More
Parker’s Châteauneuf du Pape wine picks
Businessweek. Feb. 3, 2008
I have been tracking Châteauneuf du Papes for more than 30 years. These
wonderful, reasonably priced wines from Provence have remarkable
flexibility with food, and the region is one of my favorites for old
vines, artisanal winemaking, and organic farming. The world is
obviously catching on, and prices are going to go up, but here are some
outstanding bargains from the excellent 2005 vintage.
> More
Stunning 2005 Bordeaux wines command top dollar
Bloomberg. Feb. 3, 2008
A report on the “instantly legendary” 2005 Bordeaux vintage. The 100
chateau owners and winemakers pouring their just- starting-to-arrive
2005s at the annual Union des Grands Crus tasting in New York are
touring the world to show off what they all consider a truly great
vintage. The first growths are all sold out, despite staggering futures
prices boosted by the weak exchange rate.
> More
Revue du Vin de France editor attacks French booze law
Decanter. Feb. 2, 2008
The editor of wine magazine La Revue du Vin de France has accused the
French government of 'contempt' for French culture in a scathing attack
in the March issue of Decanter magazine. In a response to a French
court’s decision to fine a newspaper for running an article on
champagne without a health warning.
Denis Saverot asks what his country, 'the land of joie de vivre', has
come to. 'This hygiene crusade is pushing the authorities to put wine
in the same boat [as other alcohols and health issues], treating more
than 1,000 years of culture with contempt,' he writes.
> More
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