Red Chardonnay

Saw this story today on Wine Spectator, I wouldn't mind trying a bottle of this. I am always up for interesting wine, as long as it tastes good. I actually don't even know there are wineries in North Carolina.

Wine Spectator - Unfiltered
A winery in North Carolina has taken the idea of mixing white wine with red wine a bit literally. Instead of drinking the two over the course of a night, Green Creek winery in Polk County is producing a red Chardonnay. "It's very red," said winery cofounder Alvin Pack of his inaugural 2006 Chardonnay Rosso. "And it's very fruity." Green Creek, a newcomer to the wine world, was looking to come up with a "different kind of wine," not unlike a white Zinfandel or white Merlot … only in reverse. In the case of Chardonnay Rosso, the Chardonnay juice gets tinted with the skins of Chamborcin, a hybrid red grape. Pack chose Chamborcin after "a lot of research" and said the grape, when made as a single-varietal red, is "heavily colored." Therefore, a little of the skins go a long way for changing the color of the Chardonnay. While the Chamborcin influence is muted, it's definitely still there, Pack said of the pioneering 2006 vintage, which has a few more weeks to rest in Hungarian oak before it's bottled. However, the wine is already proving popular with some visitors to the winery, who are buying futures at around $22 a bottle, to Pack's surprise. Ours, too.

2006 Barcelona Video - Part I

Let's continue the reminiscing of 2006 with a video from Barcelona below:

2006 Madrid Video

The theme for this blog for January of 2007 is to remember the good times in 2006. I will start off with a few video clip of the Europe trip I took in June 2006 with Charlene, Joe, Stuart, Cynthia and Tina. Today's clip will be focusing on the 2 days that we spent in Madrid, Spain:

Spy Coin

Here is an interesting story that I saw today. This is sort of like the kind of gadgets you see in the movies. Also, the part about spy seduction, interesting . . .

U.S. warns about Canadian spy coins
By TED BRIDIS, Associated Press WriterThu Jan 11, 4:16 AM ET

Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.

Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins.

The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them.

Further details were secret, according to the U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors. The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine.

"What's in the report is true," said Martha Deutscher, a spokeswoman for the security service. "This is indeed a sanitized version, which leaves a lot of questions."

Top suspects, according to outside experts: China, Russia or even France — all said to actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said it knew nothing about the coins.

"This issue has just come to our attention," CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion said. "At this point, we don't know of any basis for these claims." She said Canada's intelligence service works closely with its U.S. counterparts and will seek more information if necessary.

Experts were astonished about the disclosure and the novel tracking technique, but they rejected suggestions Canada's government might be spying on American contractors. The intelligence services of the two countries are extraordinarily close and routinely share sensitive secrets.

"It would seem unthinkable," said David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. "I wouldn't expect to see any offensive operation against the Americans."

Harris said likely candidates include foreign spies who targeted Americans abroad or businesses engaged in corporate espionage. "There are certainly a lot of mysterious aspects to this," Harris said.

Experts said such tiny transmitters would almost certainly have limited range to communicate with sensors no more than a few feet away, such as ones hidden inside a doorway. The metal in the coins also could interfere with any signals emitted.

"I'm not aware of any (transmitter) that would fit inside a coin and broadcast for kilometers," said Katherine Albrecht, an activist who believes such technology carries serious privacy risks. "Whoever did this obviously has access to some pretty advanced technology."
Experts said hiding tracking technology inside coins is fraught with risks because the spy's target might inadvertently give away the coin or spend it buying coffee or a newspaper. They agreed, however, that a coin with a hidden tracking device might not arouse suspicion if it were discovered in a pocket or briefcase.

"It wouldn't seem to be the best place to put something like that; you'd want to put it in something that wouldn't be left behind or spent," said Jeff Richelson, a researcher and author of books about the CIA and its gadgets. "It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense."
Canada's largest coins include its $2 "Toonie," which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S. silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.

The government's 29-page report was filled with other espionage warnings. It described unrelated hacker attacks, eavesdropping with miniature pen recorders and the case of a female foreign spy who seduced her American boyfriend to steal his computer passwords.
In another case, a film processing company called the FBI after it developed pictures for a contractor that contained classified images of U.S. satellites and their blueprints. The photo was taken from an adjoining office window.

Wine Country Journal - Winery III

Saturday is the last day for our wine tasting trip, and it is another Napa Valley winery day. We are meeting up with my cousin Richard today, but unfortunately, we didn't make it to the schedule that I have planned, since we got on a hot air balloon ride in the morning that took up way too much time (see my video blog), and we ended up having to cancel a bunch of the wineries that we were suppose to go to. So by the time we got to the Napa Valley, it was around 1:30pm already, and we did not yet have lunch. Our first winery was Rudd Vineyards, a sit down tasting composed of 4 wines. We were served the Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc, the Bacigalupi Chardonnay and two Bordeaux blend red wines. The Crossroad Sauvignon Blanc was quite wonderful, crisp with lots of fruit, not as acidic as the New Zealand version, but comparatively more elegant and soft and cost only $20. The Bacigalupi Chardonnay was made from grapes in the same vineyard that won Chateau Montelena the 1976 blind Paris Tasting for their 1976 Chardonnay. That 1976 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay beat out all other top French white wines to win the competition, and is one of the wines that help put California winemaking on the map. Tasting this Chardonnay is quite an amazing experience I have to say. This Chardonnay is the hands down best Chardonnay I have ever tasted in my life. I had some pretty good Chardonnays on this trip, but nothing compare to what I am drinking now. It is the most expensive one too, at $60, but the pleasure that I derive from this wine is otherworldly, so naturally, I bought some. Words cannot do this Chardonnay justice, so you really ought to locate a bottle and try it out yourself. The reds at Rudd are pretty good, but again, having too much of the good things the last couple of days made me not want to buy any more red wines nor did the Rudd red stood out too much from the other wineries. In addition to the wonderful wines, Rudd Vineyard is a beautiful place to visit. First, you would drive up to a gate, and once you enter, you are surrounded by vines as you drive down a narrow road to reach an unobtrusive building in the middle of all the vines. The building is country cottage, with a beautifully appointed sit down tasting room. It was a nice day and it would have been very wonderful to walk around the grounds and to the vineyards but unfortunately we had to leave for our next appointment, but otherwise it would have been really quite a treat. Oh yeah, by the way, we saw Warren Moon there, he was hosting a birthday party in their private cellar/cave.

Next stop is Cakebread Cellars. This winery has a more commercial feel to it. I was told that they do not sell their wines to distributors, but only to restaurants or through the winery. So I had some high expectations but it turns out to be disappointing. I guess their distribution method is part of their marketing angle, but their wine are only average, nothing compared to some of the other wineries that we have visited on this trip. In addition, their wines are not cheap either. We tasted Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Many are good and decent wines that would make nice drinking, but not at the price that they sell them for, typically from around $45 - $60 a bottle. There are many more wines you can buy that greatly outweighs the offering here at cheaper or equal price. For example, the Rudd Chardonnay that we just had for $60 compare to the Chardonnay Reserve that they sell here for $52. One is otherworldly (the Rudd) while one is bland and too much oak (Cakebread). In addition, another problem with the tasting here is that they held the tasting in a spot that is just way too cold for the enjoyment of wine. By the third or fourth wine, I could no longer smell anything that is coming from the wine, a big part of the whole tasting wine process. Two of their wines are not too bad though, the Sauvignon Blanc and another is their Zinfandel, both on the cheaper side of the lineups that was offered to us.

Next we decide to visit Beringer, but before we go, we stopped by KFC for some fried chicken. You know, I think chicken is often the best food/snack to go with wine tasting. For example, for one of the wine tasting I hosted in New York, the most popular item was the chicken nuggets, just absolutely delicious with wine. This time it was no exception, the fried chicken we picked up from KFC was absolutely delightful, chicken has never tasted so good. We woofed down everything in a matter of minutes, it was quite a sight to be behold. Crumbs were flying all over the car, bones were chewed clean, just a finger licking good meal. Speaking of food, I kind of wish
In&Out burger have a location here, and I think they would do very well too. What better food are there than some absolutely declicious In&Out buger and their fries animal style?

Beringer is a huge operation with every category of wine available, from wine-in-a-box to upscale serious wines. The ground of Beringer is quite beautiful and cover a lot of space, with nicely decorated gardens and charming structures. There are two tasting rooms in Beringer, one serves up the lower and more common end of their offerings, while another serves up higher priced offerings with more serious wines. We decide to hit the tasting room that serves the higher priced wines. They had 4 options to taste from, but they are not cheap, with the top options been around $25 for 3 flight of Cabernet Sauvignon. I have to say, I think Beringer makes good Cabernet Sauvignon, not great, not spectacular, but just in general across the board good. My first encounter with a California Cabernet Sauvignon is a Beringer Knights Valley Cab 2000, and it was velvety smooth and bursting with chewy fruit. The several Cabernet Sauvignon I had here all drank very well, but unfortunately, they are all pretty expensive at $90 and one at $125, not sure if that is worth the price as many of the other Cabernet Sauvignon I had on this trip are equal if not much better than the Beringer offerings, some at a lower or equal price (I don’t really count Hillside Select here, that wine is just expensive). Nonetheless, Beringer was a wonderful end to our trip in Napa, ending the trip with some good Cabernet Sauvignon, carefully decorated wineries and some good company, not much could be better.