Wine – Luck Party

 Judie Qin   Singapore Lifestyle magazines

产地：新西兰，Hawke’s Bay
年份：2002年
参考价格：未知
混合葡萄：60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 20% Malbec
类型：波尔多风格的混合红葡萄酒
外观：紫红色
香气：黑莓果香、巧克力及雪松香气
口感：轻柔和谐、结构佳
 
品评：强劲的鲜花辛香气息，略带洋李的果香、烟熏和橡木桶的味道，丰富圆润的单宁味、有层次感。这是一款非常出色的红酒。入味让人想象新西兰的秀丽山谷、原野湖畔，品尝时听几曲天籁之音，在宁静悠远的歌曲中，能感受到湖面泛起一波波涟漪、一阵阵袭袭的微风，从你肌肤掠过吹入身后的林间。

最理想的配菜是烤红肉、半熟牛扒及炖焖的美食。家庭特色菜可选配冬菇猪蹄 （Pig’s trotters with mushrooms）、砂锅丸子（Meat balls en casserole）和豉汁牛肉（Fried beef with soy bean sauce）等等。

Join us in Singapore’s first annual Beaujolais Nouveau Festival. We will celebrate with a street fair atmosphere of French food and an abundance of the Beaujolais Nouveau wine! There will be music, drinking, dancing and chance encounters with the Beaujolais girls!!!

 Click here for detail www.sbnf.com.sg/

AT ONE MINUTE PAST MIDNIGHT on the third Thursday of each November, from little villages and towns like Romanèche-Thorins, over a million cases of Beaujolais Nouveau begin their journey through a sleeping France to Paris for immediate shipment to all parts of the world. Banners proclaim the good news: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! “The New Beaujolais has arrived!” One of the most frivolous and animated rituals in the wine world has begun.

       

By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region’s total annual production, will be distributed and drunk around the world. It has become a worldwide race to be the first to serve to this new wine of the harvest. In doing so, it has been carried by motorcycle, balloon, truck, helicopter, Concorde jet, elephant, runners and rickshaws to get it to its final destination. It is amazing to realize that just weeks before this wine was a cluster of grapes in a growers vineyard. But by an expeditious harvest, a rapid fermentation, and a speedy bottling, all is ready at the midnight hour.

By French law, Beaujolais Nouveau is to be released no earlier than the third Thursday of November.

Beaujolais Nouveau began as a local phenomenon in the local bars, cafes, and bistros of Beaujolais and Lyons. Each fall the new Beaujolais would arrive with much fanfare. In pitchers filled from the growers barrels, wine was drunk by an eager population. It was wine made fast to drink while the better Beaujolais was taking a more leisurely course. Eventually, the government stepped into regulate the sale of all this quickly transported, free-flowing wine.

In 1938 regulations and restrictions were put in place to restrict the where, when, and how of all this carrying on. After the war years, in 1951, these regulations were revoked by the region’s governing body he Union Interprofessional des Vins de Beaujolais (UIVB)and the Beaujolais Nouveau was officially recognized. The official release date was set for November 15th. Beaujolais Nouveau was officially born. By this time, what was just a local tradition had gained so much popularity that the news of it reached Paris. The race was born. It wasn’t long thereafter that the word spilled out of France and around the world. In 1985, the date was again changed, this time to the third Thursday of November tying it to a weekend and making the celebration complete. But wherever the new Beaujolais went, importers had to agree not to sell it before midnight on the third Thursday of November…
 

作者：Winnie 

一年一度的法国薄若莱新酒节（Beaujolais Nouveau）到了。讲起葡萄酒的节日，早在古希腊，崇尚酒神Dionysus的古希腊人在每年12月的月底要举行葡萄酒节，庆祝当年新酒的诞生。信奉酒神Bacchus的古罗马人，秉承了相应的传统。在历史的很长一段时间里，葡萄酒与宗教信仰有着密不可分的渊源。随着宗教在人们生活中的弱化和淡出，葡萄酒作为宗教祭祀礼仪用酒的角色越来越轻，宗教意义上的葡萄酒的节日也渐渐销声匿迹了。法国薄若莱新酒节是现代社会里，以葡萄酒为主题的不多的节日之一。现已成为世界范围庆祝当年葡萄收获和酿制的节日。并让许多人感到好似那被怀念的古罗马酒神节复兴。

薄若莱新酒节出现于二战后。年底饮用当年新酒，在当时里昂当地酒吧里很是流行。随后流传到巴黎以至欧洲其他地方。70年代末到整个80年代，是鼎盛时期。风靡整个世界，亚洲、美洲都被感染带动。最初，新酒节是每年的11月15日。人们会在14日零时启程，赶着盛满新酒的马车从薄若莱飞奔巴黎。像竞赛一样，看谁家的新酒第一个抵达。送到那些期盼已久的winelover手中、口中和腹中。渴望的人们会欢迎、庆祝新酒的到来，狂欢激动的盛况是可以想见的。随着时代的发展，这样严格意义上限时发售和运输竞赛的传统方式已经不存在了。人们会把新酒提前运到法国的各个港口机场，等到允许发售的时间一到就立刻搭载各种交通工具奔赴世界各地。更甚者，新酒会提前被运到一些国家的当地，只等允许发售的日子一到，同时面世。另外为了商业目的，新酒节也从每年的11月15日改为11月的第三个星期四，方便人们周末Party……

http://www.winechina.com/news/readnews.asp?ID=693
http://www.wines-info.com/html/176/1248.html

Directed by  Ridley Scott
Russell Crowe
Albert Finney
Abbie Cornish
Marion Cotillard
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi

A Good Year

Max Skinner (Russell Crowe), a notoriously cocky, selfish and greedy bastard of a London bond trader, reluctantly returns to the rustic French vineyard of his youth, which he suddenly inherits upon the death of his estranged uncle (Albert Finney). As befits his heartless reputation, Max intends to put his past behind him and sell the vineyard as quickly as possible. However, upon arriving at the charming French retreat, his fond childhood memories with his uncle flourish, and he is unexpectedly enchanted by the place itself and an intriguing and beautiful Frenchwoman he meets shortly after his arrival. Disarmed by the joys of an existence so opposite from the life he wound up leading in London, Max re-discovers a part of him and exuberance for life and love that had been lost since childhood. Exuding a newfound calm and certainty of purpose, he settles into what ultimately becomes an intoxicating new chapter in his life…and a very good year.

我想说：生命之美丽，如葡萄园。

朱迪  发表于新加坡Lifestyle magazines 

Shiraz Viognier 希拉-维欧尼

产地：澳洲，雅拉谷（Yarra Valley）
网站：http://www.yering.com/
年份：2005年
混合葡萄：95% 希拉，5% 维欧尼
类型：红葡萄酒
外观：复杂的深红色
香气：香甜芬芳、黑莓果香
口感：入口柔和圆润，余味长存

品评：这款红酒有一股逐渐上升的芳香，稍带白胡椒味、玫瑰和紫罗兰香气，还有黑莓果香。品尝一口会有极美妙的感觉，味道会充满口腔，刺激着敏感的味蕾。在连续品尝了16款澳州的葡萄酒后，这款酒让我留下了特别深刻的印象，我忍不住再次集中精力品尝了两次，它给我最初的感觉仍没有改变。

后来我在网上查阅了优伶酒庄的网站得知，该酒庄的黑比诺（Pinot Noir）在去年的伦敦国际酒展中，夺得了“全球最佳黑比诺”大奖（Best Pinot Noir in the World）。酒庄的珍藏级黑比诺（Yering Station Reserve Pinot Noir）产于最好的年份—-2000年。这款酒被英国的品酒家评定：果味芬芳，带点巧克力和樱桃香味，入口很纯、浓厚的果味，咖啡和巧克力混合得极美妙。

优伶酒庄创立于1838年，是维省最古老的葡萄园。园里有雅拉谷最漂亮的酒店和餐厅，是爱酒之人必到的葡萄园。看来，下次去澳洲时一定得去拜访，在葡萄园里品酒的气氛一定更完美。

        

家庭特色菜可选配栗子红烧肉（Braised pork with chestnuts）、北京烤鸭（Roast Beijing duck）、糖醋排骨（Sweet-and-sour spareribs）、酱猪肚（Spiced pig’s tripe）和熏鸡（Smoked chicken）等等。

Yering Station History

Victoria’s first vineyard was planted at Yering Station in 1838. The Scottish-born Ryrie brothers ventured into the Yarra Valley as they moved their cattle south from Sydney. Taking up a grazing license of 43 000 acres, they named the property ‘Yering’, its Aboriginal name. The Ryrie’s planted two varieties, the Black Cluster of Hamburg and a white grape variety called Sweetwater. During the early 1850’s they returned to Sydney and Paul de Castella took ownership of Yering Station, developing the property from what remained primarily a cattle station into a landmark of winemaking in Victoria.

Yering Station winemaking practices

Depending on the season, harvest at Yering Station begins around late February / early March and is a bustling, exciting time of year in the vineyards and the winery. Fruit arrives freshly picked in the cool of morning and is handled before the heat of the day to ensure optimum flavour is preserved.