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.

在11月初的Wine for Asia 2006葡萄酒展上，我作为葡萄酒品评者在三日内品尝了一百多款各国的佳酿，并出席了澳洲及新西兰的酒区讲座及品酒会。与去年的酒展相比，此次在知识方面让我收获颇丰，还品尝了许多新酒。啃着各国葡萄园独特的面包和Cheese，再品一口葡萄酒，坐下来与酿酒师们聊葡萄园的历史与趣闻、葡萄树与品种、气候与土壤、酿酒的方法等话题。这一位位酿酒师会兴致盎然地一边讲解，一边从白葡萄酒至红葡萄酒慢慢倒入我的杯中，与我一起分享品酒的感受。

2-4 Nov 2006  In EXPO Hall 4

WINE FOR ASIA 2006, riding on the success of Wine for Asia 2005, is expected to attract over 450 international exhibitors from around the world. Over 15,000 regional and local visitors (including VIP buyers delegations organized by respective wine importers and F&B associations from Asian countries such as Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Korea & many more) are expected to visit this important 3-day trade event.

WINE FOR ASIA 2006 is the business platform to showcase your products and services to the Asian Wine & Spirits Market. During Wine for Asia 2005, wines range from the Old World, to the New World Wines and wines from less well known countries were showcased, giving Asian Buyers a truly one stop shop for them to update their portfolios as well as their knowledge. WINE FOR ASIA 2006, builds on the success of this formula, promises the Asian Wine & Spirits Market with bigger and better representation from each Wine Producing Country.

http://www.wineforasia.com/index.htm
        

临近午夜，我又点起了一支香烟。让烟雾在Word的文件和咖啡杯前环绕。

傍晚时分，我与Dominic在面对着海滩的咖啡馆里闲聊。他先聊起了奥斯陆。听到“奥斯陆”心中不禁几分酸楚，一阵阵深呼吸随着海风起伏。我去过奥斯陆。并且，我几乎应该留在挪威的。当我在从卑尔根至风景秀丽的峡谷Flam的游轮上遇到M时，让我感受到人生的幸福……也许命中让我错过这场爱情：那个朦胧的清晨我站在汉堡车站的月台仅仅迟了七分钟却错过了回挪威的列车眼里含着泪却固执地以为那是命运不让我去追寻爱情或是我缺乏足够的自信去面对。我答应过与M潜入深山去看秋天的挪威的森林。我食言了。错过这场爱情，让我足足后悔了三年。

人的所谓的痛苦，就是因为记忆力太好。

时间 过去了三年。在新加坡这个没有四季的城市，日子过得出奇地快，因为没有秋风萧瑟，没有寒风刺骨的冬季。过去了一年感觉就像过了三个月。我在等待回欧洲的日子，那将会在两年以后。许多朋友都问我第二本书写得如何？我已经开头了，这个头早就开了！只是还在酝酿着，酝酿了整整一年。因为白天要上班，夜间和周日全天要读书，读的是文学研究课程。所以午夜时分坐在电脑面前太疲劳而无法下笔。

灵感与创作 创作过程离不开灵感。第一本书创作期为时两年半，第二本也许需要三年。这个头开得并不能让自己满意。因为“断续创作”的弊病就是让我某晚灵感来了写下五六千字，第二三晚因为工作学习劳累灵感消失，第四晚灵感重现想法却变了，又把之前的五六千字删删减减改成一千多字，这样的反复、这样的断续让我痛苦不堪。

如果把有灵感的创作比喻成一场有情感的性爱。“断续创作”就如同——当你与情人在美妙的空间、音乐中幸福地享受着那种快感与节律，突然来了一通要命且不得不接的电话，而你居然很愚蠢地接了它。当你掛断了电话，想再续缠绵，却发觉情人的激情已尽，翻身平躺一旁。你俩瞪大眼睛盯着天花板，一夜无语……这就是“断续创作”的恶果！

我幻想去山里呆着、种些农物，晴耕雨笔。可惜在这个物质的世界“隐居”也并非易事！

职业作家 值得庆幸的是我不是一位职业作家，并不依赖写作来生活。托尔斯泰认为，写作的职业化是文学堕落的主要原因。若写作成为谋生手段，发表就变成了写作最直接的目的。也许职业作家多数时候都需要揣摩读者的心理、市场的需求、媒体炒作的方向，每天都在计算自己的月产字数、稿费与版权、书的销量，却忘记表达自己内心对这个世界的真正想法。

喜欢周国平的那句话：为自己写，给朋友读。

读书 向教授倾诉我无法投入写作的困惑。他说这是好事，建议我这两年多读书，少写作。两年之后写的东西必定会有一个质的飞跃。是啊！如果第二本书写得与第一本没什么差别，还不如歇着别写。学习的研究课题要有深度，考前准备的资料要有广度。该读的书太多，平均每门课要读几十本至几百本的著作。我又是一个慢读慢笔者，一个月能读十本已经相当不错。现在，我没时间看电视、读报纸、网聊、回复妹儿、通电话，甚至应该与哪位朋友约会、花多长时间也要经过三思后选择。

朋友 朋友太多不一定是件好事，朋友太少也不一定是件坏事。与朋友的约会对我来说已经是一件奢侈的事情。每一场约会所花费的时间总觉得太多，所聊得话题又都大同小异，还不如在阳台捧一本好书读读。所以，每两个月举办一场Party是非常好的社交方式，可以把一两年未见的老朋友聚集起来，认识些新朋友。若能遇到一位真正共鸣的朋友，如同读到一本好书。

吸烟 当我把这支香烟灭了，才意识到自己并不是一个Smoker。只是为了怀念巴黎、维也纳、斯德歌尔摩、佛罗伦萨……那一家家古老咖啡馆烟雾弥漫的气氛。我并不像法国人常唠叨的：美国人是因为怕死而不敢吸烟。富人们害怕吸烟，是为了长寿，延长自己享受奢侈物质生活的美好时光。穷人们吸烟，是为了暂时放松心情、忘却生活的艰辛。艺术家和科学家吸烟，是为了思考人生与宇宙、承受创作时刻的煎熬。男人面对着女人吸烟，是为了扮深沉、消除心理和生理的紧张情绪；水手在甲板上吸烟，是为了融入大海和暴风雨的怀抱、熬过漫长孤独的航行……法国人和巴黎女郎喜爱吸烟，只因为他们是法国人。

回到现实 以上的文字我居然花了一个多小时来写。现在写作少了，自然打字的速度减慢和出错的机率增高。今晚还要完成一份考前准备资料，估计又熬到凌晨两点。周三前还要为朋友写一篇意大利主题的稿子。

日子，仍然继续着……

Judie in Singapore

22 Oct, 06

My french friend, Gina is flying back to France today!!

She will be staying in sourthen France for 2 to 3 months. She plans to trek the mountains (Chemin de compostelle) between France and Spain as a backpacker. Sounds so exciting!! It is making me so jealous. I haven’t been backpacking for 15 months since I came back from Cambodia last July. 

I love to backpack because it is special lifestyle. It makes me feel like a younger girl or a college student. Yup! I am still young and I am also a master’s student. Anyway, I was dreaming to go with Gina but I couldn’t. My mother will come to visit me in November.

Gina, Dominic and Pedro went to Chijmes and watched a Jazz performance then they went to listen to Salsa music last night. They had a wonderful evening before Gina left.

Gina recommended a good book to me - God Save Le France. But I couldn’t find it in the library. It was sold out at all of the bookshops.

Judie in Singapore
16 OCT, 06

Hi Judie,
It will not just be the bulls stomping in Raffles Place! The Great Grape Stomp will take place right in the midst of busy Raffles Place, complete with a great photo opportunity.

Seven pretty women, representing wine growing countries(who is from Italy, Germany, Korea, South America….etc), will stomp on grapes in a friendly fun competition. Diplomats from those countries will also be present to cheer on the stompers.

The Great Grape Stomp will take place on:
Date: Wednesday, 18th October 提醒：这周三中午
Time: 12.30pm
Venue: Raffles Place (On the green outside Caltex House)

Please see attached for more details.
We will really appreciate your coverage of this event.

The wine-luck party originated from Europe. It is currently very popular in Northern America, New Zealand and Australia.

The rule of the event is to have every guest bring a favorite bottle of wine to join party. The idea of such a social event is so that people can get to taste 20 to 30 varieties of wine. The wines can come from different countries and wineries. The wines can even be made from different kinds of grape. People who attend the event can be wine enthusiast or just to enjoy the taste of different wines.

It is also a social event that they can talk about the culture of wine or discuss other interesting issues while enjoying different vintages.

We had a great Party last Saturday night!! We invited 40 people, including 16~17 foreign friends. There are artists, writers, musicians, wine merchants, professor, doctor and nurse, IT engineers…A pretty Soprano, Wang Tingting (The Bachelor of Science, NUS) sang the opera around 1am. After then, we played guitar and sang together. The Party last till 5.30am as people would like to see the sunrise in my balcony. However, we were crazy enough to taste 25 bottles of wine, Champagne, martini and whisky.

We would like to cordially invite you to a wine luck party. It would be held at Judie’s apartment, in the scenic East Coast area.We have invited artists, musicians, writer, wine merchants, professor as well as pretty girls and handsome guys from both NUS and NTU! Apart from music and movie DVD, there would be plenty of yummy food and drinks, hard liquor and of course wine!

Time: 8: 30pm~3am Saturday, 7 Oct 06
How to get there: Take bus No. 33 or arrive at Paya Lebar MRT

“葡萄酒之夜”派对

十月七日周六晚上，将在朱迪的公寓举办葡萄酒主题的音乐派对。将邀请你的加入！！

我们邀请了艺术家、音乐家、作家、外国朋友、各类闲人雅士……NUS、NTU的俊男美妹参加。派对将提供音乐、精彩电影、吉它演奏、美食水果、烈酒与非酒精饮料等，当然还包括葡萄酒。欢迎你带来一位好友让我们认识！