Good Wine Research Articles

Value addition traits of novel minor fruits of Assam-Nagatenga (Rhus semialata) and Leteku (Baccaurea sapida)

The Rhus semialata (Nagatenga) fruit is small, round in shape and less than one inch in size and the fruit of Baccaurea sapida (Leteku) is yellowish and velvety, 2–3 cm in diameter with leathery pericarp. The shelf life of the fruits Rhus semialata and Baccaurea sapida is 1–2 days and upto 7 days, respectively under room temperature. These fruits can be considered as super foods as the study reveals that the fruits are accumulated with well-balanced nutrients and health protective compounds such as minerals, vitamins and phytochemicals. The physical and quality characteristics (edible portion, juice content, pulp content, acidity, TSS, pH, pectin) of the fruits reveals that they are suitable for producing various value-added products like beverages, sauce, pickle, jelly, etc. According to these characteristics, Rhus semialata fruits can be considered for making squash, sauce, pickle and chutney. Baccaurea sapida fruits due to being highly juicy with less pulpy characteristics are more suitable for beverage making; even good wine can be produced from this fruit. These minor fruits could be made available throughout the year and to the areas far from their site of yield by minimizing their post-harvest losses by extending the shelf life by processing them to different value-added products.

Vishnu Padayachee 1952-2021

Vishnu Padayachee 1952-20211 Imraan Valodia (bio) The prominent South African economist Vishnu Padayachee passed away in the early hours of May 29, 2021, following a series of health challenges over the previous two years. Vishnu was a past editor of the journal Transformation, having joined the editorial team, then made up of Bill Freund, Mike Morris, and Gerhard Maré shortly after its launch in 1986. Vishnu's name first appeared on the list of editors for issue 5, published in 1987. He left the editorial board in 1999, whereafter I was invited to join the board, to continue the important work Vishnu had undertaken to develop Transformation as an influential forum for debate about the nature of the economic transition in South Africa, and a voice for alternative economic policy analyses. Vishnu rejoined the editorial board in 2012, and remained an editor until 2016. During the interregnum in the 2012-2016 period and post-2016, Vishnu remained a regular contributor to the journal–as an author, publishing several important pieces on economic policy in South Africa, and as a referee. Transformation was a key part of a multifaceted and deep academic and personal friendship that I enjoyed with Vishnu over a period of some 38 years. I first met Vishnu Padayachee when he walked into my Economics 101 class in 1983 at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) to lecture on introductory microeconomics. Vishnu immediately made a lasting impression on me, and has since then been my mentor, friend, academic colleague, and comrade until his untimely death. As he began his lecture, I was immediately mesmerised by this handsome, urbane, genial, exceptionally articulate lecturer, his mannerisms more akin to that of an English upper-class gentleman than what was then the norm at UDW, who made Economics 101 not only interesting, but also tinged with radical economic ideas. As a young student growing up in apartheid South [End Page 1] Africa and studying at a university where a number of the lecturers were members of the Broederbond, this was truly extraordinary stuff. I made regular visits to Vishnu's office when he moved to the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at UDW and he 'fed' my curiosity for better understanding South Africa. He introduced me to the work of, among others, Harold Wolpe, Martin Legassick, Rick Turner, the famous speech by Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU) general secretary Joe Foster at the FOSATU congress, which outlined the Federation's views on the relationship between the struggle for workers' rights through trades unions, and the struggle for political freedom in South Africa. None of this literature was, of course, a part the Economics curriculum and most of it was, at the time, banned. In those days, people went to jail for distributing this kind of material. Suddenly, Economics was exciting and I began better to understand the world around me. These early years shaped my academic trajectory forever. Over the years, Vishnu had the impact of steering me toward a better understanding of the world, linking up with new exciting research ideas, striving for academic excellence, and enjoying books and leisurely lunches. Remarkably, he had this effect on many, many others. Vishnu was born on the south coast of (then) the province of Natal in the town of Umkomaas on May 31, 1952. His father was a teacher and school principal. In those days, the life of an Indian school principal in Natal involved having to move from one little town to the next. Vishnu's parents lived this life. As a result of this Vishnu was brought up by his relatives in Umkomaas, a well-off and globally connected family with connections in, among other places, Germany. I think this upbringing was instrumental in Vishnu's love for the good things in life–good food, sporty cars, good wine and the best whisky–notwithstanding his lifelong work for a democratic and egalitarian society. Vishnu studied at the University of Durban-Westville, at the time the only place where Indians were able to study, completing a BComm, BComm (Hons) and MComm in Economics, respectively in 1973, 1975 and 1979. He began working as a junior...

City Profile: Vienna's Summer Lit-up

city profile Vienna’s Summer Lit-up by Sylvia Petter Notebook AFTER A HIATUS since my student days in the early 1970s, I’ve been living in Vienna again since 2006. That year I became immersed in a Vienna Poetry School workshop run by singer/songwriter/novelist Ernst Molden in a brothel (Puff) on five different occasions, each dedicated to one of the senses. Ernst’s texts and renderings of songs by Bob Dylan, among others, have that Viennese tang of dark humor, melancholy , and blatant honesty. This summer will see him and his bands in open-air concerts in the city again. Indeed, during lockdown, he and his son, Karl, sang, not for their supper, but for their neighbors—from their Vienna balcony. I remember another summer when he took his class outside to the Prater and we experimented with good red wine from the Burgenland, searching for that sweet spot in writing between drunk and sober. For me this encapsulates the Vienna to which I’m drawn, which is not just about yummy cake in the Viennese cafés. The Viennese coffee house culture has become part of unesco’s inventory of intangible cultural heritage. In the 1890s young writers such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Karl Kraus, and Arthur Schnitzler would meet at Café Griensteidl, and this gave birth to coffee house literature. There is a certain amount of cross-pollination of the arts in this city; for example, there is currently an exhibition of Higher Powers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, under the motto of Seeing across Cultures, running into August and including artifacts and texts sent in by the public and exhibited alongside items beyond the reach of mere mortals. Due to its history and geography, Vienna has always been on the edge, on edge, edgy, with relief sought through words and music, cabaret, and satire. Thomas Bernhard, playwright and novelist—reviled by some Austrians as having sullied his nest yet lauded by others and honored with literary prizes— was very outspoken and critical of Austria, and his works are as apt today as they were when he wrote them in the last century. For example, a quote from The Loser, a meditation on success, failure, genius, and fame, says it in a nutshell: “Whoever can’t laugh doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously . . .” Every year there are literary prizes run by the publisher Edition Exil and also open to work by writers not of the German mother tongue. In 2003 Julya Rabinowich was awarded the prize for Writing between Cultures and has since gone on to receive several awards for her writing. Her novel Splithead was published in English by Portobello Books in 2011. Summer is also the time of open-air readings such as Ö-Töne in the MQ, where in 2021 well-known writers like Friederike Mayröcker and Josef Haslinger are programmed to share the stage with newcomers like Sandra Gugić, who also began her career via the Edition Exil Prize in 2008 and attended the legendary 2006 “Puff” workshop. Having come full circle, let me now take you through Vienna’s Bermuda Triangle, where one might disappear in one of the many small bars, up past the Synagogue to St. Rupert’s, the oldest church in Vienna, to my favorite bookshop, Shakespeare & Company Booksellers, with its exclusively English-language stock and its special section on books about and set in Vienna. Not only can books be found here, but as the shop’s bookmark says, “Let yourself be found by a book.” It will help you explore hidden corners of the city, be it through Graham Greene’s The Third Man or Lewis Crofts’s The Pornographer of Vienna, relating the life of that misunderstood painter, Egon Schiele. What to Read & Listen to in a Viennese Café Lewis Crofts The Pornographer of Vienna Old Street Publishing Ernst Molden “Bubenlied” Bubenlieder (2006 album) Sylvia Petter All the Beautiful Liars Lightning Books Julya Rabinowich Splithead Trans. Tess Lewis Portobello Books Robert Seethaler The Tobacconist Trans. Charlotte Collins Anansi International Sylvia Petter, an Australian now based in Vienna, writes short, long, serious, sexy, and fun. Her debut novel, All the Beautiful Liars (2020), was...

Receptores para la temperatura y el tacto: sensores para sentir e interpretar el mundo que nos rodea. Premio Nobel de Fisiología o Medicina 2021

A gas leak, an approaching train, the proximity of a fire, a rotten meal or simply a caress or tasting a good wine, it is a question of how we perceive the physical world through sensory perceptions and how we build an image in our brain and its study has fascinated mankind for millennia. These questions and the milestones generated have been awarded several Nobel Prizes and has culminated in the 2021 Nobel Prize in Medicine that has been awarded to the North Americans David Julius, a biochemist, professor at the University of California and Ardem Patapoutian, a molecular biologist of Armenian origin and born in Lebanon, also a researcher at the University of California, La Jolla, for their findings about temperature and touch receptors. The groundbreaking discoveries of the TRPV1, TRPM8 and PIEZO ion channels made by the laureates have provided insight into the molecular basis of the perception of heat, cold, pain, mechanical forces, and the position of our body in space, and how these sensations of such a varied nature are transformed into nerve impulses in the CNS that allow us to generate an internal representation of the world around us and adapt to it.

Comparative Analysis of Red Wine Produced from Hibiscus sabdariffa l. and Citrus sinensis Juice Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae Isolated from Palm Wine and Different Brands of Commercial Wine

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) grows abundantly in some parts of Nigeria and the plant has high nutritional value to all ages. Over the years, Nigeria has depended on imported wines to satisfy the demands for wine consumption by her citizens and this has placed huge economic burden on her economy. Hence, the need to exploit the commercial availability of Hibiscus sabdariffa for wine production. This study was aimed at comparative evaluation of red wine produced from Hibiscus sabdariffa L. and Citrus sinensis juice using Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from palm wine and brands of commercial wine. The Roselle calyx extract and sweet orange juice in the ratio of 3:1 was inoculated with the palm wine yeast and allowed to ferment for 14 days at 28±2°C. Physicochemical and microbiological parameters of the fermenting ‘must’ were monitored at intervals using standard methods. Culturable microorganisms was not detected in the ‘must’ at Day 0, but only yeast cells which have a mean count of 2.77 x 104 Cfu/ml and 2.25 x 104 Cfu/ml were present in the fermenting ‘must’ at Day 7 and 14, respectively. There were significant differences (p<0.05) among the parameters monitored in this study except pH and specific gravity (SG) of the fermenting ‘must’. The data obtained demonstrated that there was a decline in pH, reducing sugar, and SG of the fermenting ‘must’ which ranged from 3.8-3.5, 23-2.10 g/L and 1.08-1.00 oBrix % w/w, respectively. However, this study reported increase in alcohol content (0 - 10.87% v/v), titratable acidity (0.45 - 0.68 g/mL), and temperature (26.0 - 30.7°C) during the fermentation of the ‘must’. The wine produced had a bright red colour, pH of 3.5, alcohol content of 10.87% v/v, SG of 1.00 oBrix % w/w, and titratable acidity (TA) of 0.68%. The outcome of this study indicated that the wine produced is slightly more preferable than some commercialized brands of wine based on sensory scores. Since, the alcoholic beverage developed during fermentation process is in generally of acceptable quality as a good table wine thus, it can be concluded that our wine is a good product recommendable.

Multidimensional assessment demonstrates sustainability of new low-input viticulture systems in north-eastern France

Current demand for more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable farming practices requires multicriteria assessment of innovative agricultural systems to help enhance cropping systems. We assessed the sustainability of 11 systems intended to substantially reduce inputs, especially pesticides, to viticulture systems. Pesticide use was reduced using three methods: (i) technical (e.g., essential oils instead of some copper use, 100 % soil covering applied); (ii) organizational (e.g., new spraying decision rules, decision aid tools); and (iii) redesign of the entire system (e.g., resistant grape varieties planted). Sustainable performance of the new low-input vine systems (NLIVS) was assessed over 6 years (2013–2018) based on 25 indicators. They covered all aspects of system sustainability: environmental, agronomic, economic, and social. This included the evaluation of human capital and the quality of the wines produced. The results showed that it is possible to combine good environmental performance, such as reducing treatment frequency by up to 89 %, with good agronomic and wine quality performances. The socio-economic performance of these NLIVS was more moderate. Nonetheless, the results demonstrated that the NLIVS are sustainable according to many diversified indicators. NLIVS are also resilient, as shown by the consistent sustainability results over six consecutive years. They are a realistic tool enabling winegrowers to consider reducing viticulture inputs.

Isolation and Identification of Indigenous Wine Yeasts and Their Use in Alcoholic Fermentation.

SUMMARYResearch backgroundIn our study, spontaneous alcoholic fermentations were carried out to isolate non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces yeasts from grape must from different vine-growing regions in Slovenia. Additionally, the diversity of native Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains was evaluated during the process.Experimental approachDuring spontaneous alcoholic fermentations the yeast population of non-Saccharomyces and Saccharomyces yeasts was sampled. We used eleven microsatellite markers to determine the genetic diversity of S. cerevisiae strains. In addition, different ratios of the indigenous strains of S. cerevisiae, Hanseniaspora uvarum and Starmerella bacillaris were tested for their possible use in alcoholic fermentation with inoculated yeasts by monitoring its course and measuring the concentration of aroma compounds in wine.Results and conclusionsSequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of ribosomal DNA showed that of 64 isolates, 46 strains represent S. cerevisiae and 18 strains belong to non-Saccharomyces yeasts. The identified non-Saccharomyces yeast species were H. uvarum, Pichia kudriavzevii, Saturnispora diversa and S. bacillaris. The dendrogram grouped S. cerevisiae strains into 14 groups. The number of S. cervisiae strains isolated from the musts was 10 (Posavje), 11 (Podravje) and 25 (Primorska vine-growing region). On the other hand, the alcoholic fermentation with inoculated yeasts, in which the native S. cerevisiae strain predominated over H. uvarum and S. bacillaris, gave the most promising result due to the highest alcoholvolume fraction, the lowest acetic acid concentration and significantly higher concentrations of volatile thiols 3-mercaptohexyl acetate (3MHA) and 3-mercaptohexan-1-ol (3MH), 2-methylpropanol, 2-methylbutanol, 3-methylbutanol and 2-phenylethanol) in the produced wine.Novelty and scientific contributionWe confirmed the potential use of indigenous S. cerevisiae and non-Saccharomyces yeasts in alcoholic fermentation with inoculated yeasts, which allows the positive properties of the yeast strains to be expressed and good quality wines to be produced. Thus, the results are encouraging for winemakers to create different wine styles associated with a particular terroir using indigenous yeasts.

An analytical toast to wine: Using stacked generalization to predict wine preference

AbstractDue to the intricacies surrounding taste profiles, one's view of good wine is subjective. Therefore, it is advantageous to provide a more objective, data‐driven way to assess wine preferences. Motivated by a previous study that modeled wine preferences using machine learning algorithms, this work presents an ensemble approach to predict a wine sample's quality level given its physiochemical properties. Results show the proposed framework out‐performs many sophisticated models including the one recommended by the motivational study. Moreover, the proposed framework offers a simple variable importance strategy to gain insight as to the relevance of the predictor variables and is applied to both simulated and real data. Given the predictive power of using ensembles, especially when they can be interpretable, practitioners can use the following approach to provide an accurate and inferential perspective towards demystifying wine preferences.

“Mocked by the Archon of Lust”

Abstract This article argues that the depictions of Gnostic sects performing horrendous rites in Epiphanius of Cyprus’ work Panarion worked as rhetorical devices to shift focus away from his own position vis-à-vis marriage, sex, and consumptions of good food and wine, a position that was considered liberal in the context of fourth century ecclesiastical debates. It here is shown how Epiphanius’ description of Gnostic sects follows clear patterns of the archetypical “other”, going back to Roman slander of Christians. By drawing attention to this fact and by contextualizing Epiphanius’ theological positions and the ecclesiastical struggles he was engaged in during the fourth century, this article cast new light on the work Panarion and the techniques Epiphanius employed in order to impact his theological climate. By retorting to conventional polemical methods of preceding centuries, where the enemy is attached to norm-breaking behavior, Epiphanius managed to make his own positions seem more reasonable and moderate.

Cyrille Boyer.

"My favorite drink is good red wine. I can never resist chocolate …" Find out more about Cyrille Boyer in his Author Profile.

Biotechnological Approach Based on Selected Saccharomyces cerevisiae Starters for Reducing the Use of Sulfur Dioxide in Wine.

Sulfites are considered the main additives in winemaking for their antimicrobial, antioxidant and anti-oxidasic activities. The current concern about the potential negative effects of sulfur dioxide (SO2) on consumer health has focused the interest on replacing or reducing SO2 use. Our work aims to develop a strategy based on the use of selected starter culture, able to perform wine fermentation without SO2 addition. Four selected Saccharomyces cerevisiae indigenous strains were tested as mixed starter cultures in laboratory scale fermentations. The starter culture, characterized by a similar percentage of dominance of both strains composing the mixed starter and able to produce a wine characterized by the best combination of chemical and aromatic characteristics, was chosen. This mixed culture was tested as a starter at pilot scale with and without SO2 addition, by using a higher inoculum level in the vinification without SO2. The selected starter confirmed higher dominance ability in vinification without SO2 addition than in SO2-added fermentation, demonstrating that sulfite addition is not a guarantee to reach an absolute dominance of starter culture on indigenous microflora. The proposed biotechnological tool allowed to produce good quality wines possessing also “functional properties”, as NO-SO2 added wines were characterized by high polyphenol content and antioxidant activity.

From glutton to gourmet: is gourmandise still a deadly sin?

Drawing from historical literary works and contemporary French literature, this study [1] explored the evolution of the meanings of ‘gourmandise’ as a concept, from its early characterisation as a cardinal sin to a contemporary notion merging with visual textualisation. Furthermore, it argues that the twentieth century paved the way for a transformation in the meaning of gourmandise: its definition now emphasises a visual refinement characteristic, while retaining the element of excess as part of its appeal, thus making ‘gourmandise’ symbolic, accessible and acceptable to the general public.
 Although the word ‘gourmandise’ appeared in written documents at the end of the Middle Ages, its history is much older since its use dates back to the early days of Christianity, to the first monastic communities of the third and fourth centuries. In addition, while the term still exists today, its significance has had many variations over the centuries.
 While contemporary lexicographers define it as “the aptitude to appreciate the quality and delicacy of dishes” and the “excessive taste for the pleasure of the table” [2], its meaning has varied over the centuries [3] and is still contested. Philosophical, spiritual and social debates exist over whether the word depicts excess or moderation.
 In Western society, gourmandise refers to three denotations roughly corresponding to three historical periods. The earliest meaning refers to the big eaters, the heavy drinkers, and all the excesses of the table. Strongly negative, the word ‘gourmandise’ qualifies a horrible vice, one of the seven deadly sins codified by the Christian Church.
 Gradually, gourmandise was enriched by a second, positive sense, which would triumph in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and introduce the word ‘gourmet’ into European languages. While still reprobated by the Christian Church and moralists, gourmandise became a respectable epithet characterising amateur appreciators of good food, good wines and good company.
 The eighteenth century brought about a redefinition of the notion of gourmandise, all the more so as the influence of the Christian Church declined considerably. The works of Grimod de la Reynière and, a few years later, Brillat-Savarin saw a semantic change in the meaning of gourmandise, which has been attributed to the transition of an economy of scarcity to one of abundance [4, 5].
 The twentieth and twenty-first centuries brought a new era for gourmandise. With the advent of digital communication, people began to talk about their experiences more rapidly and to a wider audience. Eating out has become a social event, one which must be shared instantly. Gourmandise has become digital and focuses both on quality and quantity, retaining some of its original meaning but with a new visual dimension [5].
 Gourmandise is now part of everyday and professional life. It still includes the implications of excess, sharing and exchange, but now denotes transference in an increasingly seductive and interactive way. This rediscovered gourmandise is now voyeuristic instead of the gourmandise of the stomach.
 The findings of this study suggest that, while the meaning of gourmandise has evolved over a period of two millennia, the aspect of excessive food consumption has been retained from its beginnings right through to the twenty-first century. Paralleling its growing prestige within popular culture and social media, the discourse on gourmandise is thriving. Amidst the ‘explosion’ of food-related blogs, vlogs, websites and television programmes, gourmandise has become an engaging form of entertainment, trying to satisfy the appetites of a contemporary ‘food-crazed’ culture.
 The original research on which this article is based is available here http://hdl.handle.net/10292/12964
 Corresponding author
 Gilles Petit can be contacted at: gilles.petit@aut.ac.nz
 References
 (1) Petit, G. From Glutton to Gourmet: Is Gourmandise Still a Deadly Sin? Master’s Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, Jul 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/12964 (accessed Apr 20, 2020).
 (2) Gourmandise. Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française [online], 9th ed. https://academie.atilf.fr/consulter/Gourmandise?page=1 (accessed May, 2018).
 (3) Bantreil-Voisin, N. Gourmandise: Histoire d'un péché capital [online]. La Cliothèque, Jan 3, 2011. http://clio-cr.clionautes.org/gourmandise-histoire-d-un-peche-capital.html (accessed May 1, 2016).
 (4) Meyzie, P., Ed. La gourmandise entre péché et plaisir. Lumières 2008, 11. https://www.fabula.org/actualites/lumieres-ndeg11-la-gourmandise-entre-peche-et-plaisir_28260.php (accessed April, 2018).
 (5) Greene, C. Gourmands & Gluttons: The Rhetoric of Food Excess; Peter Lang Publishing: New York, 2015.

Chemistry and Reactivity of Tannins in Vitis spp.: A Review.

Tannins are a group of polyphenols found in fruits, leaves, trees, etc., well known in the leather industry and in apples, persimmons and grapes, because of their capacity to interact with other polyphenols or other components either from the food product or from saliva. Prior to being able to interact with other compounds, tannins have to be extracted from the food matrix, which depends on their chemistry, as well as the chemical structure of other components, such as cell wall material and proteins. Vitis vinifera grapes are commonly grown around the world and are used in winemaking, providing good quality wines with different levels of tannins responsible for the final wine’s astringency. Many studies have focused on tannins extractability and retention with cell wall material, and the reactivity of tannins with proteins in Vitis vinifera grapes and wine, but there are very few reports for other Vitis species. However, depending on the environmental characteristics of certain regions, Vitis hybrid grapes are grown and used to produce wines more and more. This review focuses on the comparison of the chemistry of tannins, and their reactivity with other macromolecules in Vitis species.

EFFECT OF FERMENTED CONDITIONS ON PINEAPPLE WINE PROCESS

An investigation was undertaken to optimize the processing conditions for making of good quality wine from pineapple juice. The process technology with respect to level of initial juice total soluble solid (TSS), level of sugar, and level of total acid content to raise the juice TSS and fermentation time has been standardized to make acceptable wine from the pineapple juice. The juice was extracted from the ripe fruits of Queen cultivar. The wines made by adjusting sugar level of 24 0Brix with sucrose, acidity level of 0.5 % and fermentation up to 14 days were found to be appropriate to produce acceptable wine from pineapple juice.

Seeking Gastronomic, Healthy, and Social Experiences in Tuscan Agritourism Facilities

There is a growing desire among tourists to improve their lifestyle and pass their vacations in areas with a strong local gastronomic heritage. Indeed, one of the most important factors that drives visitors to choose an agritourism facility for their vacation is the pull of good food and wine. This manuscript examines visitors’ evaluations of their time spent in Tuscan agritourism facilities with particular focus on the cuisine, the health benefits, and the social experience. The analysis is based on a representative sample of 1886 reviews posted by visitors from all over of the world on the websites of 60 agritourism facilities that operate in Tuscan municipalities. By exploring visitor evaluations, which consist of an overall rating of their agritourism experience and separate ratings for the cuisine, the physical environment, and the service, this paper expands the scope of previous studies into food and drink management development as a way of attracting new visitors, by providing additional information on the distinctive characteristics of the local cuisine on offer. Results indicate that visitors—above all families—prefer an agritourism facility that offers authentic local cuisine and beverages and also offers them the possibility of spending time outdoors in destinations with a rich culinary heritage. Visibility of the main attractive attributes of agritourism facilities and the local cuisine through websites is needed in order to drive consumers in their vacation choices and to allow these structures to consolidate their place in the food and drink market.

Competence in psychology board certification: Unlike a good wine, it does not get better with age.

Competence in psychology board certification: Unlike a good wine, it does not get better with age.

Tales of the fungus among us

A real corker Is your wine corky? Does it smell like a wet dog and have a flat, dull flavor? If so, you’ve become a victim of cork taint. A collaboration between a maker of natural cork bottle stoppers and an expert in gas chromatography hopes to banish the problem for good. The contaminant that turns good wine into sour grapes is 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), a compound produced by mold. Although cork taint is a centuries-old problem, scientists have identified the culprit only in the past 40 years. TCA gets into cork through an age-old battle of the kingdoms: Plantae versus Fungi. Cork is the bark of the cork oak tree, also known as Quercus suber. Once every 10 years or so, the trees are stripped of their bark. Over a 200-year lifetime, each bark-regenerating tree can provide thousands of wine stoppers. Q. suber defends itself against fungal attack by producing

A ready-to-use freeze-dried juice and immobilized yeast mixture for low temperature sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) wine making

The aim of this study was to develop a bioprocess for low temperature fruit wine making from ready-to-use freeze-dried raw materials: sour cherry (Prunus cerasus) juice and the psychrotolerant and alcohol resistant yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae AXAZ-1 immobilized on porous delignified cellulose. The effect of storage time of the freeze-dried raw materials at 4°C (0, 30, and 60 days) on the fermentation efficiency of the yeast, as well as on the quality of the produced wines was evaluated. Sweet wines (>14% v/v alcohol) were produced without need for extra commercial alcohol addition. The sweet, sour cherry wines produced at 10°C using the freeze-dried raw materials, were analyzed for their aroma profile by headspace SPME GC–MS analysis as well as for their sensory attributes. All wines had similar aroma characteristics with fresh and fruity (cherry) notes, and high esters content. The fermentation kinetics and the sensory characteristics indicate the potential of the freeze-dried raw materials as a ready-to-use mixture for good quality sour cherry sweet wine making even at low temperatures.

<p>Wine Index of Salubrity and Health (WISH): an evidence-based instrument to evaluate the impact of good wine on well-being</p>

Wine, as any other alcoholic drink, should be consumed in moderate dosages. The scientific literature reports a huge number of articles describing the various health benefits of moderate wine drinking, but none have so far summarized the different types of evidence supporting these effects. Furthermore, there is no proof that any specific wine might be more or less beneficial than any other according to its content of specific nutrients and components. The aim of this article was to identify the individual components of wine that are known to have a potential to effect on health, in order to create a wine-specific index to grossly estimate the impact of moderate wine drinking on well-being. A deep search was performed on the medical literature to choose those articles that could explain the role of the main components of wine on health. The proper dosages and the instruments to evaluate the quality of wines were identified and are described herein. Evidence supporting the role of alcohol, acidity, sulfur dioxide, malic acid, metals, polyphenols, and other components of wine on health was identified and summarized, and the various links with health benefits are described. Then a Wine Index of Salubrity and Health (WISH) was developed which, as a rapidly available and effective instrument, will help to understand at a glance the potential beneficial effect of a specific wine.

Finding the probability of a rare real world event

One of the nicer things about growing older is that you tend to find a great deal of pleasure in the little rituals of life. Things like morning coffee or tea, a warm bath, or a glass of good wine at the end of the day. There are some rituals, however, that are not at all enjoyable. Take, for example, the monthly ritual of paying bills. I still do this by cheque, so I need to make sure my bank account balance is sufficient to pay the cheque, write the cheque, and subtract the cheque amount from the account balance. Now there is a little pleasure when one actually adds money to the account balance, but the one time that gives me more than a modicum of joy is when the pence portion of the account balance comes out to be exactly zero. This happens very rarely and unpredictably. As a statistician I became intrigued with trying to find the probability of this event occurring. I did an extensive literature search both in traditional hard copy journals and also online, but I could find no reference to this problem.