Author Archives: producer366

I am always cautious about relating alcoholic consumption to good health although there is a mountain of literature that links moderate consumption of certain alcoholic beverages to all manner of good health. Most recent study published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology has found that certain beverages can increase a person’s chance of developing kidney stones.

The study found doses of sugar sweetened drinks can increase the chances of developing kidney stones, while other beverages can help to reduce the risk of developing the condition. The study looked at a large amount of data on over 190,000 adults, mostly middle-aged, who had never had kidney stones. Over an eight year timespan 4,462 developed the stones and those who drank the most sugar-sweetened beverages were the most likely to find themselves with kidney stones.

In terms of lowering the risk of kidney stones beer came out on top, when consumed once a day compared to once a week. The risk fell by 41% for a daily beer, but wine also proved beneficial with a 33% reduction in risk with a daily versus weekly glass of white wine and 31 % for red wine.
Other drinks also saw the kidney stone risk fall, the study found that the risk fell by 26% foe caffeinated coffee, 16% for decaffeinated coffee, 12 % for orange juice and 11 % for tea.

Glass producer Owens-Illinois have teamed up with Cork producer Amorin have teamed up to launch what they claim “the first real advance in packaging since the turn of the century”. I must note that the century is only 13 years old !!

The “Helix” stopper was launched at Vinexpo. The cork is placed into a bottle that has a helix-shaped grove moulded into the mouth of the bottle. A flange at the top of the cork extends outside the bottle rather like a champagne cork. This when turned by hand will twist the cork out from the bottle mouth without the need of a corkscrew. The idea is to give the image of a premium cork closure with the convenience factor claimed by screw cap makers.

Much testing has shown that there is no sensory difference from standard cork closures over accelerated aging process. Only minor adjustments will be required to existing bottling lines. The “Helix” has been successfully trialled in 12 wineries in three countries. Concern has been voiced about how easy it would be to tamper with the makers have stated that the users wil have to provide their own capsules to seal the cork to the bottle.

When I was young and an apprentice it was fairly common practice to re-cork the wines in major cellars. The team of “workers” would visit a private cellar complete with corking mahine an new corks. After inspection the selected bottles would have their corks pulled and a bottle selected to “top up” all the other bottles and then the new cork would be applied. The Foreman then would write out a certificate stating date, place and amount of bottles re-corked. Also a bit of sealing wax was applied to the side of the bottle and before it hardened the date was stamped into the wax.
Penfold’s the Australian producer plans to bring their re-corking clinic to Britain again for the firt time since 2008. The clinic takes place every two years in Australia where any of their wines 15 years or older are topped and re-corked.

Last month Paul Walsh announced his plans to step down from his role as chief executive of Diageo and leave at the end of 2014. It has already been reported that his name has been linked to FYSE 100 companies in the role as Chairman. Ivan Menezes will take over the position of chief executive at Diageo from 1st July2013.

The brain child of Scott Watson and Brian Woods, ex employees of Diageo have searched the histories of about 100 distilleries that have been “lost” over the past century. With the help of Scotch whisky expert they have been researching the flavour profiles of those old distilleries. The types of stills, the barley they would have used and various other factors have been determined. Now whiskies have been sourced and the blends re-created. They have obtained the rights to produce whiskies from 20 of the closed distilleries from across Scotland The first whiskies will be released later this year. Initially in the UK then US and parts of Europe. The first whiskies to be released will be Stratheden, Fife and Auchnagie from near the Atholl Estate in Perthshire. To follow will be Benachie, Gerston and Dalaruan.