Wine Adds Five Years to Life, More Than Beer, Dutch Study Finds

Half a glass of wine a day may add five years to your life, a new study suggests. Drink beer, and you’ll live only 2 1/2 years longer.
Dutch researchers followed 1,373 men for more than four decades, noting their eating and drinking habits. Men who had about 20 grams of alcohol daily -- equivalent to a half a glass of wine -- had 2 1/2 years added to their life expectancy at age 50, compared with men who didn’t drink at all, according to the research published today in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Men who consumed only wine had twice as much added longevity. Click on this link for the rest of the article.

Rielle 2009 Charity Wine Tasting Calendar

We will pouring our wines at the following fundraising events. These venues provide opportunities to support important community organizations, taste our wines and place orders at special discounts as well as receive free shipping within California.

We hope to see you there!

Saturday & Sunday April 25th & 26th 2009
11:00 am - 4:30 pm
Apple Blossom Fair Wine Garden
Benefitting: Sebastopol charities
Ives Park and the Sebastopol Veterans Memorial Building, 282 High Street, Sebastopol (Parade on Main St.)
Sebastopol, CA
877-828-4748

Saturday April 25th 2009
6:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Great Chefs of Marin
Benefitting: Lifehouse
Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.
777 San Marin Drive
Novato, CA
415-472-2373

Our wines will be poured at the dinner and will be part of the silent auction.
The Great Chefs of Marin is one of the premier food and wine events in the Bay Area. Over 20 of Marin's finest restaurants prepare gourmet food accompanied by the wine country's finest wineries. Other libations include margaritas, martinis and beer. Bud E. Luv and Huey Lewis chair the event which also include live music, dancing, a silent and live auction. It is a black-tie event, held on the grounds of Fireman's Fund and attended by about 550 guests. It is the major fundraiser for Lifehouse, a non profit agency serving people with developmental disabilities in Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Since 1954, Lifehouse has opened the doors of opportunity and independence to individuals with developmental disabilities through life skill training, community integration, advocacy, referral and information. Our mission is to improve our clients' quality of life by providing a lifetime of compassionate support in an atmosphere of respect, inspiration and purpose.

Home wine shipments legalized in Kansas

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed into law legislation allowing Kansans of drinking age to order up to 12 cases of wine a year to be shipped directly to their homes. Click on this link for the rest of the article.

San Jose lawmaker's beer/wine-tax plan is back

SACRAMENTO — Jim Beall's first stab at a beer tax was downed last year by opposition and ridicule. Undeterred, the South Bay assemblyman is back at it — and this time, his proposal for a hefty new fee on alcohol may have a better, ahem, shot at passage.

Beall's Assembly Bill 1019 would slap a roughly 10 cents-a-drink levy on beer, wine and hard alcohol. And he's structured it as a fee, which can pass the Legislature with a simple majority vote, rather than a tax, which takes a two-thirds supermajority to be enacted.

Also possibly aiding his cause this time around is the fact that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last year proposed his own nickel-a-drink alcohol tax as part of his budget plan. The governor eventually dropped the tax and his office said Monday he's not interested in revisiting it. But the fact that Schwarzenegger once was on board with the idea could bode well for Beall's idea, particularly if the state budget outlook continues to deteriorate.  Click on this link for the rest of the article