How Red Wine May Shield Brain from Stroke Damage: Researchers Discover Pathway in Mice for Resveratrol's Apparent Protective Effect

ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2010) — Researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have discovered the way in which red wine consumption may protect the brain from damage following a stroke. Click on this link for the rest of the article

HR 5034: An Analysis April 22, 2010 by David Honig

Link to palate press: http://palatepress.com/2010/04/hr-5034-an-analysis/

This is a very well written analysis of HR 5034!!!

5 questions for Robert Parker

This blog entry by Steve Heimoff is a very informative discussion of wine reviews. It discusses how wines are reviewed: blind or open and shows how the wine industry is pressured by the reviewers scores. When a reviewer tastes with the winemaker at the winery and subsequently reviews the wine it is not an objective review at all. An objective review is performed blind (the reviewer doesn't know who produced the wine). Make sure you know how the review was performed and whether or not the reviewer purchased the wine or if it was given to them by the winery.

Here is the link: http://www.steveheimoff.com/index.php/2010/04/22/5-questions-for-robert-parker/

Be sure to read the comments.

It is critical that wine reviews are performed blind in a controlled environment with purchased samples. This produces an unbiased evaluation of the wine.

As a winemaker I hold monthly tastings where we taste our wines along with others we have purchased in order to get a feel for the marketplace and our position in it. We do everything we can to keep it blind and unbiased, otherwise it is a pointless exercise.

Care Enough to Kill HR 5034?

Care about wine? Care about your local small farmers and vineyards? Please contact your member of Congress and express your opposition to House Bill HR 5034: The Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010. At best, this is junk law; at worst it’s an end-run around the direct shipping movement. Wine Spectator states, “The battle over whether consumers can order wine directly from wineries is moving to the halls of the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress yesterday introduced a bill (HR 5034) that could end direct shipping of wine and other forms of alcohol in the United States, or at least put major roadblocks in front of lawsuits by consumers and wineries trying to reduce restrictions on direct shipping.”

If you don’t know who your Representative is, click here to get the address and phone number of your member of Congress. If you want to send an email, check their individual website. (And if you’re not registered to vote, now’s a great time to contact the Registar of Voters to sign up. If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch. Just sayin’.) Make a Wine Harlot happy. Care enough to get friendly with your Congressman this week.

http://wineharlots.com/wordpress/?p=3927

Stop HR 5034 The Anti Consumer Wine Bill

House Resolution 5034 is by far the most audacious attempt ever by America's beer, wine and spirit wholesalers to takeover complete and total control of the country's alcohol beverage market and, in the process, create circumstances in all fifty states that assure consumers only have access to the slim number of wines to which wholesalers decide consumers ought to have access. But perhaps most sinister is the fact that if H.R. 5034 passes, it will put out of business an entire swath of America's artisan wineries.

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2010/04/stop-hr-5034the-anticonsumer-wine-bill.html

An End to Wine Direct Shipping???

Wholesalers and states convince Congress to consider new legislation to prevent direct-shipping lawsuits in a campaign to protect the three-tier system

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/42526

Rielle Event Calendar

Click on this link for the links to the following events:



Fri Apr 23, 2010
5pm - 7pm Sheraton Petaluma

Sat May 1, 2010
Angel Island Wine Fest

Sat May 15, 2010
Tiburon Wine Fest

Sat Jun 5, 2010 –Sunday June 6, 2010
Infineon Raceway Historic Motorsports Festival

Thu Jun 10, 2010 – Sat June 12, 2010
Monterey Wine Festival

Sat Jun 19, 2010
CigarBQ

Sun Jun 27, 2010
Mill Valley Food and Wine Festival

Rielle at Petaluma Sheraton

Rielle to pour at Petaluma Sheraton, Friday 4/23/10, 5-7

Rielle New Bottlings

Rielle just finished bottling our 2008 Sonoma County Zinfandel and Chardonnay. We will be releasing these wines soon. Sign up on our mailing list to be notified when they are available.