Wine Facts and Trivia

We've dug up some interesting and funny tidbits about wine and food for your enjoyment while you visit our website.

Did you know....?

Alcoholic Content of Drink

BAC is the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. It is measured by the number of grams of alcohol in 100mls of blood. For example, a BAC of .05 means .05 grams of alcohol in 100ml of blood. As more alcohol is consumed, BAC rises.

Moments after it is consumed, alcohol can be found in all tissues, organs and secretions of the body. Alcohol in carbonated drinks, such as sparkling wines and mixed drinks, usually enters the bloodstream without delay. The effects of alcohol in these carbonated drinks are felt more quickly.

Alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream as a person drinks. It is absorbed through the stomach walls and the intestines. The bloodstream carries the alcohol to the brain. A loss of inhibitions is the first effect of the alcohol.

High blood alcohol concentration may cause a temporary loss of co-ordination and balance. It may also result in temporary loss of memory. Heavy drinking may affect a person's sense of balance or ability to judge distances. At some stage, the loss of control becomes so great that we say the person is intoxicated or drunk.

From: "Liquor Licensing: a Guide to the Responsible Serving of Alcohol." State of Victoria, Department of Justice, 2007 

Jokes

"I've always been flexible. I was baptised in wine!"

From "Good Wine, Bad Language, Great Vineyards: Wine Characters of Australia"

Related to natural beekeeping, urban beekeeping is an attempt to revert to a less industrialized way of obtaining honey by utilizing small-scale colonies that pollinate urban gardens.

Urban apiculture has undergone a renaissance in the 2000s. Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., are among beekeeping cities. Until 2010, beekeeping was banned in New York City and punishable with a $2,000 fine.

Urban beekeeping is commonly practiced in areas that have a pesticide ban. This includes Paris, as well as 156 municipalities in Canada and 3 of 10 Canadian provinces. Beekeeping was illegal in Vancouver until 2003, for example, but by 2010 there were bees on the roof of Vancouver City Hall.

Are you involved in the increasingly popular hobby of backyard beekeeping? A shop such as Bee Sustainable will offer you all your beekeeping supplies in one place.

Produce in Season

Avocado - the Bacon variety, named after the farmer, James Bacon, who developed the cultivar, is available now. It has a smooth, green skin and is considered one of the finest avocados because of its flavour and creaminess.

Plums - The season for plums lasts several months. There is a huge variety of plums available. A plum or gage is a stone-fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. Mature plum fruit may have a dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous appearance; this is easily rubbed off.

Plum fruit tastes sweet and/or tart; the skin may be particularly tart.

Dried, salted plums are used as a snack. Various flavors of dried plum are available at Chinese grocers and specialty stores worldwide. Pickled plums are another type of preserve available in Asia and international specialty stores. The Japanese variety, called umeboshi, is often used for rice balls, called onigiri or omusubi. The ume, from which umeboshi are made, is more closely related, however, to the apricot than to the plum.

Russian vs French Tarragon - Which One Rules?

There are two types of tarragon out there.

One will give you a wonderful, aniseed-type flavour and the other will not!

It is the French tarragon that will give you that unique taste in your chicken, egg and fish dishes. It was originally bred from the Russian tarragon possibly as far back as the 15th century.

Both kinds are perennial and will re-grow in spring after dying down in winter each year, but the Russian type is much hardier than the French.