Ludovic Chanson (Montlouis) with his PetNat – sans pagne

Following a tip from Christelle Guibert (Decanter magazine) I went taste Ludovic Chanson's wines yesterday afternoon. He has taken over the vines that used to belong to Alex Mathur, formerly Levasseur. In 2008 he worked in a partnership, which didn't work out, so in 2009 he went solo and his first vintage is certainly impressive with great purity of fruit. Yet another impressive producer in Montlouis! He is on stand J242.

(Further details to be added when I get back to London this evening.)

Ludovoc Chanson has 6.2 hectares – all Chenin except for 70 ares of Chardonnay and 80 ares of Sauvignon Blanc. The estate started its conversion to organic cultivation in 2006 and was approved in 2009. I was impressed by the purity and precision in Ludovic's wines and it was no surprise to learn that he had a great admiration for the late Stéphane Cossais. He has a couple of PetNats – one (Les Prions) made from Chenin and the other (sans pagne) from Chardonnay. Both are well made but I preferred purity and precision of Les Prions. 2009 Gavroche is an attractively ripe style of Sauvignon Blanc with a touch of spice. Of the three 2009 Montlouis I tasted – Les Cabotines (sec), Les Pêcheurs (demi-sec) and Safran (moelleux) – I was particularly impressed with Les Pecheurs (19gms of residual sugar) with its great balance of fruit and acidity.    

Ludovic Chanson

3 Chemin Creux, 37270 Montlouis-sur-Loire

Tel: 06.15.97.46.01 (mobile)

Email: ludovicchansonvigneron@gmail.com

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Last year, Fujitsu introduced a keyboard where nearly half of the plastic normally used was replaced withbiodegradable bio- or wood-based substitutes. The company continues its green crusade this year with the introduction of what's claimed to be the world's first biodegradable computer mouse. The M440 ECO optical mouse sports a PVC-free USB cable and is made from a combination of the same Arboform and Biograde materials used in the keyboard – reducing our dependence on oil-based resources one click at a time.

In outward appearance, the new member of Fujitsu's Green IT range looks just like any other two-buttoned, scroll mouse. But instead of using plastic, the 1000 dpi resolution optical M440 ECO is made from Arboform – which is based on a by-product of the paper-making process called lignin – and Biograde – a compostable and biodegradable cellulose acetate. The material making up the outer shell is said to have more elasticity than other renewable materials, offering users a little more ergonomic comfort.

Even the 5.9 foot (1.8 meter) USB cable boasts some green credentials. Fujitsu says it helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during manufacture and reckons that making the switch to its new ECO mouse "saves approximately 60,000 kilograms of plastic per year." Any internal components that don't naturallybreak down over time can be stripped out and recycled before the peripheral is disposed of.

Both the KBPC PX ECO keyboard and the new M440 ECO mouse are currently available in the UK, the latter being priced at GBP11

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A few years back we reported on the establishment of Honda Soltec, a Honda subsidiary devoted to the development of thin-film solar technology. This week that same group announced that it would be releasing a new thin-film cell that will rank among the world's most efficient with an expected module conversion efficiency of more than 13%.

The improvement over Honda Soltec's previous CIGS-based (Copper indium gallium [di]selenide) cells is primarily owing to a more compact design, with non-photosensitive parts of the cell being reduced.

This results is a 10% increase in efficiency over the old model, as well as a smaller surface area measuring in at 926 × 738 × 37mm (35.5 x 29.1 x 1.5 inches). The smaller design means that the modules can be installed on many different types of roof shaped in a variety of locations.

While this new prototype has achieved 13% module conversion efficiency, Honda expects to see improvements as it brings the product to market. The company didn't elaborate on whether its photovoltaic cell technology had increased in efficiency, but improving the product via a smarter design is certainly a step that competitors can learn from.

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Despite a relatively tepid consumer take-up, the buzz surrounding 3D television is 
still quite intense. But even the viewing improvements offered by stereoscopic technology may pale by comparison to the holographic goings-on at MIT. 
Researchers are taking the first steps toward making holographic technology 
a reality for consumers. Using primarily off-the-shelf components, the team
 has managed to capture, transmit and display a holographic subject on-the-
fly.

Personally my holographic moment came when watching the TV adaptation of 
Douglas Adams' trilogy in five parts, The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Noted coastline designer Slartibartfarst appears as a holographic recorded announcement
 to the bemused occupants of the Heart of Gold spaceship. But for most people, 
the most memorable science fiction holographic image is that of Princess Leia 
asking Obi-Wan-Kenobi to rejoin the fight against the Empire from the first Star
 Wars movie. Now, rumblings of science fiction becoming science fact have 
emerged from the lab of MIT's Object-Based Media Group.

A matter of perspective

Whereas all viewers of so-called 3D films such as Avatar see the same image 
from the same perspective no matter where they sit in the theater, the
 perspective of holographic pictures changes depending on the viewing angle.

A stereoscopic camera records light bouncing of an image at two slightly different
 angles that closely match each eye on a human face. This gives an illusion of depth,
 but in the real world light comes off objects at numerous angles all at once.

Holographic video systems don't require glasses in order to view a 3D image. They 
use devices that produce diffraction fringe patterns, light and dark streams that
 bend around objects in predictable ways. Bending the patterns in different 
directions can produce an image which looks truly three-dimensional but the 
process can be very computer-intensive. Zebra Imaging's Mark Lucente says
 that customers have been put off by the sheer computational intensity involved,
 "1.5 gigabytes per second are being generated on the fly."

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Under the direction of Michael Bove, team members James Barabas, David Cranor, 
Sundeep Jolly and Dan Smalley set themselves the challenge of producing sets of 
fringe patterns using off-the-shelf hardware. They first tweaked a Kinect camera 
from Microsoft's X-Box gaming system so that it's frame capture rate was more 
than doubled to 15 frames per second (fps). The captured image was fed to a
 laptop which transmitted the data over the internet. A receiving PC sporting a threesome of commercially-available 3D graphics processors then calculated 
the diffraction patterns and sent the result to the one piece of the kit that's not
 available at consumer level ...

The Mark II holographic display

The Mark II holographic display was developed at MIT and is an updated 
version of holographic video display technology developed by Stephen Benton. 
Bove's group inherited the project after Benton's death and went on to develop 
its successor, which Benton's group helped design. The team is currently working
 on the development of a new display technology that's more compact but can 
produce larger images and should be cheaper to manufacture.

Help me Obi-Wan

The innovation was presented to attendees at the Practical Holography 
conference hosted by the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers in
 San Francisco recently. Edwina Portocarrero from Bove's group, decked out in
 tunic and wig, stood in for Carrie Fisher and re-enacted the famous holographic message, which was captured and displayed in real-time. It wasn't anywhere
 near the clarity of the movie version, but the latter was supplied by the Lucas
 special effects department and not generated on-the-fly using (mostly) 
consumer-level technology.

Given time, the team reckons that they'll get that up to the 24 fps used for 
feature films or even right up to 30 fps used in television, which create the
 illusion of continuous motion.

Zebra's Lucentne said that "by taking a video game and using it as an input
 device, [Bove] shows that it's a hop, skip and a jump away from reality."

Below is a video from the lab that shows MIT researchers achieve the highest
frame rate yet for streaming holographic video:

You know the Force is strong with this one – the £34.99 Star Wars Darth Vader headphones, where the Dark Lord of the Sith will most probably tell his subordinates, “I find your lack of bass disturbing.” This item is still in pre-order status though, so it will ship to you the moment it arrives in stock when February 2011 rolls around.

These officially licensed headphones will come with an adjustable strap that is touted to fit most (human) head sizes, and also accompanied by a 1.2 meter coiled cord that ought to get you out of any potential Imperial entanglements. Among the technical specifications include :-

Driver Unit: 40mm Power Drivers
Frequency Range: 20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
Impedance: 32 ohm
1KHz Sensitivity: 115dB
Max Input Power: 100mW
Plug: 3.5 mm
Coil Cord: 1.2m
Premium replacement warranty: 1 year

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On Monday evening there was a Soirée Boules de Fort organised plus a blind tasting competition and a Loire quiz. Boules de Fort is played inside with a special sloping track and you have to wear slippers when playing. It is very much a speciality of Anjou-Saumur and Touraine. It may look a gentle game but the stress levels are clearly enormous.

Denis Jamain, Domaine de Reuilly

 

Virtuoso performance from Luc Brizard (Château d'Epiré, Savennières)

 More stress...

Bernard Sirot: one of Belgium's leading wine journalists and Sauternes producer

 

Congratulations to the three winners: Fabrice Leglatin (Vinsurvin), David Cobbold (morethanjustwine) and Olivier Lebaron (terredevins). The prizes will be awarded tomorrow at the Salon at middday in front of the Press Room.   

Catégorie « Dégustation Loire »

Fabrice LEGLATIN

Blog : Vinsurvin

Post : http://vinsurvin-blog.com/?p=6996

î 1^er  

 

Catégorie « Destination Loire »

David COBBOLD

Blog: More than Just Wine

Post : http://morethanjustwine.blogspot.com/2011/01/down-loire-to-nantes.html

î 2ème

 

Catégorie « Rencontre Loire »

Olivier LEBARON

Blog: Showviniste

Post : http://terredevins.com/blogs/showviniste/les-vins-naturels/la-loire-reve-de-lunotte-vin-naturel-de-touraine/

î 3ème

 

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CyberPower knows that gamers tend to take their gaming rigs (super) seriously, and this is why the new bunch of releases intend to appeal to a wide range of gamers since it comes in a variety of prices. The manufacturer of custom gaming machines has come together with Newegg to construct a trio of pre-built desktop gaming rigs, and as mentioned earlier, will be able to cater for all price-conscious gamers or overclocking enthusiasts.

The systems that we will be looking at are the Gamer Ultra 2073 and Gamer Xtreme 1302/1304, where it will range from a value-based AMD Dual-Core system to a couple of high-performance gaming PCs which run on Intel’s recently introduced 2nd Generation Sandy Bridge architecture. The CyberPower systems will be priced from $439 to $1,249 will be available for a limited time only.


The CyberPower Gamer Ultra 2073 is a mainstream gaming PC first and foremost, where it will be powered by AMD’s Athlon II X2 255 3.1 GHz Dual-Core CPU with Hyper Transport 3.0 Technology, sporting 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM hard drive and 24x DVD ±R/±RW dual layer drive.

Graphics-wise, you will get a discrete ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card that is accompanied by an integrated 7.1 channel sound, 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, Xtreme Gear USB keyboard and mouse. Available for $439.99 a pop, the Gamer Ultra 2073 is clearly something you might want to look into if you’re interested in a gaming rig that is budget-oriented.

As for the uber Intel Sandy Bridge processors, they will see action in CyberPower’s Gamer Xtreme 1302 or Gamer Xtreme 1304 – being full well capable of handling any task with additional processing muscle to spare when it comes to HD video, 3D games, multitasking, multimedia, or sharing photos. Expect nothing less than stunning graphics, where you will be able to take advantage of Intel’s Turbo Boost Technology 2.0.

At just $869.99, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1302 clearly remains in the mid-level range, running on Intel’s Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz Sandy Bridge 64-bit ready quad-core processor with 8GB DDR3 RAM, a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 graphics card, integrated sound and 10/100/1000 Ethernet. As for its storage, mouse and keyboard, they are all identical to the Gamer Ultra 2073.

Last but not least, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 1304 is a gaming and multimedia enthusiast rig which will see the Intel Core i7 2600K 3.4 GHz Sandy Bridge processor running at the core (pun not intended) of things. Graphics-wise, it will have the assistance of the AMD Radeon HD 6850 graphics with AMD Eyefinity Technology.

All systems will come pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit operating system, where all CyberPower systems will be accompanied by a 1-year warranty and lifetime toll-free tech support fromCyberPower.

The number of climate change sceptics has almost doubled in four years, official research showed yesterday.
A quarter of Britons are unconvinced that the world is warming following successive freezing winters and a series of scandals over the credibility of climate science.
The figures suggest that a growing proportion of the public do not share the belief of all three major political parties and Whitehall – that climate change is a major and urgent challenge requiring radical and expensive policies.

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Chilly outlook: The ice cold winters of recent years has seen the number of climate change sceptics more than double
The survey, carried out by the Office for National Statistics, has plotted levels of acceptance of the theory of man-made global warming since 2006.
In that year it found that 87 per cent of people were at least ‘fairly convinced’ that climate change was happening. 
 
More...
The glaciers that are actually GROWING, not shrinking: Climate change not as catastrophic as scientists first thought
Anger as government announces sell-off of England's public forests to raise £250m
Last year that share had dropped to 75 per cent. Numbers who say they are unconvinced went up from 12 to 23 per cent.
The erosion of the public consensus behind global warming coincided with the ‘Climategate’ fiasco which came after damaging e-mails from the University of East Anglia were leaked in November 2009, and the arrival of another cold winter.
There were also setbacks for climate change advocates over flaws in UN reports on global warming and evidence that temperatures across the world have been falling.

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Reluctance: Many people are not taking steps to reduce climate change and only 46 per cent of those polled said they were willing to use their cars less
The proportion of those who said they were ‘not very concerned’ about global warming now includes more than one in five.
The latest polling, carried out in August last year, came before the arrival of another big freeze.
There is also an increasing reluctance to take personal steps to tackle climate change.
Fewer than half those polled – 46 per cent – are ready to use their cars less, and only 47 per cent are prepared to take public transport more often. Fewer than a quarter – 23 per cent – are willing to fly less.