2011 Sauvignon Blanc@Tracy

As well as having a quick look at some Sancerre vineyards on Monday we also crossed over the Loire into Burgundy to have a look at Pouilly-Fumé. Again as in Sancerre there is some rot but from what I saw (a rapis impression) it is not too serious assuming that the weather remains dry and sunny with fairly low humidity. If there is rain, especially with high humidity and little wind, then the situation could turn nasty. Fingers crossed it won't.

Tracy: touch of rot on a bunch

We had time to have a look at the vines close to Château de Tracy, on the road out of Bois Gibault and around Château de Nozet (Ladoucette). 

2011 Sauvignon Blanc near Château de Nozet (above and below)

It might sound cynical, but waking up sucks. There is seriously nothing you can say or do to make us believe that there is a way to make alarm clocks fun. The folks behind Talk O’Clock sure are trying, though. They’ve put together a pretty weird P2P wake-up call service that will allow total strangers to call you and rouse you from your much-needed dream time.



The system works by matching up sleepers and wakers via an online database. People who want to be woken up choose their alarm time and the gender they want to hear on the phone. Their names are put into the database and people who want to make wake-up calls can choose their victims. The system encourages callers to be “creative” in the way they wake up sleepers.



In the event that a waker can’t be matched up with a wakee, a robot voice makes the wake-up call. The service is free for both sides and the Talk O’Clock people say that there aren’t any privacy issues to worry about, although it seems like the system would be pretty easy to exploit for fun

The BBC reports that one in six people experiences some level of hearing loss. That’s a massive number of people who struggle to hear when they go to the movies. Captioning technology has been around for ages, but theaters tend to schedule captioned showings in the middle of the week (if at all). The mainstream population isn’t interested in seeing captioned films and the hearing-impaired population tends to get cheated out of prime date-night showings with this setup.



Sony has created a cool new type of glasses that would help hearing impaired movie lovers see all of the new releases whenever they want while other movie-goers are spared the subtitles. The subtitles will be transmitted directly to the glasses so that hearing impaired people can follow the story while watching the action and other movie lovers aren’t distracted by the words on the screen. Sony says the glasses should hit theaters in the UK in 2012, then other countries soon after

While there have been some intriguing developments recently in the field of stretchable electronics and flexible OLED displays, one thing we haven't heard much about is stretchable displays. So is it possible to make a screened device in which every part of it could be stretched. The answer could now be yes, with news that researchers from UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have demonstrated a stretchable polymer light-emitting device.

The metal-free, transparent devices can reportedly be fabricated through a simple roll lamination process, that utilizes two layers of single-walled carbon nanotube/polymer composite electrodes, sandwiching a layer of stretchable light-emitting plastic. According to UCLA: "The interpenetrating networks of nanotubes and the polymer matrix in the surface layer of the composites lead to low sheet resistance, high transparency, high compliance and low surface roughness."

The devices are presently capable of emitting a blue light even when linearly stretched by up to 45 percent.

Although E FUN may have just released its APEN, Wacom today introduced its very similar - yet different - Inkling digital sketch pen. Like the APEN, Inkling is a ballpoint pen that writes in ink on regular paper, and is combined with a small receiver that users clip to the top of the page. That receiver logs the location of the pen on the paper. When that data is transferred to a computer, a digital image of whatever was written or drawn is the result. Inkling is unique, however, in that it also incorporates pressure-sensing technology. This means that the relative line weights of the inked content will be transferred to the digital images, which makes it particularly well-suited to artwork.

The pen can detect 1,024 different levels of pressure, so it's quite sensitive. The receiver can reportedly store thousands of sketches at a time, and can also facilitate multiple layers of a single sketch. When users want to render their drawings for emailing, editing or other reasons, the receiver is simply hooked up to a computer with a USB cable.

Inkling exports its files directly to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (CS3 or newer), and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro (2011). Wacom's included Sketch Manager software also allows users to edit, delete or add layers to their work, or to save files in a variety of formats, for manipulation using other applications.

It would also be possible, of course, simply to put pen-and-ink drawings through a scanner. That could be quite time-consuming, however, plus the user would need access to a scanner-equipped computer. With Inkling, however, any machine running Sketch Manager would suffice. The pen and receiver are also much smaller than a typical scanner.

Inkling will be available through Amazon and the Wacom store as of the latter half of September, at a price of US$199.

Walk into any guitar shop in any city center and you'll be faced with rows and rows of "me-too" guitars, all built around the same few tried and trusted templates. Instrument designer and builder Hector Trevino has spent the last three years trying to break away from traditional electric guitar design and has now produced what he calls an open chamber guitar. The radical Sonic Wind guitar is said to offer players more resonance and natural sustain than more familiar solid-body electric guitar designs.



Trevino says that the Sonic Wind guitar is both well balanced and comfortable and he is currently taking his hand-built, limited edition creation to guitar shows and exhibitions around the U.S. - giving notoriously conservative players the chance to try it out.

The guitar features slightly curved maple body panels that come together to form an open chamber, and in addition to the much-touted resonance, the design is also said to negate any damping effect that the body might have on sustain and note clarity by keeping the through maple neck away from the player's body.



The neck has a 2-way adjustable truss rod and is topped with a 1.7-inch wide (at the nut) ebony fingerboard with 24 jumbo frets. All the electronics are shielded to keep down annoying hum, there's a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 pickup at the bridge position and a Jazz neck pickup. A 5-way switch offers either humbucker or single coil functionality. Strings are secured at the body end by a stainless steel tailpiece specially designed for the Sonic Wind Guitar, which then travel over a Tune-o-matic bridge on their way to the headstock.

Sadly, we've not been able to find an audio demo of the guitar in action. A video overview is currently being produced which will allow potential buyers to see (and hear) whether this new design lives up to expectations.

Trevino says that his first limited production run of 20 will be priced at US$3,000 a piece, including a custom hard case and limited lifetime warranty.

Château Gruaud-Larose: vineyards and chai

En primeurs ordered from 1855 and known to be outstanding

 204 bottles of 2005

 12 bottles of 2007
 

Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon are the senior 'management' team of 1855 (1855.com, 1855.con). Thierry Maincent was an administrateur and one of the directeur général délégués until he resigned his posts for personal reasons on 30th September 2010. Businessman Jean-Pierre Meyers, who is on the boards of L'Oreal and Nestlé, is a long-term shareholder of 1855.

See explanatory post here.

***

Astonishing recent post from the discussion forum La Passion du Vin's 1855 'retard des primeurs' thread that now runs to 101 pages:

'Bonjour,

Je suis nouveau sur ce forum et je n'ai pas lu tous les posts concernant les retards primeurs 1855. Voici ma situation: j'ai commandé des primeurs 2007 pour lesquels j'aurais du être livré en juin 2010. Je n'ai évidemment rien reçu, et, jusque janvier 2011, j'ai téléphoné et envoyé des mails sans résultat. J'ai donc fait une "injonction de faire" au tribunal de proximité. Je suis passé au tribunal en mars (le jour où je suis passé, sur 50 affaires, il y en avait au moins 30 qui concernait 1855...). Le jugement a été rendu en avril. Comme indiqué par le jugement, j'ai fait appel à un huissier qui a notifié 1855 du jugement. Depuis, plus rien.

Ma commande s'élève à environ 600 euros, donc j'hésite à faire appel à un avocat, car j'imagine que ça va me coûter le double, sans garantie de résultat vu le peu que j'ai pu lire sur le forum...est-ce que quelqu'un pourrait me conseiller?
Merci d'avance,
Nico'

http://lapassionduvin.com/phorum/read.php?38,261752,page=101

'Je suis passé au tribunal en mars (le jour où je suis passé, sur 50 affaires, il y en avait au moins 30 qui concernait 1855...).'
 

Emeric Sauty de Chalon and Fabien Hyon you are invited to comment – 'au moins 30 qui concernait 1855...'

Also two questions for you today:

How many bottles of Bordeaux en primeur from vintages between 2000 and 2007 remain to be delivered to your clients?

How many judical complaints have been brought against 1855 by your long suffering clients? 100? 250? 500? 1000? 

I look forward to hearing from you.

Claire Roussel, daughter of Catherine – Clos Roche Blanche – picking Sauvignon Blanc for Noëlla Morantin at La Tesnière.

Noëlla Morantin's picking team – end of the mid-afternoon break

Even the staff are pressed into service during vintage time!

Three women busy picking

La patronne mangé ici! (above and below)

The vignerons of Pouillé will be hoping the sign is wrong – they want it to stay dry!

From Sancerre towards Chavignol

We headed across to Sancerre and Pouilly to see how the vineyards and the grapes look before the start of the vintage, which is expected next Monday 5th September. This is certainly well in advance of recent years and is about in line with the start in 2003 – the year of the heatwave.

Bunches of Pinot Noir just to the south of the Bourges-Sancerre road (above and below)

Pinot Noir rot but fortunately fairly dry

It is clear that rain on the 14th August and again some last Friday (26th) – not a much as in parts of Touraine – has caused problems. Short of time I could only get a quick impression from parts of the vineyard. However, the incidence of rot seems variable and 2011 will be a year when the work of serious vignerons in their vines will pay off. Those who have controlled their yields, deleafed and opened up the canopy should have few problems of rot, as long as the weather doesn't become very wet and humid. Those who haven't and who have used fertiliser on their vines are likely to be faced with significantly more rot. Having said that there is no doubt that there have been big improvements here over the last 10-12 years. 

Anyone intended to make serious Sancerre Rouge will certainly have to hand picked and be prepared to be ruthless in their selection.

Puddle on top of Les Monts Damnés

Sancerre Blanc (Sauvignon Blanc)Like the Pinots, there was some rot in the Sauvignon that I saw. It varies from parcel to parcel and there are plenty of completely healthy, rot free bunches. Hopefully the weather will be like today – around 22˚C warm but not humid with quite a fresh evening. Certainly this won't be as easy a vendange as 2008 or 2009 when the fruit was picture perfect, especially 2009.

Sauvignon Blanc@top of Les Monts Damnés

  Sauvignon Blanc above Verdigny 

Sauvignon Blanc with rot above Verdigny

One thing many people don’t realize about designers is that they don’t always mean their concepts to be made into reality. Sometimes, a radical concept is only meant to be a jumping-off point for more feasible designs. That is the case with Project Flake, a completely impossible car concept from Da Feng that looks way awesome, but would never actually work as a real-world car.



Project Flake features dynamic movable micro-spoilers made of carbon fiber. Each spoiler is hinged so that it can move independently to reduce air resistance and improve performance or act as an air brake. The spoilers can lie completely flat against the car or stand straight up as needed to increase or decrease drag.



But even odder than the moving spoilers are the bizarre wheels. Each wheel is made of twelve legs which adjust their length according to speed and the road surface. At high speeds the wheels are rounded on top and flat on the bottom, so Da Feng calls them D-Wheels. The unique design allows them superior traction – so much, in fact, that the designer believes the car could be used as an off-road vehicle.

Obviously, this design is not a serious concept car that could be seen on the streets any day now. According to Feng, he intends the design as an inspiration for other ideas. We love both the ambitions of the outlandish design and the honesty of the designer responsible for it.

Recent research from the University of Washington (UW) has revealed that freshly-scented laundry comes with an unexpected price. In the first study to examine dryer vent exhaust, fragrance components in some of the best-selling liquid clothing detergents, fabric softeners and dryer sheets were found to infuse the vented air with a veritable rogue's gallery of hazardous pollutants, including two known carcinogens.

"This is an interesting source of pollution because emissions from dryer vents are essentially unregulated and unmonitored," said Professor Anne Steinemann, lead author of the study.

In previous work, the UW team examined the host of chemicals released by consumer goods such as scented laundry detergents, air deodorizers, household cleaners, body lotions and other personal care products. In this study, conducted in Seattle area homes, the focus was on dryer vents. Careful analysis yielded more than 25 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), several of which the EPA considers hazardous air pollutants: acetaldehyde, benzene, ethyl benzene, methanol, xylene and toluene. Two of those, acetaldehyde and benzene, are known carcinogens with no safe level of exposure.

"If they're coming out of a smokestack or tail pipe, they're regulated, but if they're coming out of a dryer vent, they're not," Steinemann adds.

It's interesting to note that the Environmental Protection Agency identified a lengthy list of polar volatile organic compounds in consumer products way back in 1991 and yet it appears to have taken a full twenty years before legitimate peer-reviewed science has begun to sound the alarm. Hopefully, the current UW study will effect some much-needed change to the current "anything goes" policy with regard to hazardous ingredients in household goods.

In the meantime, what's a chemically-sensitive consumer to do? While fragrance-free fabric softeners may seem to be the way to go, even that isn't always a safe bet. Sometimes, chemicals can be added to "mask" other unwanted scents, so the toxins are still there, without the tell-tale smell. Instead, when using scent-free detergent, try adding a quarter cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to the wash cycle to soften clothes. To eliminate static cling, pour a quarter cup of white vinegar in the rinse cycle. Your laundry may no longer be "meadow fresh," but your body and the environment will thank you!

When he was nine years old, Toronto film-maker Rob Spence received a severe injury to his right eye in a shotgun accident. After a period of hiding the aftermath under an eyepatch, six years ago he had the eye replaced with a prosthesis. Being a visual artist, however, he had an idea - instead of just an unseeing artificial eye, he wanted one that could capture images of what he was looking at, and wirelessly transmit them to an external recording device. He himself wouldn't be able to see through the eye, but the footage obtained from it could take film-making to new levels. It's been a few years since Spence began his Eyeborg Project, but he has just announced that the eye is now functioning.

Spence's artificial eye contains a tiny video camera, a battery and transmitter, and sends an understandably somewhat grainy live picture from that camera to a small handheld monitor - from there, it could be recorded. There aren't yet many details available on exactly how the camera works or was made, but Rob has promised on his blog that such information should be posted soon.

San Francisco artist Tanya Marie Vlach has a very similar project underway - she lost her left eye in a car accident, and is now working on replacing it with a camera eye, that will play a part in a variety of art works.

In the meantime, Spence has presented a short documentary on the current state of high-tech prostheses, which includes footage of his eye in action. Video game company Square Enix commissioned him to produce the piece to promote its Deus Ex: Human Revolution game, which features a character with a camera eye.

The Eyeborg Project documentary can be viewed below, but be warned, there are gory parts.

If we’re being honest, not many of us would be able to say that we like what we see in the mirror each and every time we look. What if we had a magic mirror that would erase those imperfections and make our reflections as beautiful as we’ve always wished them to be? Two researchers at the University of London have developed a sort of magic mirror that smooths out facial features in real time to show a more beautiful version of ourselves.

Of course, it’s not so much a mirror as it is a webcam attached to a PC running the duo’s custom software. The software creates a 3D map of the user’s face and replaces objectionable facial features with more pleasant ones. According to the creators of the project, the technology could one day be used as a non-invasive way to try on potential plastic surgery before taking the big plunge.

Computer styluses are certainly handy, but it can be kind of tricky when you're writing or drawing on a stylus pad, yet you can only see what you're doing up on the screen. The resulting scrawls often have ... shall we say, a child-like appeal. Writing on paper with ink is definitely easier, but how do you get what you've done into a computer? Scan it, page by page? Well, yes you could, but now - in the spirit of Livescribe's Pulse smartpen - you could also use E FUN's APEN A3.

Users place the APEN's receiver at the top of a sheet of paper, then proceed to write or draw in ink on that same sheet, with the pen itself. The receiver keeps track of the pen's position, and that information is translated into a digital image of what's on the page. Data is either transmitted live by Bluetooth to a Blackberry or Android smartphone (or iPhone or iPad, with the A4) or transferred later to a computer, via a USB cable - up to 100 pages can be stored by the receiver. This means that the system could be used somewhere such as a classroom, with no computer or smartphone present.

The pen can also be hard-wired to a computer and used as a mouse, with clicking accomplished through a button on the side.

The categories for the 2011 version of the Born Digital Awards have just been announced as well as the panel of judges.

The categories for the 2011 awards are:

Best Investigative Wine Writing: for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single wine article or series (video, written text)

Best Editorial Wine Writing: for outstanding examples of wine writing, giving prime consideration to literary quality and originality

Best Wine Tourism Feature: Speaking about a particular region as a tourist destination with a focus on wine (written text, video)

Best Wine Themed Video: Video content that either educates, demonstrates or builds awareness for wine

Best Winery Self Produced Content: for outstanding examples of content created by wineries to promote their brand and reach out to key audiences (video, written text)

Best Wine Photo Essay **NEW CATEGORY**: A set of 2 to 10 photos, published in one online location, that focus on a wine theme or story. (photo)


Submissions open on 1st December 2011.

Members of the new 2011 Born Digital Wine Awards judging panel will be:

Michel Bettane (France) – Author of Grand Guide des Vins du France and  writer, Bettane et Desseauve, blogger
Hervé Lalau (Belgium) – Deputy-Chief Editor at In Vino Veritas and writer, Chroniques Vineuse, blogger
Fongyee Walker (MW candidate) (China) – Co-founder, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting, author, blogger
Patrick Schmitt (UK) – Editor, Drinks Business
Elin McCoy (USA) – Writer Bloomberg and author, blogger
Ulf Sjodin MW (Sweden) – Head of Category Management, Systembolaget and writer
Tim Atkin MW (UK) – Wine Writer www.timatkin.com, blogger
Wink Lorch (France) – Wine Writer,  Wine Travel Guides, blogger
Richard Ross (UK) – Wine App Developer and writer, www,wine-lines.com, blogger
Jay Selman (USA) – Co-founder, Grape Radio and founder, Grape Visions, blogger

Further information here.

Here is the text of an open letter from Italian specialist, Nick Belfrage MW, to the producers of Rosso di Montalcino DOC 

I understand that, on Wednesday Sept 7, 2011, a vote will be held in the Assemblea of Montalcino wine producers on whether to allow a small but significant percentage of other grapes, which everyone understands to mean Merlot and/or Cabernet and/or Syrah, into the blend of Rosso di Montalcino DOC, which is of course at present a 100% Sangiovese wine.

I would urge you in the strongest terms not to support this change. Rosso di Montalcino, like Brunello di Montalcino, has created for itself a strong personality on international wine markets based largely on the fact that it is a pure varietal wine. In these days when more and more countries are climbing on the wine production bandwagon it is more important than ever to have a distinctive identity, to make wine in a way which no one else on earth can emulate. It is my belief that the strongest factor in the identity of Rosso di Montalcino (and of course Brunello di Montalcino) is the fact that it is 100% Sangiovese.

I am not disputing the fact that Merlot, Cabernet and Syrah are excellent grape varieties, but it is their very excellence, their very strength of personality, which threatens to compromise the unique character of Rosso di Montalcino. Who could ever imagine the producers of Bordeaux voting to allow 15% of Sangiovese into the Bordeaux blend? The idea is absurd – or would be treated as such by the Bordeaux producers. There are many who think that a reverse situation, in Tuscany’s finest vine-growing area, would be equally absurd. Yes, in many cases it may improve the wine – especially in weak vintages or where Sangiovese does not succeed every year. But it will fatally undermine the personality of the wine.

I am aware that a lot of Merlot  and  Cabernet are planted in the Montalcino growing zone, and that there may be a need in the short term to find a commercial use for these grapes. But there are the options of St. Antimo or IGT Toscana. Perhaps, instead of compromising the purity of one of Montalcino’s unique wines, there should be more effort in the direction of promoting these other wine-types.

You will be aware that many of us fear that a compromise in regard to Rosso di Montalcino would constitute an opening of the door to a compromise, farther down the line, of the purity of the great Brunello – one of the world’s great wines. Whether or not that might be the case, I am convinced that it is against the long-term interests of Montalcino to allow any other grape variety, including any Italian or Tuscan variety, into the Rosso, just as it would be fatal to great Burgundy, for example, to allow Syrah to be blended with Pinot Noir, as was once widely practised – with, one might add, some notable successes, but with the inevitable distortion of the style.

You, the Montalcino producers, hold the fate not only of your own future market in your hands. You are the representatives of all of us who will not have a vote on September 7^th.

We urge you, please, to vote NO.

Nicolas Belfrage MW

30 August 2011

Vertical cities are the new trend in creating new buildings for 21st century with ecological aspects inside. The main idea is to satisfy population grow in big cities. One of them is Bionic Tower that meant to be built around 2015-2020 in China’s economic center Shanghai. The tower should be housing over 100 000 people and will reach a height of 1 200 meters (4 000 feet) or 300 floors. The structure is inspired by shapes found in nature. The tower would be constructed on a 0.4 square mile artificial island connected to the mainland to allow the 100 000 inhabitants access. The total cost for construction should be about $15 billion.

Credit: mc2000.arch.hku.hk

via: artsonearth