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Haut Brion – a 500 year story and a great wine

Famous stories and personal anecdotes regarding  Haut Brion, the only  Chateau out of  Medoc to be Premier Cru Classé since 1855

Haut Brion wine

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
The recently found documents date the fame of the wine from the famous chateau as far back as 1521. It is true that in 1660 bottles of Haut Brion were already on Charles II King of England’s table and were considered very innovative “new French claret” because of a maceration technique which enabled the wine to age at length. A story full of great characters and frequent changes in ownership up until 1935 when Haut Brion was acquired by the American Dillon family that still owns it today. Not far from Bordeaux, it is on a flat piece of land of about 51 hectares covered in stones.
At first sight it doesn’t excite but then you taste it and fall in love with it!
My first memory of Haut Brion is very particular and slightly funny. Lets just go back a bit in time, to when I created my estate, in 1998,  when I felt the need to learn, to get up to date on wine, ands so I took part for three consequent  years in some full immersion courses, regarding red wines organized by ARSIA Toscana in the fabled Faculté d’OEnologie  at the Université Segalen Bordeaux 2. The most

gala dinner celebrating 75 years of Dollon property

sought after lessons were those by Professor Yves Glorie the genius who had taught the world the importance of the poliphenolic ripening of the grapes. He had just recovered from an accident where he had broken several bones, and he would sit or stand in odd positions like a contortionist but so that he would suffer less. His direct and ironic way of expressing himself made those lessons so full of information easier to follow. As many other teachers of the faculty he too had as clients high level wineries, among which Haut Brion where we were able to see form the inside the magical world of a Premier Cru Classé.

Sonic Decanter and your wine ages in a quarter of an hour

A cylindrical container that shoots high frequency sonar waves on the bottle of wine, that in 15 minutes seems to be years older. Genial or useless discovery?

Sonic decanter

Seen for you by  Donatella Cinelli Colombini

This device was invented by the American Michael Coyne and will be on sale from June 2015 at 199$. The Sonic Decanter besotted the entire world of wine, who is uncertain whether to judge it the discovery of the century or yet another unnecessary hoax that might even be harmful for your health. There are those like Luciano Ferraro, who turned their noses up, for example with his article <<Decanter with sonar waves, how to ruin a wine>> and those like Drinks business who show more faith and seem to accept Coyne’s version.  <<Sonic decanter betters the taste of wines adding flavour>>.
The procedure is very simple: the uncorked bottle is placed inside the cylinder where some water was previously poured. After 15 minutes the youngish wine produced just months before resembles something produced years before. Markets such as the Canadian or UK where old bottles are preferred might allow for considerable gains, especially in restaurants, transforming low priced wines into bottles that can be marked up on the bill. In truth the UK press have written loads about the Sonic Decanter and in so demonstrating an effective interest.

After the master of wine and the master sommelier here is the Royal in law

The attractive Pippa Middleton sister of Kate the future Queen of England and sister-in-law to Prince William has successfully passed the exam at the Wine and Spirit Education Trust

Pippa-Middleton

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Sometimes changes occur also thanks to those symbolic personalities that give them an image and a story. Trends that are born spontaneously reflecting necessities that were already in the air. This is quite the case with Pippa Middleton who has successfully followed an advanced course regarding wine organized by WEST – Wine and Spirit Education Trust << a professional course for those who want to organize events or those who want to become a sommelier >> explained the most famous sister-in-law in the world, who has followed the course for a role in the “The Spectator” magazine where she works and that has an excellent wine club. Pippa has consequent a great interest in wine and has tried to develop it even through some misadventures. In the article by The Drinks Business which tells this story, tells of how she had to enter furtively the wine store below her office because of all the paparazzi that constantly follow her <<it could have been quite embarrassing to be photographed while I was wandering around a wine store many times in the afternoon >>. Tenacious and artful she is!

Japan beats Scotland, whisky gets on almond shake eyes

Jim Murray in his whisky bible talks about this overtaking; he is the major world expert who for the past 12 years has classified the top productions after having tasted them all

Jim Murray Whisky Bible 2015 cover

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
The World Whisky Bible is the most authoritative guide on whisky around with 4.500 descriptive sheets regarding both famous and still unknown labels. In ordering it through pre-sale system (9,99£) it is possible to receive copies autographed by the author Jim Murray. But who is this super expert that, in the guide fliers, seems to have eyes as yellow as the whisky he is drinking? He has visited more distilleries than any other human being and is known to be incorruptible and absolutely impervious to any type of pressure
Murray is a 50 year old Brit with long hair, phlegmatic movements and a

whisky Suntory Yamazaki

typical British sense of humour that makes him smile often. He is a great football and distilled spirits and he presents TV programs on both subjects. In other words he is an undisputed guru and his decision to put the Suntory Yamazaki distillery’s whisky on the throne has made all of Scotland tremble, here distillations supplies jobs for 35.000 people and the stills are even portrayed on banknotes.
Jim Murray loves novelties and this explains why more than one fifth of the whiskies he writes about in his bible are unheard of. This courage in coming face to face with change, and even revolutions, is the foundation of the decision to exclude the Scottish from the first 5 positions in the “Bible”. After the Japanese whisky there are in fact 3 US bourbons and one from England.

Perrier-Jouët those who transform “brutal” into brut

Let’s do something mad: let’s drink a bottle of Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Blanc de Blancs 2002 and lets taste a something of a myth, sensual and ageless

Seen for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

Perrier-Jouët-Belle-Epoque-Blanc-de-Blancs

My husband Carlo Gardini and I love having our food accompanied by bubbles. Every excuse is a good one: in the summer it’s so hot, autumn with its truffles (Fattoria del Colle has 5 truffle preserves), the necessity to change after having so many red wines. The Perrier Jouet is not among my favourites because I hate the Art Nouveau style and this Champagne bottle as always seemed to me to be horrendous. But I have discovered that its contents are not bat at all, in fact I must say that it deeply enthrals me.
For this reason the article by Caroline Henry on Wine Searcher attracted my attention straight away: The 10 things that every wine lover ought to know about Perrier-Jouët.
Some of these resemble fairytales. First of all the history: Pierre Nicolas Perrier and Rose Adelaïde (Adèle) Jouët get married in 1810. He sells corks and she is 19 and the daughter of a Calvados producers. A year later they create their winery Perrier-Jouët and three years later they buy a large building where still today the company management is found.

“My name is Malala” Nobel Peace Prize winner 2014

Malala Yousafzai 17 years old from Pakistan said to Obama and other world leaders<instead of sending weapons send books and teachers> this is the young people’s revolution

Malala with Barack and Michelle Obama

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

For the first time the most important worldwide prize for peace operators, the Nobel Prize, has been assigned to a teenager.  Malala, little more than a child, comes from Mingora, on the northwest frontier of Pakistan, the mountain region called Swat, controlled by the Taleban. For the first time this choice found all in agreement, no arguments, or squabbles as happened to the prize-giving to Obama or to the European Union during the past few years. Malala is an international symbol of

Malala after the attack

courageand of a new way of being young and contributing actively to change the world.

She will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo next December together with the Indian Kailash Satyarthi  who is fighting against child labour and children slaves. The choice of two people from two nations that are fighting a war between them is emblematic and wishes to solicit the end of fighting.

Let’s cure ourselves with food and let’s do it with pleasure

Curcuma, black pepper, peperoncino, cumin ……these are some surprising spices with virtues, from soothing to stimulating, even from a sexual point of view

spices

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

A long time herbs and spices were the only remedy for illnesses. Monks and apothecaries used them knowledgeably, then their use became connected to the world of magic and the trust one had in them was substituted with doubts. On the other hand the Chinese and the Indians have continued using them in abundance, and with often surprising results.

It is consequently very useful to

Pharmacy in 1600

know which effects on our body the spices have, those which sometimes inadvertently we put in our food and drinks. In any case without herbs and spices our food would not have the same charm and pleasantness in its taste.

• Curcuma is the queen of healing with 50 therapeutic virtues. It is an excellent anti-inflammatory. In India added to milk and butter it is used as a cough remedy. Over here it is present in the spray versions of nose decongestants. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-stress proprieties are useful also as a shield against cancer.
• Cumin prevents cancer and cures diabetes and osteoporosis tank to its ample contents of Phytoestrogens. 
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