• Learn to taste wine like the pros

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    Learning how to taste wines is a straightforward adventure that will deepen your appreciation for both wines and winemakers. Look, smell, taste - starting with your basic senses and expanding from there you will learn how to taste wines like the pros in no time! Keep in mind that you can smell thousands of unique scents, but your taste perception is limited to salty, sweet, sour and bitter. It is the combination of smell and taste that allows you to discern flavor.

    1. Look: Check out the Color and Clarity.
    Pour a glass of wine into a suitable wine glass. Then take a good look at the wine. Tilt the glass away from you and check out the color of the wine from the rim edges to the middle of the glass (it's helpful to have a white background - either paper, napkin or a white tablecloth).

    What color is it? Look beyond red, white or blush. If it's a red wine is the color maroon, purple, ruby, garnet, red, brick or even brownish? If it's a white wine is it clear, pale yellow, straw-like, light green, golden, amber or brown in appearance?

    2. Still Looking. Move on to the wine's opacity.
    Is the wine watery or dark, translucent or opaque, dull or brilliant, cloudy or clear? Can you see sediment? Tilt your glass a bit, give it a little swirl - look again, is there sediment, bits of cork or any other floaters? An older red wine will often have more orange tinges on the edges of color than younger red wines. Older white wines are darker, than younger white wines when comparing the same varietal at different ages.

    3. Smell:
    Our sense of smell is critical in properly analyzing a glass of wine. To get a good impression of your wine's aroma, swirl your glass for a solid 10-12 seconds (this helps vaporize some of the wine's alcohol and release more of its natural aromas) and then take a quick whiff to gain a first impression.

    4. Still Smelling.
    Now stick your nose down into the glass and take a deep inhale through your nose. What are your second impressions? Do you smell oak, berry, flowers, vanilla or citrus? A wine's aroma is an excellent indicator of its quality and unique characteristics. Swirl the wine and let the aromas mix and mingle, and sniff again.

    5. Taste:
    Finally, take a taste. Start with a small sip and let it roll around your mouth. There are three stages of taste: the Attack phase, the Evolution phase and the Finish.

    6.The Attack Phase
    The Attack Phase, is the initial impression that the wine makes on your palate. The Attack is comprised of four pieces of the wine puzzle: alcohol content, tannin levels, acidity and residual sugar. These four puzzle pieces display initial sensations on the palate. Ideally these components will be well-balanced one piece will not be more prominent than the others. These four pieces do not display a specific flavor per se, they meld together to offer impressions in intensity and complexity, soft or firm, light or heavy, crisp or creamy, sweet or dry, but not necessarily true flavors like fruit or spice.

    7. The Evolution Phase
    The Evolution Phase is next, also called the mid-palate or middle range phase, this is the wine’s actual taste on the palate. In this phase you are looking to discern the flavor profile of the wine. If it’s a red wine you may start noting fruit – berry, plum, prune or fig; perhaps some spice – pepper, clove, cinnamon, or maybe a woody flavor like oak, cedar, or a detectable smokiness. If you are in the Evolution Phase of a white wine you may taste apple, pear, tropical or citrus fruits, or the taste may be more floral in nature or consist of honey, butter, herbs or a bit of earthiness.

    8. The Finish
    The Finish is appropriately labeled as the final phase. The wine's finish is how long the flavor impression lasts after it is swallowed. This is where the wine culminates, where the aftertaste comes into play. Did it last several seconds? Was it light-bodied (like the weight of water), medium-bodied (similar in weight to milk) or full-bodied (like the consistency of cream)? Can you taste the remnant of the wine on the back of your mouth and throat? Do you want another sip or was the wine too bitter at the end? What was your last flavor impression – fruit, butter, oak? Does the taste persist or is it short-lived?

    9. Make records & compare notes
    After you have taken the time to taste your wine, you might record some of your impressions. Did you like the wine overall? Was it sweet, sour or bitter? How was the wine's acidity? Was it well balanced? Does it taste better with cheese, bread or a heavy meal? Will you buy it again? If so, jot the wine's name, producer and vintage year down for future reference.

  • Wine & Your Health

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    The medical profession has recognized the healthful and nutritive properties of wine for thousands of years. Recent archeological evidence shows wine was in use as a pharmaceutical as early as 3,150 B.C.1 Hippocrates recommended specific wines to purge fever, disinfect and dress wounds, as diuretics, or for nutritional supplements, around 450 B.C. A French doctor wrote the earliest known printed book about wine in 1410 A.D.

    Most of the pathogens that threaten humans are inhibited or killed off by the acids and alcohols in wine. Because of this, wine was considered to be a safer drink than much of the available water up until the 18th century.

    Wine is a mild natural tranquilizer, serving to reduce anxiety and tension. As part of a normal diet, wine provides the body with energy, with substances that aid digestion, and with small amounts of minerals and vitamins. It can also stimulate the appetite. In addition, wine serves to restore nutritional balance, relieve tension, sedate and act as a mild euphoric agent to the convalescent and especially the aged.

    In the 1970s, the National Institute of Health excluded and suppressed evidence from the Framingham Heart Study that showed moderate drinkers had 50 per cent fewer deaths from coronary disease than non-drinkers.

    REGULARITY & MODERATION
    Regular moderate wine drinking was discovered to be the one consistency. Studies in England and Denmark found the occurrence of coronary disease to be much higher in heavy or binge drinkers and (surprise!) even higher in abstainers. It is very important to note that Europeans generally drink wine and water with their meals, while Americans drink milk, iced tea, soft drinks, or coffee.

    NOTE: Any claim that one particular wine type, or region, or extract, has higher health or life-prolonging benefits is entirely BOGUS, FALSE, and intended to promote commercial sales and profit, and not to benefit public health.

    ANTI-CANCER & CORONARY BENEFITS
    Moderate consumption of red wine on a regular basis may be a preventative against coronary disease and some forms of cancer. The chemical components thought to be responsible are catechins, also known as flavonoids and related to tannins . Catechins are believed to function as anti-oxidants, preventing molecules known as "free-radicals" from doing cellular damage. One particular form of flavonoid, called oligomeric procyanidin, recently proved to prevent hardening of the arteries.

    There are also compounds in grapes and wine (especially red wine, grape juice, dark beers and tea, but absent in white wine, light beers and spirits) called resveratrol and quercetin. Clinical and statistical evidence and laboratory studies have shown these may boost the immune system, block cancer formation, and possibly protect against heart disease and even prolong life.

    One recent study, published in the 2004 year-end edition of the American Journal of Physiology, indicates that resveratrol also inhibits formation of a protein that produces a condition called cardio fibrosis, which reduces the heart's pumping efficiency when it is needed most, at times of stress. More evidence suggests that wine dilates the small blood vessels and helps to prevent angina and clotting. The alcohol in wine additionally helps balance cholesterol towards the good type.

    Research is ongoing and it is a mistake for anyone to radically change their consumption pattern based on preliminary data. A study of obese mice showed that doses of resveratrol prolonged their life spans, but for a human to duplicate this prescription using wine, he would to drink over 250 gallons per day!2

    Wine might even preserve cognitive function in the elderly. Several European studies have shown the prophylactic effects of regular light to moderate alcohol consumption may include the prevention or postponement of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other forms of dementia. Could wine be the original brain food?

    Other medical studies point to multiple benefits of regular moderate wine drinking that may include lowered risks of stroke, colorectal tumors, skin and other types of cancers, senile dementia, and even the common cold, as well as reduce the effects of scarring from radiation treatments.

    SUMMARY / BOTTOM LINE
    Over 400 studies worldwide, many of them long-term and in large populations, have concluded that most healthy people who drink wine regularly and moderately live longer. The single group exception, whose members should not consume any alcohol, is pre-menopausal women with a family history of breast cancer.

    The keys to the beneficial aspects of wine drinking are regularity and moderation. The importance of this pattern of consumption cannot be over-emphasized. An occasional serving of wine is better than none, but overindulgence can be considerably more harmful than total abstinence.

  • 2011 Del Mar Thoroughbred racing season

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    The 2011 Del Mar Thoroughbred racing season begins for the 71st time beginning Wednesday, July 20. The season extends through Wednesday, September 7, with a five-day-a-week schedule, Monday and Tuesday being each week's day of rest.

    Boasting a new venue and a mix of new performers and returning favorites, the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club sees even bigger things from its popular Summer Concert Series during the 2011 racing season that starts Wednesday, July 20.

    Three weekend special concerts are scheduled led off by “Ziggy Marley salutes the Legends of Reggae” on Saturday, July 30, followed by the return of Weezer on Saturday, August 6 and concluding with Ben Harper on Sunday, September 4. The groups slated to perform following the seven “Four O’Clock Friday” racing programs are G-Love & Special Sauce (July 22), Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (July 29), The Bravery (Aug. 5), Jimmy Eat World (Aug. 12), Devo (Aug. 19), The Airborne Toxic Event (Aug. 26) and Fitz & The Tantrums (Sept. 2).

    Highlighting the stakes roster for the 21st straight year is the track's showcase event, the $1-million Pacific Classic, which this year will be offered on Sunday, August 28. The mile and one-quarter for 3-year-olds and up will be the richest and most prestigious of 31 "major" -- or "advertised" -- stakes planned for the summer stand. The 31 stakes will have total purse values of $6,075,000. Additionally, the racing headquarters first opened by entertainment titan Bing Crosby and his Hollywood pals back in 1937 also will stage 11 "overnight" stakes with a value of $935,000, bring the total stakes incentives for the session to $7,010,000.

    And don't forget - the perfect end to a day of racing or a night of music is visiting En Fuego before you go home. Celebrate your big win or drink to the one that got away. Either way your spirits will brighten as you hang out in our courtyard and have a good old fashion fiesta with your amigos.

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