Viscous

The character some wines possess of being somewhat syrupy and slow to move around in the mouth. Alcohol gives a sense of richness to wine only up until the wine is about 13.5% alcohol by volume. Higher in alcohol than that, wines actually taste thin. Neither alcohol nor glycerin makes a wine viscous. However, the ripeness of the grapes, residual sugar, yeast extracts, additives, peptides, polysaccharides, and proteins could all play a role.

What is the Ark of Taste?

A. An international catalog of endangered foods

B. A history of the ways in which smell and taste have changed through human evolution

C. A term winemakers use for the way a wine can presents itself spatially on the palate

D. A compendium of foods mentioned in the Bible

The Ark of Taste is an international catalog of endangered heritage foods maintained by the global Slow Food movement. The goal is to preserve unique foods that reflect their culture and place, and to keep them from extinction by encouraging consumers to grow and eat those foods. Besides being rare, foods on the list must be “culturally or historically linked to a specific region, locality, ethnicity or traditional production practice.” The Ark of Taste was founded in 1996. Today, more than 5,000 products from more than 150 countries are on the list. Those foods include: Great Plains Bison from Canada; Bergamot Oranges from Calabria, Italy; Violet Asparagus from Liguria, Italy; Harrison Cider Apples from New Jersey; Meyer Lemons from California; White Strawberries from Chile; and Bull Boar Sausage from Australia. Slow Food publishes the catalog along with resources for those who want to grow or buy the foods on the list.

Holy Vino

Of the hundreds of different sweet wines produced in Italy, the best known may be vin santo, holy wine, so named because priests have drunk it during the Mass for centuries. Vin santo is the… Continue reading

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