Recent content by John DeFiore

It must have been 40 years since I read "You Too Can Speak Gaelic", and I had forgotten all about it until I read this. Now that I think about it I can still remember the story about Asimov singing para-dimethyl-amino-benzaldehyde to the tune of the "Irish Washerwoman" (I think it was) and...

If the bartender is to be believed (?) it's not a joke.

I'm more of a lurker here than a poster, but saw this in my hotel and wanted to share. Is this what La Chapelle is good for these days?

Got my Carneros Pinot Noir grapes yesterday (115 clone). 24.5 degrees brix, TA a lot higher than last year I think, but I haven't measured yet. The fruit was in good shape though. Just a small-scale home winemaker, John

OK, this is straying way off topic, but though I like the P-R rinds in soups and stews, If you haven't tried it give Miso paste a try for the umami. It works in almost any type of soup or stew. Maybe with a few P-R rinds too. Of course if it's Miso soup it's already a done deal. John

You're an organic chemist and you've never heard of veral organic acids? Actually, after looking back at the book what it means is that I was typing too quickly without reading what I was typing and somehow typed "veral" instead of "several". But you do have to be careful of combining veral...

No, but I've been waiting for this thread my entire life.

I was going to make a joke here about a perfect fifth, but I think I'll just let it go. "Wine Science, Principles and Applications" by Ronald S. Jackson, PhD seems to agree (more or less) with the above: p.556: "Flor yeasts are critical to the development of fino sherries. In the absence of...

Another real journalist gone, RIP Mr. Schorr. This line from the Times was kinda creepy: "Interviewed in 2008 for this obituary, Mr. Schorr continued to refuse to identify his source for the Pike committee report. " I know they have a file of pre-written obits, but I didn't know they actually...

They have rules for making wine in France?

If you're ever in the South Bay Area, visit these guys: Rabbit's Foot Meadery They have several good ciders and some interesting meads. I don't think they ship anywhere. I understand they discontinued thier dry meads and ciders because they didn't sell well, but if you like a little sweetness...

Gives new meaning to the phrase "bottle shock".

A 10 year old tawny wins the Port category? Which isn't in the dessert category? And they tasted tawnies against vintage/LBV style? Not to mention a lot of the other bizarre stuff. John

Maybe instead of maintaining the engines they can bury a Sears Craftsman wrench under the plane during a full moon and that will get the job done. The plane will still work fine. For a while. Anyone want to test it out? John

No argument there. My only point was that once there's enough evidence that the earth is round, let's stop spending money to see if it's flat and start spending that money on the next question. If later some good, valid reason comes up to make us think that the earth has flattened out, we can...