how-to-make-wine-taste-good

This made me fear the future for the first time in a long time. Although I guess there would be benefits if used correctly, and in the right proportions, and it is true that our approach to eating and drinking is probably not 'scalable' to the masses.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Talk about depressing
This made me fear the future for the first time in a long time. Although I guess there would be benefits if used correctly, and in the right proportions, and it is true that our approach to eating and drinking is probably not 'scalable' to the masses.

Engineers thinking about food.

"Everything your body needs."

Well, except for the things we didn't know about. That interact in ways that we couldn't have foreseen until we ran this little clinical trial. Thank you for your participation, and sorry about the ______.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:

Engineers thinking about food.

"Everything your body needs."

Well, except for the things we didn't know about. That interact in ways that we couldn't have foreseen until we ran this little clinical trial.

I agree. And not only the plant ingredients but the social environment (tricky to measure but seemingly important), the pleasure, the ritual, etc.

But, there is no denying that a lot of folks out there aren't getting anything close to what they need nutritionally or spiritually from the Food Crap they consume. So there is probably a market for this, when refined. And who knows where it will lead.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Talk about depressing
This made me fear the future for the first time in a long time. Although I guess there would be benefits if used correctly, and in the right proportions, and it is true that our approach to eating and drinking is probably not 'scalable' to the masses.

Engineers thinking about food.

"Everything your body needs."

Well, except for the things we didn't know about. That interact in ways that we couldn't have foreseen until we ran this little clinical trial. Thank you for your participation, and sorry about the ______.

Reductionism ad absurdum. The growing support for "systems biology" in academics (and in funding agencies) is perhaps the beginning of the pendulum swing in the opposite direction. I also am reminded of Karl Mannheim's division of the mechanical vs. organic view of society. That dichotomy can be carried over to other endeavors with some success.

I am also reminded about some research that touches upon my own in the area of commensal bacteria. What once were regarded as simple spectators or, at worst, parasites are now recognized as vital symbionts that have important functions in metabolism and immunology (and likely in as-yet-undiscovered areas of health, too). It is hubris of the worst sort to think that we know all of the facts or even a majority of them.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Talk about depressing
This made me fear the future for the first time in a long time. Although I guess there would be benefits if used correctly, and in the right proportions, and it is true that our approach to eating and drinking is probably not 'scalable' to the masses.

Wine is way ahead of the curve, there are already several soylent wines out there.
 
originally posted by MLipton:

Reductionism ad absurdum. The growing support for "systems biology" in academics (and in funding agencies) is perhaps the beginning of the pendulum swing in the opposite direction.

I am also reminded about some research that touches upon my own in the area of commensal bacteria. What once were regarded as simple spectators or, at worst, parasites are now recognized as vital symbionts that have important functions in metabolism and immunology (and likely in as-yet-undiscovered areas of health, too).
Oh, I don't think this would ever have been invented by anyone with a decent understanding of the current state of biology or physiology.

And yes, I'm sure that one major flaw in his formula is the absence of some important but unknown microbiome chow.
 
Mass produced wine is no different from mass produced anything else. Back in the wonderful old days when wine was a basic beverage because water wasn't potable, it's true that the wine people drank was low alcohol, but it was also thin, acidic and frequently spiced and sugared since the reason for the alcohol was preservation and the point was to quench thirst and nothing more. The attention to the quality of some wines and terroirs doesn't really begin until the Renaissance and as something whose qualities a relatively broad middle-class audience might attend to not until the second half of the nineteenth century. And of course drinking wine as a daily beverage continues to decline in the wine producing countries of Europe. If it is to compete with coke, mass produced wine will have to be like any mass produced beverage. That won't have much effect on the stuff talked about here, which is produced for a niche audience within a niche audience.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Oh, I don't think this would ever have been invented by anyone with a decent understanding of the current state of biology or physiology.
People have tried to "do away with food" for years, possible centuries. At the very least we have Carnation Instant Breakfast. And MREs.

And a lovely event reported in the Maryville Daily Forum of January 26, 1944: "Place cards were small circles and the decorations in the room were suggestive of the theme. The group was served food suggestive of the theme and included tutti-fruitti pills; a pill of golden brown for the meat course; the dessert course was a miniature chocolate pellet and concentrated cigarettes. At the close of this banquet, food of 1944, including sandwiches and coffee, was served. Mrs. Roy Schracer, worthy matron, was toast mistress. Mrs. T. H. Millikan spoke on clothes and dress and Mrs. J. A. Anderson told what the well-dressed women in the year 2000 would wear. "Food of the Future" was discussed by Miss Lida Ambrose and Walter Smith spoke on medicine's sad fate, with doctors, drugs and hospitals out-of-date. He gave a demonstration with a hot box (built in the wall) that would kill all germs. Miss Leota Clardy told about how travel would be changed."
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Oh, I don't think this would ever have been invented by anyone with a decent understanding of the current state of biology or physiology.
People have tried to "do away with food" for years, possible centuries. At the very least we have Carnation Instant Breakfast. And MREs.

And a lovely event reported in the Maryville Daily Forum of January 26, 1944: "Place cards were small circles and the decorations in the room were suggestive of the theme. The group was served food suggestive of the theme and included tutti-fruitti pills; a pill of golden brown for the meat course; the dessert course was a miniature chocolate pellet and concentrated cigarettes. At the close of this banquet, food of 1944, including sandwiches and coffee, was served. Mrs. Roy Schracer, worthy matron, was toast mistress. Mrs. T. H. Millikan spoke on clothes and dress and Mrs. J. A. Anderson told what the well-dressed women in the year 2000 would wear. "Food of the Future" was discussed by Miss Lida Ambrose and Walter Smith spoke on medicine's sad fate, with doctors, drugs and hospitals out-of-date. He gave a demonstration with a hot box (built in the wall) that would kill all germs. Miss Leota Clardy told about how travel would be changed."

Sam Lowry's Numero Trois.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

People have tried to "do away with food" for years, possible centuries. At the very least we have Carnation Instant Breakfast.

Oh, sure, absolutely.

But they were operating in an age where the understanding of the biology was much simpler (and wrong in important respects). And few really thought that CIB should replace your entire diet, permanently. Well, except for ceremonial occasions and the odd communion wafer.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
The attention to the quality of some wines and terroirs doesn't really begin until the Renaissance
I may misunderstand you, but I had the impression that there was a lot of connoisseurship in classical antiquity if not before. Price variations between different sources as one index of established preferences.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by SFJoe:
Oh, I don't think this would ever have been invented by anyone with a decent understanding of the current state of biology or physiology.
People have tried to "do away with food" for years, possible centuries. At the very least we have Carnation Instant Breakfast. And MREs.

And a lovely event reported in the Maryville Daily Forum of January 26, 1944: "Place cards were small circles and the decorations in the room were suggestive of the theme. The group was served food suggestive of the theme and included tutti-fruitti pills; a pill of golden brown for the meat course; the dessert course was a miniature chocolate pellet and concentrated cigarettes. At the close of this banquet, food of 1944, including sandwiches and coffee, was served. Mrs. Roy Schracer, worthy matron, was toast mistress. Mrs. T. H. Millikan spoke on clothes and dress and Mrs. J. A. Anderson told what the well-dressed women in the year 2000 would wear. "Food of the Future" was discussed by Miss Lida Ambrose and Walter Smith spoke on medicine's sad fate, with doctors, drugs and hospitals out-of-date. He gave a demonstration with a hot box (built in the wall) that would kill all germs. Miss Leota Clardy told about how travel would be changed."

We're all driving rocket ships and talking with our minds...
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
The attention to the quality of some wines and terroirs doesn't really begin until the Renaissance
I may misunderstand you, but I had the impression that there was a lot of connoisseurship in classical antiquity if not before. Price variations between different sources as one index of established preferences.

I don't think you misunderstood me. And I may be wrong. I may have been inappropriately generalizing from the French understanding of their own wine. I know that the Romans assiduously planted vines. And it makes sense that, for those who had the money to choose, they could make preferences among the wines from their separate colonies. Given recipes for spicing, sugaring and treating the wine, I very much doubt they had any notion of tasting for terroir. But those who know more should feel free to contradict me.
 
Falernian certainly had the mojo in the market, and was held to age for 10 years or more.

I'm sure the crude elements of terroir--sunshine, heat, water--made it through to Roman wines as any others.
 
originally posted by Steve Guattery:

We're all driving rocket ships and talking with our minds...

At least I've finally got the video phone I was promised in the '60s. And Dr. Memory has yet to show up, too, for which I'm endlessly grateful.

Ahclem Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Steve Guattery:

We're all driving rocket ships and talking with our minds...

At least I've finally got the video phone I was promised in the '60s. And Dr. Memory has yet to show up, too, for which I'm endlessly grateful.

Ahclem Lipton

mister ahclem, please report the the hospitality centre.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Falernian certainly had the mojo in the market, and was held to age for 10 years or more.

I'm sure the crude elements of terroir--sunshine, heat, water--made it through to Roman wines as any others.

Ah, I remember Falernian from the Satyricon and Gail's book on food and wine in Ancient Rome. Late harvest, highly oxydized and alcoholic. Probably they then threw in the sugar.

Yes, I'm sure they could tell where the growing season was better. I'm not sure this counts.
 
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