Ever wonder what to do with wine that's been sitting out for four or five days? Actress Teri Hatcher has a novel solution -- she uses it to bathe. In a recent interview, the Desperate Housewives star reveals that she'll throw leftover wine into her bathwater for its supposed health benefits.
"When you're alone you open a bottle of wine, and then it's not really good after four or five days," Hatcher said.
"This make-up chemist that I know was talking about all the good properties in wine - antioxidants and stuff, exfoliating qualities - and she said, `Never throw it out, dump it in your bath,’" she added.
Hatcher, who famously eschews plastic surgery, advocates an all-natural lifestyle: "For as long as I can get away with it, I'd rather just be natural. The idea of putting stuff in your body is weird to me."
No tasting notes, alas, are available at this time.
Readers seeking more home-spun wisdom from the 42-year-old former Bond and MacGyver girl are best advised to consult Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life, Hatcher's 2006 memoir.
Monday, May 21, 2007
"They're real, and they're spectacular"
Wine Blogging Interactive Edition, Update
Jeffrey and I have decided to wait until next week to discuss the selected wine for our proposed blogospheric tasting. This is to allow readers an additional week to participate (and, admittedly, give us time to taste the wine ourselves). Please do let us know, though, via the comments feature if you've had the chance to pick up the wine, so we can gauge interest in the project (and also so we can see if people are actually reading our blog, or if they're just stumbling onto us via Google searches like "2005 Parker Bordeaux upgrades.")
To recap: the wine is the 2004 Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha ($10). It is a special project from importer Eric Solomon, who sourced the grapes from 70-100 year old high-altitude vines. These vines are low-yielding, and the wine itself is unoaked, so it ought to deliver exceptional purity of fruit for the price point. As noted below, the wine is currently available at Calvert Woodley in DC and Sherry-Lehmann and Zachys in New York. Readers in other cities may want to consult Wine-Searcher. (We have no affiliation with any of these places, nor with Eric Solomon Selections.)
Wine of the Week: 2004 M. Magnien Bourgogne Rouge
"Rustic" is a term that I often find misused or misunderstood in wine writing. All too frequently, a wine is described as "rustic" to excuse its being underripe, thin, imbalanced, or overly acidic -- generally unable to compete by world-wide standards. Conversely, critics who favor more modern-styled wines tend to employ the term pejoratively to criticize wines for those very same negative qualities.
I would like to reclaim the word "rustic" as a positive, yet accurate, descriptor in wine writing by returning to an older definition of the word, one cited by the OED in the works of Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and Johnson: "Plain and simple; unsophisticated; having the charm of the country." The key element here, of course, is the notion of "charm." For me, rustic wines are those that while lacking in sheer richness, power, and sophisticated tannins nevertheless have a certain brightness, a liveliness, a distinctive character that make them eminently pleasurable to drink. Could "the charm of the country" perhaps even connote a sense of terroir?
Our wine of the week, Michel Magnien's 2004 Bourgogne Rouge ($20), is a wine that I would call "rustic" in the best sense. It displays a brilliant ruby color, and the classic pinot nose is dominated by raspberries and earth. It is medium-bodied, high in acidity, yet very well-balanced, with bright red fruit flavors. As this wine originates from the generic Bourgogne appellation -- meaning the grapes can be sourced from anywhere in greater Burgundy -- it inevitably lacks in concentration and sophistication. It does, however, offer great persistence and length for its level as well as an attractive core of ripe fruit. (Magnien is known for making Burgundies in a riper style, an asset in a difficult 2004 vintage that left many wines with a green or vegetal streak.) And most importantly, the racy acidity gives the wine a liveliness on the finish that freshens the palate and makes it a great food wine (it paired excellently with roast chicken). Red fruits and earth -- charm of the country, indeed.