A dinner for 2 in one of the participating prestigious wine chateaux (worth 270€)

Saturday 5th of june 2010 : 20h15
Châteaux in various regions belonging to the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux will be glad to welcome you to a convivial dinner at which several estate owners will help you to discover their wines : dry white, red, and sweet white Grands Crus from Bordeaux.
These dinners will be served in the Médoc, Graves, Sauternes, Saint-Émilion, and Pomerol regions.

5 gift boxes (worth 66€ each)

Saturday 5th of june 2010 : 10h30 – 17h00
L’ Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux offers a unique gift idea dedicated to all Grands Crus lovers! This elegant box:
- one entry fee for the tasting on Saturday 5th June 2010
- one guide presenting the characteristics and the past historic of the 132 property members of the association which will allow all amateurs to well prepare the tasting.

Contest
To win one of these prestigious prizes, simply send your answer by e-mail to the question below before April 1st at
contest@vinogusto.com. The 6 winners will be designated by draw among the correct answers.

During the “Week-End des Grands Amateurs 2010″, how many wines produced by the Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux will be presented during the Saturday June 5th wine tatsing session?
- Answer A: 50 – 99 wines
- Answer B: 100 – 199 wines
- Answer C: over 200 wines

Important: don’t forget to provide us your complete contact details along with your answer so that we can contact you in case you’re part of the winners.

L’Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux is organizing a weekend dedicated to all wine lovers.
No need to be a trade professional: you can participate to an extraordinary tasting of more than 100 Grands Crus, be welcomed in the châteaux and share dinners with the owners of the properties.
Bus tours are also proposed to you on Sunday, leaving from Bordeaux towards a selection of Grands Crus châteaux in the Medoc, Saint Emilion, Graves and Sauternes regions. A golf competition will also be held at the Golf du Médoc.

We will be waiting for you in Bordeaux on 5 and 6 June to share unforgettable moments in the heart of the Bordeaux vineyards!

THE TASTING
Saturday 5 June, Hangar 14 in Bordeaux, 10.30 am – 5.00 pm

DINNERS
Saturday 5 June, Bordeaux vineyards, 8.00 pm

SPECIAL PARTY
Saturday 5 June, 8.30 pm

VINEYARDS TOURS IN THE BORDEAUX REGION
Sunday 6 June 10.00 pm – 05.30 pm

GOLF TOURNAMENT
Sunday 6 June : the Union des Grands crus de Bordeaux Cup will be held at the Golf du Médoc.

Online booking and detailed programme on www.wga-ugcb.com

The aim of the new system is to make it easy as possible for companies, whether chateaux or negociants, to reduce their environmental impact. Training and documentation will help companies work out emissions levels, set up alert systems for reducing impact, and run efficiency audits. From this year, the CIVB will be running a pilot study with 20 companies. The intention is for them all to be certified with the internationally-recognised standard, ISO 14001.

A pioneer estate is Chateau Dillon (Lycée Viticole de Bordeaux), where the ISO certification has been in place since 2004. They claim they use about a fifth of the water other properties use.

The recession and the rise of online wine sites meant reader numbers dropped significantly in 2009. Peñin says: “New technology, reader trends and ways of communicating about wine have pushed us to explore the Internet as an option”.

The launch of an online version of the Guía Peñin guides is planned in October. The site will feature thousands of searchable wines from the Guía Peñin annual guides, tasting notes, tasting reports and a blog.

The monetization strategy is not announced yet. We’ll they adopt the erobertparker.com strategy with a subscription fee or go for a free access approach?

Prior to this, Peñin is due to launch guiapeninenruta.com next week, a wine travel blog, with sections on Spanish wine regions, producers and individual wines. It won’t however feature any wine scores.

Wine Market
According to Robert Parker, 2010 is not looking very promising for the wine market despite what appear to be rather buoyant prices for prestigious Bordeaux, Burgundies, and a handful of California Cabernets, etc. The auction market has quickly realized that the top prices being fetched for rare wines are in Hong Kong, but he predicts that by the end of 2010, that market will be saturated with more top wines than even Chinese high-flyers can absorb. Combine that with the growing inventories of vintages that will be very difficult to sell unless discounted and dumped on the marketplace (2007 and 2008 Burgundies, 2007 Bordeaux, 2008 Northern Rhônes, and lots of high-end luxury Champagne), much of this wine is going to find few takers in 2010, and will have to be sold at distress-sale prices. Discount sales are inevitable.

Vintage 2009
Of course, all of this economic turmoil over fat inventories of difficult-to-sell vintages is going to play out in the background of the 2009 vintage being tasted and reviewed this spring, summer, and fall. Virtually all of France as well as other parts of Western Europe are proclaiming this to be one of the all-time great vintages of the last 30 to 50 years. Of course, we all know wine producers have a tendency to assert that the greatest wine they have ever made is the one currently for sale, but the weather in Western Europe, and particularly in France, supports the view that this is well beyond just another promising vintage. Robert Parker, of course, will be looking at the Bordeaux end of it in March, following that up with a look at the Rhône in late August and September.

The Bordelais dreams of the astronomical 2005 Bordeaux prices
At that time the world economy was buoyant but times are vastly different in 2010, and it is impossible for Robert Parker to imagine that 2009 will be able to fetch the kind of prices 2005 did. He continues to expect plenty of economic carnage in the wine world in 2010, and thinks the worst may be yet to come. But for wine drinkers, not speculators, 2010 could be a banner year.

1. Wine-searcher.com
2. Snooth.com
3. Vinogusto.com
4. Cellartracker.com

After the Second World War Hugel studied at both Montpellier and Bordeaux before returning home.

He ran the family wine business – founded around 1639 – with his two brothers, Georges and André, from 1948 until 1997, when his nephews Jean Philippe, Marc and Etienne took over daily management of the company.

Hugel wrote what eventually became legislation regulating the production of Alsace wines. These were finally recognized officially in 1984 and have become some of the strictest of all French wine appellation laws.

Affectionately known throughout the wine community as ‘Johnny’, he was outspoken, and firm in his beliefs. ‘It is sad to see French growers are following this trend,’ he once said of his fellow winemakers’ use of oak and its by-products. ‘They are timber merchants who forget to be winegrowers.’

But he was no ascetic – one of his best-known pronouncements was, ‘People who like wine are nicer people than those who do not like wine.’

Paul Symington of Symington Family Estates said, ‘In the wine trade around the world, very few reach the level of affection and respect that Johnny earned from all over his lifetime.’

Alsace expert Tom Stevenson said, ‘Johnny Hugel was the single most important person in the development of Alsace wine industry throughout the 20th century.’

Hugel is survived by his wife Simone, who was alongside him at his Riquewihr home, their daughters Dominique and Judith, and four grandchildren: Sylvie, Jean, Etienne, and Michel.

Source: ‘Johnny’ Hugel dies by David Furer on Decanter.com

The advertising signs that adorn the famous Hermitage slope may be removed as part of a new environmental heritage bill proposed by French authorities.

The signs, the most prominent of which advertise the Jaboulet and Chapoutier vineyards, have become an iconic part of the steep hillside.

However, as part of the move to classify the Hermitage hill, which overlooks the town of Tain l’Hermitage, as an environmental heritage site, the signs are set to be taken down.

The mayor of Tain l’Hermitage, Gilbert Bouchet, would like to see the signs removed. According to Veronique Chalencon, who has worked on the project, they ‘disturb the natural landscape’.

However, Michel Chapoutier, current president of the Hermitage wine growers union, opposes any plans to remove the signs.

‘Why take down the signs on the walls? They have been there for a long time on private property,’ Ingrid Delubac, an assistant for Chapoutier, told decanter.com

Winemakers are also concerned that classification could complicate vineyard work – including building or repair of terrace supporting walls.

‘It may bring more bureaucracy,’ Delubac added.

A revised environmental project is currently being drafted to take into account the views from the wine growers union.

‘We have had several meetings to reassure [winemakers],’ said Chalencon.

The bill will be examined later this year by a commission in Paris.

Picture from www.wineanorak.com

The 2005’s sold very well in primeur and reached prices never seen before. But today, these wines are mostly stored in cellars and tend to lose value every day, due to the general economic crisis. Some investors (or should we say speculators?) even started selling those wines with loss in order to cash what still can be. The 2006’s didn’t sell very well in primeur and the 2007’s mostly still sits and waits in the winemerchant’s warehouses, simply because winemerchants have to keep on buying their quota of primeurs every year in order to keep their privilege for the years to come. Unfortunately, the 2007’s were priced very high an very few were actually purchased by end consumers. 

According to most wine specialists, the Bordeaux 2008 vintage is better than expected, and also better than the overpriced 2007’s.

Two questions now: will the bordeaux winemakers participate to the primeur campaign? And if they do so, what will be their primeur pricing?

To buy or not to buy?

Hubert de Boüard of St-Émilion made the first move and took everyone by surprise by announcing an opening price for the Château Angélus 2008 close to the reasonably priced 2004, in other words 40% below the 2007! One could think that this is an oppurtunity not to be missed out. But it might not be that simple as we can for instance now expect some 2005’s to be sold at very good prices soon, just like the 2006’s are now on the market cheaper on average than first priced during the primeurs campaign two years ago. And we all know that almost no 2007’s were sold so far.

You might be amongst those who bought some 2006’s in primeur as some traditionaly do so to celebrate the birth of a child born that year… hoping to make a good deal and to later share a birth’ year vintage with your kid once he reaches the drinking age. If so, you probably noticed some of theses same bottles hitting the supermarkets shelves 20% cheaper two years later. If 2008’s saw your family extend again, you might be thinking along the same principle … but this time, you might be better off keeping your cash for the good bargains in the coming two years… so will you gamble?

Plugg, widely known as the conference where the top European startups, entrepreneurs, investors, pundits, trade press & bloggers annually meet up to discuss the current and future state of the Internet and mobile industry in Europe, is today announcing the twenty nominees for the event’s exhilarating pitching competition, the Plugg Start-Ups Rally.

Selected from a pool of 126 European startups who have submitted their profile online, a professional jury of industry pundits and venture capital investors have picked twenty companies that will give a short presentation about their product or service. They will each get 2 minutes to pitch their startup to the Plugg audience and the select crew of jury members will subsequently select 3 finalists to present for 10 minutes after that. Two awards will be given out: one for the overall winner and one for the startup that got the most votes from the audience.Here are the twenty startups that will present at the the Plugg conference in Brussels on the 12th of March 2009, in alphabetical order:
ApSynth (Calcul Plus) – http://www.apsynth.com/
Beebole – http://beebole.com/en/
Bubok – http://bubok.com/
Burt – http://byburt.com/
ContextIn – http://contextin.com/
Desktop Reporting – http://www.desktop-reporting.com/
DPIvision (CannyBill) – http://www.cannybill.com
Hammerkit – http://hammerkit.com
iOpus (AlertFox) – http://www.alertfox.com/
Jinni – http://www.jinni.com
Mendeley – http://www.mendeley.com/
Myngle – http://www.myngle.com
Nulaz – http://www.nulaz.net
Plista – http://plista.com
SenseBoard – http://senseboard.com
Silentale – http://www.silentale.com
Snagsta – http://snagsta.com
SofaTutor – http://www.sofatutor.de
Tailgate Technologies – http://tailgatetechnologies.com
VinoGusto – http://www.vinogusto.com/The names were announced on 26 February at 3:20 PM CET on the Plugg blog
If you have any questions or remarks, please contact me: Robin Wauters – robin@plugg.eu – mobile: 0032-485614307Related post: New round of investment for Vinogusto.com

Who we are?
Vinogusto.com is an online wine and winetourism guide based around consummers’ opinion. Our site traffic now reaches up to 500.000 visitors a month and our aim is to help them:
- choose their wines and find places to buy them,
- discover new wineplaces worth a visit. (wineries and producers, cellars & online merchants, restaurants and winebars , lodgings in the wine producing regions,…).

Vinogusto for Wineries and Producers:
We offer you to present your business along with the wines and/or services available to our user community. Our offering to professionals is articulated around three types of yearly subscriptions providing various levels of visibility on our platform (Prestige from 450€/year, Normal from 150€/year and Reduced from 50€/year).

Regardless of the subscription type, our fee includes:
- A detailed presentation with contact information, direct link to your website, practical information such has opening hours, geographical situtaion on map,…
- Description of your service offering: wine tasting sessions, lodging, rural house, animations,…
- An unlimited photo gallery
- Exhaustive presentation of the wines produced
- Price list of the wines for sale at the winery with direct link the realted wine page on your site or contact details
- Publication in 5 languages (English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Italian)
- Update of your data at any time
- Excellent national and international visibility

How to register?
The professionnal’s corner of our website gives you access to all details regarding our various subscriptions and to our online registration system.

Would you have any questions or need any help, don’t hesitate to contact us

Company Profile:
Vinogusto sprl
TVA : BE889.923.431
Address: Rue J-B Vannypen, 75, 1160 Brussels, Belgium
Website: www.vinogusto.com
Tel : +32 2 672 86 55
Fax : +32 2 792 47 05

The 2008 results confirmed the enormous potential of this wineguide and wine tourism website based on consumers’opinions.
Some key figures:
- 450.000 unique visitors/month (+ 350% increase year to date),
- 100.000 wines and consumers’opinions, 65.000 addresses, 375.000 pictures,
- 100.000 wine offers (online retailers, cellars, wineries direct sales),
- publication in 5 languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian and Dutch).

The raised funds will be dedicated to 3 main focus areas for 2009:
- permanent improvement of users’ navigation and participation experiences,
- content enrichment, among others through partnerships with recognized critics and experts (Winedecider.com, Toprural.com, and soon Quarin.com and Idealwine.com)
- service offer for professionals of the sector (presentation of wine professional’s businesses along with their wine offer and services),

Vinogusto.com is ahead of Snooth.com
According to Google Trends, the audience of Vinogusto.com is higher than its Snooth.com American counterpart.

2009 starts up as thrilling and exciting for the entire very motivated team at Vinogusto

Related post on Loogic.com : ” The competition is clearly between Vinogusto and Snooth which has just received an investment of one million dollars as mentioned by François Derbaix, and who practically double the investment received by Vinogusto but the traffic is about the same.”

Ingredients

Preparation
Cook the pasta according to pack instructions. Meanwhile, cook the chorizo for 2-3 minutes in a non-stick pan. Add the olives, tomato and season. Cook for a couple more minutes then add the pasta and parsley.

Serve with parmesan.

Wine match
Spanish wine from the Navarra region.

When you enter the restaurant, your nostrils will immediately flare from the olfactory memory of old-style torrefaction shops, such as the Algerian Coffee Shop in Soho, where they roast and grind the coffee beans on the premises. The slightly burnt aroma of freshly roasted coffee wakes your senses up from the minute you set foot in Kokob. Coffee is one of Ethiopia’s most important exports – it may even be what keeps those long-distance runners going – and if your sleep patterns permit, you should aim to round off your meal with the juice of the bean.

Charming Ethiopian-born co-owner Haile Leoul Abebe has a permanent smile on his face. As well he might have. Despite being a fairly new kid on the block, (they have just celebrated their first birthday) Kokob is enjoying huge success, blessed by an early visit from President Barroso and his team, as proudly displayed on their website. “Kokob” means “Star” in Amharic, and after the rave reviews they have had in the Brussels press, they soon will be. Smiley Haile described how he and Moroccan-born business partner Nassim worked for months through nights and weekends to give Kokob its distinctive contemporary but hand-crafted atmosphere. The artworks on the walls are eclectic and all made by arty pals. One in particular caught everyone’s eye, a backlit collage of citrus slices which aroused in me a deep nostalgia for a gin and tonic.

A covered terrace at the back of the restaurant transports you temporarily into the atmosphere of an East African hotel lobby in the 1930s, where you would not be surprised to see the ghost of Lawrence Durrell in his white suit and panama hat. This sheltered spot is the ideal place to down a Belgian beer or some real coffee after an afternoon’s Christmas shopping in the trendy boutiques of the rue du Midi, and peruse one of the collection of picture books on Ethiopia. The restaurant is composed of separate spaces – bar, terrace, main dining room, function room – where afternoon tea or coffee, sundowners (as we used to call them in the colonies), lunch or dinner can be enjoyed, as well as private parties and public events. Kokob also act as a cultural centre for recitals of traditional music, storytelling or promotions. Events are advertised on their website or you can join their mailing list to keep abreast of what’s coming up. They also do outside catering.

Despite the trendy location and modern décor, Kokob does not compromise on authentic Ethiopian style. Wat is the most popular dish. No that’s not a question, wat is the name of a stew made from vegetables, pulses or meat such as lamb, beef or chicken, generously seasoned with a hot chilli sauce called berbéré. There are also fish dishes and a selection of salads. The “menu découverte” or “discovery menu”, ranging from 18 to 25 euros a head depending on how hungry you are, is the nearest thing to a typical Ethiopian meal, consisting of a selection of prepared dishes served on a tray of spongey millet pancakes called injera which serve the purpose of both plate and cutlery.

Thanks to the influence of the early Coptic Christians who did not eat meat, vegetarians are easily catered for, with a vast selection of veggie dishes on offer, including spinach with mushrooms, lentils, split peas, ratatouille, ayeb (cottage cheese), to accompany the meat dishes such as diced chicken with spinach, minced beef spiced up with berbéré, and diced lamb in a creamy yogurt sauce. All the dishes are extremely tasty, and surprisingly mild - apart from the berbéré, nothing will blow your head off. An extra bowl of rolled injera strips is provided for you to break up and use them to scoop up the food on the tray. It’s a convivial and fun way of eating in a couple or a group, and apparently the typically Ethiopian way to do it is to feed each other with the mouthfuls of filled pancake. The mad, romantic fools! If you don’t fancy other people’s fingers, or even your own, cutlery can be provided on request.

Sticking on the same continent, we chose to drink a South African Nederburg Shiraz at a most reasonable 15 euros. After the meal, we were enveloped in burnt-coffee smelling steam, as the freshly-roasted beans were waved over the table like incense. If you are one of the poor unfortunates who can’t drink coffee, you can inhale it for maximum effect. The roasted coffee beans are then taken away and ground to produce a light coffee with a delicate flavour that will not keep you tossing and turning all night. Alternatively, you can sip an Ethiopian herbal tea flavoured with ginger and cinnamon. There are no desserts on the menu, but the coffee is served with a piece of homemade cake to sweeten your dreams.

Kokob is really something new and different, and serves tasty food in a warm and friendly atmosphere. Discreet Ethiopian background music is soon drowned out by the chatter of diners, as the place is invariably full by about 9 p.m. The service was discreet, efficient and accompanied by helpful explanations of the different dishes and how to eat them. The kitchen door is permanently open to the main room so you can see the chef at work. Haile and Nassim make a point of going round chatting to all their customers, and everyone gets a warm handshake and a dazzling smile on their way out, with a genuine invitation to come again.

A gold medal for Ethiopia – this new venture should run and run.

How to get there: Kokob

Sources: Daphne’s Dinner

Turkey
1 (14 to 16-pound) whole turkey, fresh or frozen (thawed)
As needed salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium onions, chopped
16 ounces jellied cranberry sauce
1/3 cup light brown sugar

Dressing
3 cups herb-seasoned stuffing mix
2 cups mixed dried fruit, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2/3 cup onion, chopped
1 cup whole cranberry sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 1/2 cups turkey broth or reduced-sodium chicken bouillon
Vegetable cooking spray

Turkey’s recipe
Remove giblet (discard liver), neck and any visible fat from turkey; reserve for stock. Rinse turkey with cold running water and drain well. Blot dry with paper towels.

Season inside and outside of turkey with salt and pepper.

Tie drumsticks together and twist wing tips behind the back.

Place turkey, breast side up, on a wire roasting rack (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray) in shallow pan. Cover loosely with foil.

Roast turkey in a preheated 325 degree F oven about 2 1/2 hours, basting with pan juices.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and cook onions with salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until very soft. (If onions begin to brown, lower heat.)

Stir in cranberry sauce and sugar; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes.

Remove foil and pour glaze over bird.

Continue to roast 1 hour.

Remove turkey from oven. Allow turkey to rest for 10 to 15 minutes before carving.

Dressing’s recipe
In medium-size bowl combine stuffing mix, dried fruit, celery, onion, cranberry sauce, sage, thyme and turkey broth.

Coat a 2-quart oven-proof dish with non-stick vegetable cooking spray. Spoon dressing in dish and bake uncovered at 325 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes.

Enjoy !

For more information: linkedin group or google group.

• Google Analytics: over 10.000 unique visitors/day (+100% in 3 months)

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Our audience is spread over different geographic areas. The main markets are France (28%), Spain (20%), Belgium (15%), lThe Netherlands (12%) and the United States (5%).

We are looking forward the next update of theGoogle Trends for Website . If you want to know more, have a look at an analysis of the different web statistic tools (in Spanish).

There is a fine selection of pizzas at reasonable prices, but as it was a holiday weekend I felt flush (geddit?) and ordered the grilled sole, which came served with fries and a braised endive.

I have two criteria for judging Italian restaurants. Firstly, they must serve veal as well as pizza. And secondly, they must offer panna cotta on the dessert menu. Il Vesuvio did both. The panna cotta came with a choice of topping: I had mine with coffee liqueur. I can’t tell you. It was the most sublime, creamy, heavenly thing I have had in my mouth since Christmas. (Don’t ask) I would go back there just for the panna cotta.

The waiters are brisk, flirty and efficient in that way Italians are. My waiter must have been all of 17. And I think you all know how I like a young man. He had a cheeky grin, which widened still further when I told him the panna cotta was exquisite. “Home made, of course?” I added. He looked at me with arms outstretched: “Ma certamente, Signora! La mamma!”

Grilled sole doesn’t come cheap, and at 19 euros it accounted for two-thirds of my total bill. But the pizzas are pretty reasonable (10-12 euros) so you could count around 25 euros for a standard pizza-wine-dessert meal.

Unfortunately Il Vesuvio is not open for weekend lunch or Sunday evening. But on a warm weekday or Saturday evening, or even a cold one (the interior looked cosy and welcoming) it is worth a visit. Or if you are lucky enough to have a day off during the week. The pizzas looked and smelled great, and the place was packed with regulars, so probably a good idea to book on a Saturday night.

But do remember to save room for the panna cotta. A little taste of heaven.

Wines available: Villa Antinori, Santa Cristina, Five Roses,…

How to get there: Il Vesuvio

Source: Daphne’s Dinner