1. When should I take formoline L112 and when shouldn't I?
Tip: take 2 formoline L112 tablets with 1 glass of water as a smart "supplement" with all fat-rich meals.
2. Who should take formoline L112 EXTRA?
formoline L112 EXTRA contains 50% more of the highly effective fiber L112.
It is specially designed for overweight persons weighing 75 kg and more. After all, the volume of food eaten increases along with the body's weight. formoline L112 EXTRA can support you lose weight even better now.
3. How should I take formoline L112?
formoline L112 is taken twice a day unchewed and preferably in combination with a low-calorie beverage (at least 250 ml).
For weight reduction: for best results take 2 formoline L112 tablets twice a day towards the end of the two meals that have the highest fat content.
For weight maintenance: take 1 formoline L112 tablet twice a day towards the end of the two meals that have the highest fat content.
Tip: take the tablets at the end of the meals containing the fatty foods.
To ensure the intake of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K as well as essential fatty acids, we recommend taking formoline L112 with only 2 out of your 3 main meals.
formoline L112 can also be used in a dosage of 1-2 tablets up to 2 x daily, depending on your needs (for example, events, party foods, restaurant visits, on holiday, etc.).
4. Can I take more than 4 tablets a day?
For weight reduction we, recommend a dosage of two tablets twice a day.
5. How does formoline L112 work?
Formoline L112 is a lipid binder that helps you to reduce excess weight, maintain weight long- term, and lower cholesterol intake from your diet.
The main ingredient is the fibre polyglucosamine (L112) which has a very high capacity for binding fat. Some of the fats in your food will bind to L112 in the gastrointestinal tract. These fat calories are then no longer available to the body.
For the purpose of weight reduction with formoline L112, we recommend a fat modified diet with 60-80g fat per day and sufficient physical exercise. Only when there is an energy deficit, i.e. when your body is using more energy than it is getting, will it access fat reserves and reduce body fat.
6. Will I be able to tolerate formoline L112?
formoline L112 is very well tolerated. Only in very rare cases are there allergic reactions to one of the ingredients or in combination with an existing allergy to house dust mites. In very rare instances, digestive problems (constipation, flatulence or bloating) have been observed as a result of inadequate fluid intake, generally in the beginning stages of using formoline L112. These will usually disappear after a couple of days.
We strongly advise that you stop taking formoline L112 if you experience any discomfort and seek immediate advice from your doctor or pharmacist.
7. What are formoline L112's ingredients?
cellulose (vegetable), vitamin C, tartaric acid, and excipients. The product does not contain any preservatives, colouring agents, or flavour enhancers. formoline L112 is free from gelatine, gluten, lactose, and cholesterol.
8. Can I take formoline L112 together with my contraceptive medication?
You can take formoline L112 while taking contraceptive pills. However, you should take it at least 4 hours before or after taking the contraceptive pill. The easiest and safest way is to take the contraceptive just before eating the 'formoline L112-free' meal (e. g. breakfast or dinner).
Formoline L112 does not interfere with the effect of other contraceptives (hormone patches, hormonal implants, hormone injections, NuvaRing, etc.).
9. Can I take formoline L112 during pregnancy or while breast feeding?
While pregnant or breast feeding, losing excess weight should only be undertaken if recommended by your doctor and then only under medical supervision. The best possible nutrient supply is essential for foetal development and to provide the baby with optimal breast milk.
Please consult your doctor for further advice!
10. Can children and adolescents take formoline L112?
Growing children and adolescents should only take formoline L112 after medical consultation.
11. What should I be aware of if taking regular medication?
If taking regular medication, especially medication that reduces bowel function, you should take formoline L112 only after medical consultation. Please also note the information in the respective product leaflets.
12. Can I chew formoline L112 as well?
No. You should take formoline L112 tablets whole with a large glass of water. If the tablets are too big for you to swallow, you can divide the tablets with a tablet cutter or knife and then take the pieces with a large glass of water. Please do not dissolve the formoline L112 tablets into water for drinking.
13. Can I take formoline L112 with fat-soluble medications?
formoline L112 has a very high fat binding capacity so that not only dietary fats but also fat-soluble (lipophilic) active pharmaceutical ingredients (e.g. hormone preparations, oral contraceptives) or fat-soluble vitamins (vitamin A, D, E and K) can be bound.
We recommend that you allow at least 4 hours between taking such medication and formoline L112. The availability of fat-soluble (lipophilic) active ingredients may be reduced by formoline L112.
14. How fast will I lose weight with formoline L112?
Many women's magazines laud crash diets that promise a fast weight loss of 2, 4 or even 5 kilos per week. In order to lose 1 kg of body fat, the body needs to burn approximately an additional 7,000 kcal or reduce the calorific intake by this amount. This is the same amount of energy as is contained in 778 g of pure fat. With an average diet of 2,000 to 3,000 kcal per day, it is obvious that a total reduction of 28,000 kcal (corresponding to 4 kg body fat) in 7 days is totally absurd (usually "only" about 18,000 kcal will be eaten in this period), even on a "fasting" diet. Such weight loss cannot be achieved without a harmful drop in the body's water content.
Fast weight loss puts a strain on your body and connective tissues and may also lead to the formation of wrinkles. Permanent, realistic, and healthy weight reduction should always be achieved slowly.
Successful and long-lasting weight loss requires patience and time, as noticeable weight loss does not occur overnight. Depending on the target weight, it may take weeks or even months.
The goal of treating excess weight with formoline L112 is to reduce weight slowly until you reach your target weight. Losing weight with formoline L112 allows you to enjoy a delicious diet with a regulated fat intake of 60-80 g per day. This makes it easier to maintain, even over a longer period of time. Dieticians, however, recommend a diet containing only about 40 g of fat per day for weight reduction.
Once you have reached your target weight you can also take formoline L112 for weight maintenance. Take formoline L112 at a lower dosage (one tablet twice a day) with meals that have highest fat content.


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TOMMY LAU/SFFS
Graham Leggat, offering a wave to San Francisco International Film Festival audiences in 2011, transformed the San Francisco Film Society in a half decade.
Graham Leggat Steps Down as Executive Director of San Francisco Film Society
The San Francisco Film Society today announced that Graham Leggat, executive director since October 2005, has stepped down effective immediately due to health issues. Leggat ends a tenure at the Film Society that has marked a radical transformation for the organization, including key expansions to each of its three core areas of activity: exhibition, education and filmmaker services.
During the period of Leggat's leadership, the Film Society has grown from the producer of the annual 15-day San Francisco International Film Festival into a year-round cultural institution celebrating film culture in all its forms, with its staff and annual operating budget each increasing threefold from 2005 to 2011. Historic developments under Leggat's direction include the launch of the country's only daily independent regional online film magazine, SF360.org, in 2006; integration of the filmmaker services programs of Film Arts Foundation in 2008, which have since grown into a rich array of grants (totaling more than $3 million), residencies and project development services; the creation and expansion of SFFS's annual Fall Season slate of festivals and events, which this year includes seven themed-film series between September and November; and the recent announcement of the creation of the San Francisco Film Society | New People Cinema, which provides year-round theatrical home for the organization's myriad activities for the first time in its 54-year history.
"For five years the inimitable and visionary Graham Leggat has led the Film Society with determination and aplomb," said Pat McBaine, president of the Film Society's board of directors. "His vision, passion, work ethic, tenacity, leadership, occasionally warped Scottish sense of humor, modesty and bravery have indelibly marked this organization. Today the Film Society is in the best shape—artistically, organizationally and financially—in its history. Graham leaves SFFS in the care of the terrific staff, led by Acting Executive Director Steven Jenkins, that he hired, inspired and empowered. We're all determined and prepared to pursue his vision."
As Leggat stated today in a personal letter announcing his resignation to Film Society constituents:
"It has been my unalloyed pleasure and honor to serve as Executive Director since October 2005. I have relished my leadership role in this dynamic, beloved organization. Unfortunately, health issues make it impossible for me to continue to serve effectively, and I am stepping down to leave the organization in the capable hands of a remarkably devoted staff and Board of Directors.
As I bid the Film Society farewell, I am fully confident that the vision we have forged together of a peerless and vibrant film organization within a vitalizing film culture will continue to thrive and inspire. In these past six years the Film Society has risen to new, previously unimaginable heights, and I am truly thrilled by the conviction that the organization—now at an all-time high programmatically, financially and as an agent of civic and cultural change—has its very best years still to come.
Let's look ahead together, then, to a bright future, as I offer my sincerest gratitude once again for the amazing opportunities that the Film Society and all of you have given me."
Deputy Director Steven Jenkins will assume leadership of the Film Society as acting executive director while the staff and board of directors consider long-term leadership strategies in the coming months. Steve is familiar with this role, having stepped up several times in the past 15 months, as Graham has fought a disease first diagnosed in March 2010.
Essential SF: Irving Saraf and Allie Light
Saraf and Light's work is marked by an unwavering appreciation for underdogs and outsiders.
'New Environmentalists' Salutes Gutsy Grassroots Guerillas
Goldman Prize-winning environmentalists' work highlighted in short-form pieces by Parrinello, Antonelli and Dusenbery.
Goldmacher IDs Perps Behind Financial Crisis
An East Bay filmmaker takes another look at U.S. financial woes with 'Heist,' which world premieres at the Mill Valley Film Festival.
Guy Maddin: Ann Savage and the Osmonds
Guy Maddin talks about movies, writing, himself—and the allure of the Osmonds, re-published on the occasion of Fandor's Maddin blogathon.
SFFS's Hong Kong Cinema Series Brings Fan Fare to New Screen
Audience-engaging stories in a variety of genres highlight SFFS's inaugural Hong Kong Cinema weekend.
Dark Thoughts Fill TIFF's Lightbox
Sex-filled fictions dominate Toronto International Film Festival; eclectic docs inspire action.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Fourteen killed after Turkish strike in Ras al Ain
BEIRUT/PARIS - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a Turkish air strike on a convoy in the Syrian town of Ras al Ain killed 14 people including five civilians and wounded 10 on Sunday.
Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said the strike had hit a gathering of civilians who had come to Ras al Ain from the city of Qamishli to show support as the town is targeted by Turkish forces attacking Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria.
Several foreign journalists were with the convoy when it was struck, according to a reporter from French broadcaster France 2.
"Syria. We were in the convoy of Kurdish civilians targeted by Turkish forces and their allies at Ras al Ain," Stephanie Perez wrote on Twitter. "Our team is fine, but some colleagues are dead."
There were no details available of who the colleagues were.
France 2 aired footage of the incident showing images of civilians mixed in with Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who were heading towards Ras al Ain.
The images, taken from about 10 km (six miles) from the town, showed bodies on the ground, burnt out armored vehicles and other destroyed trucks and buildings.
It then showed images of people panicking with bloodied faces and trucks burning after the convoy was hit.
An SDF statement said Turkish "invading forces" had targeted a civilian convoy with international media journalists on board that was heading to Ras al Ain accompanied by its fighters to "express their rejection of the Turkish invasion."
It said "tens of civilians were dead and injured."


Green stains on a deck usually indicate that the wood has fallen prey to algae. Algae will grow almost anywhere if the conditions are right, and your deck is no exception. An algae stain on wood will be greenish brown in appearance and slippery to the touch. Because algae is caused by excessive moisture, you are more likely to find it in shady areas of the deck that do not have the benefit of being rapidly dried by the sun after it rains. Rather than hire a professional, you can clean these pesky green stains yourself with a little bit of hard work.
Remove all furniture and other items from the deck. Not only will this make cleaning easier, but you are likely to find additional spots of algae lurking in areas such as behind the grill or beneath patio furniture.
Sweep the deck well. Be sure to remove all leaves and debris from the cracks and corners. Piled-up leaves lock in moisture and algae commonly thrives beneath them.
Dilute an oxygen-based bleach with water. Clean the entire deck with the bleach mixture. This will kill the algae you can see along with the developing algae you cannot.
Allow the bleach mixture to sit on the deck for 10 to 20 minutes. After the time is up, rinse the deck thoroughly with the garden hose on the highest pressure setting.
Allow the deck to dry, and examine the algae stains. Stains that are still visible when the deck is dry may require further treatment.
Examine your acid- or bleach-based deck cleaner. Make sure any acid-based cleaners that you use are compatible with your current deck sealant. If you do not wish to use harsh chemicals, you may treat the algae with a potassium-based algae-removal product.
Saturate the plants surrounding your deck with the garden hose. It is likely they will be exposed to the cleaner you will be using, and this will help protect them from damage.
Pour the cleaner directly onto the algae stains. Allow it to sit for 10 minutes. If you have particularly stubborn algae stains, you may opt to use a stiff-bristled brush to scrub the stain with the cleaner.
Rinse the deck thoroughly with the garden hose. The algae should be completely gone when the deck dries.
Water the surrounding plants again to help disperse any of the chemicals that they have come into contact with.
Consider sealing your deck with a clear epoxy to prevent algae growth.
Oxygen bleach is nontoxic to plants, and thus it is not necessary to spray plants before and after using it.
Acid-based cleaners are very caustic. Always wear gloves and protect your eyes when working with them.


Learn what fractions are and how they are related to integers.
Do you frequently find yourself at restaurants with friends fumbling to figure out how to split the bill and calculate the tip? Have you ever resorted to seeking advice from your "smart" phone? Don't worry, we all have. Heck, a whole industry of iPhone Apps has emerged to help answer these very questions. But you shouldn't really need them. As we'll soon find out, the key to freeing yourself from your silicon assistant and figuring these questions out by yourself is understanding how to calculate with percentages. But in order to do that, you first have to have a solid understanding of fractions. So with that in mind, today we're kicking things off by answering the question: What are fractions?
Are There Numbers Between the Integers on the Number Line?
the neither positive nor negative number 0.
We also talked about how to visualize adding and subtracting positive and negative integersby mentally walking step-by-step along the number line. But what would happen if you were joined on your imaginary stroll along the number line by two imaginary friends: one much taller than you, and another who's a bit shorter? For every step you take—from zero to one, one to two, and so on—your taller friend takes a longer step and your shorter friend takes a smaller step—and they both continually fall between the integer marks.
Let's say you and your friends all walk ten steps in the positive direction, after which you stop squarely at the mark on the number line labeling the integer "10." Your tall friend has traveled further than you and has stopped somewhere between "12" and "13," and your shorter friend has stopped somewhere just shy of "8." How far have your friends traveled?
Well, sadly, there aren't any integers that can answer this question because integers are whole numbers—like "12" and "13." But surely there must be numbers between each of the integers—we know your friends have traveled some numerical distance. And, of course, there are numbers there. The apparently empty spaces between the integers on the number line are actually teeming with infinitely many fractional numbers—that is, numbers that have a fractional (or non whole number) part. You might know them better as fractions. Are fractions integers? No, they're all the numbers between the integers.
The easiest type of fractions to understand are built by turning the integers on their heads. Every integer has what's called a reciprocal which is obtained by dividing one by that integer. For example: the reciprocal of 1 is 1/1, the reciprocal of 2 is 1/2, the reciprocal of 3 is 1/3, and so on. You could conceivably create a list of all such fractions by walking positive integer steps along the number line and calling out the reciprocal of the integer at each position. Eventually, you'd start getting to big numbers: 1/99, 1/100, and then eventually even bigger: 1/999, 1/1000, and then even bigger, and bigger, forever.
You can think of all these fractions as pieces of a pie, or portions of a mile, kilometer, lifetime, or whatever. Adopting the pieces of pie analogy, the reciprocal of the integer 1 is 1/1, which is equivalent to 1—representing one whole pie. The reciprocal of the integer 2 is 1/2 which represents one piece of a pie that is evenly divided into two—in other words one-half a pie. Similarly, the reciprocal of the integer 3 represents 1/3 of a pie, and so on. The bigger the integer we start with, the smaller the reciprocal—and therefore the smaller the fraction. For example, a slice that's 1/3 of a pie is much bigger than a slice that's 1/12 of a pie. And a slice that's 1/99 of that pie would be miniscule. No matter how small a fraction is, you can always find smaller fractions by taking the reciprocal of yet larger integers!
I must admit I'd never heard the term "vulgar fraction" until I started preparing to write this article; and since quirky and vibrant terms like this are rare in math, I couldn't help but introduce it to you. The word "vulgar" here is used as a synonym for "common," so the term "vulgar fraction" simply refers to common fractions. But what are these common fractions? Well, common fractions are all the numbers that have an integer in their numerator (the top number) and a non-zero integer in their denominator (the bottom number).
The fractions we've dealt with so far like 1/3 and 1/4 certainly are common, but fractions like 2/3, 3/4, and 63/72 with numbers other than 1 in their numerator are common too. Also, all the fractions we've talked about so far have been smaller than one, but there's no reason fractions can't be larger than one too. So fractions like 4/3, 7/4, and an infinite number of others are all perfectly common too.
That's all the math we have time for today. But rest assured we'll be talking a lot more about fractions and how to interpret and work with them in upcoming articles (next week we'll cover numerators and denominators). In the meantime, here's a problem for you to think about: Why can't the denominator (that is, the bottom number) of a fraction be zero? Look for my explanation in the weekly "solutions" video posted each week to the videos section of the Math Dude's Facebook page and to YouTube.
Please join our growing community of social networking math fans on Twitter and Facebook, ask questions, and chat with other math enthusiasts. Check it out! You can also submit a question to me at mathdude@quickanddirtytips.com.


Buy Saro Lifestyle Buche de Noel 84-Inch Square Tablecloth in Gold from $174.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond. Make it a holiday season to remember with a Buche de Noel Tablecloth from Saro Lifestyle. Featuring a lovely circular cutwork design trimmed with shimmering gold embroidery, the charming tablecloth will bring a festive touch to your holiday table.Make it a holiday season to remember with a Buche de Noel Tablecloth from Saro Lifestyle. Featuring a lovely circular cutwork design trimmed with shimmering gold embroidery, the charming tablecloth will bring a festive touch to your holiday table.


Fort Worth Dome Security Cameras : Home & Business Installation & Sales. We install and sell our surveillance cameras through the entire DFW and Texas State, delivering excellent quality and great discounts.
Dome security cameras are able to keep your house as well as company protected without the need of costing you lots of money. You'll have excellent protection without having to sacrifice your financial allowance. Safety and security is certainly a main issue for many of us plus criminal activity is expanding day after day. Dome surveillance cameras may be placed in a number of spots in a workplace or home. It's really a great technique to discourage thieves plus capture the robber in the process of invasion. Any company who has cash purchases really should have some sort of protection.
Numerous bad guys know precisely what to look for within a company to figure out whether it is safe. This is why the company manager has got to take a assertive strategy to be certain that his or her company won't develop into a fairly easy place to get broken into. You intend to help it become challenging for crooks to be able to go after you and that's where dome surveillance cameras will surely be worthwhile.
Dome surveillance cameras could also be used inside of a household location. A number of these surveillance cameras should be considered outside the house and therefore are generated for tough situations. It is a great way to defend your security cameras from any varying weather conditions. It's also possible to choose to buy a vandal resilient dome camera in order to safeguard your security camera much more.
When you've got plenty of targeted traffic within the inside of your house you might also choose to put dome surveillance cameras within your property in order to check any action that takes place at your residence while you're out.
For anyone who is on a much more reduced spending budget it is easy to put money into fake dome surveillance cameras and set up all of the, in many places through your business or house. It's a perfect technique to dissuade virtually any criminal action and you'll generally position this specific imitation camera in full perspective.
You'll find so many ways to use dome security cameras for your security needs. Most people become a victim of a crime whenever they least expect it and if you take quite a few actions to prevent this type of activity you can make your home and business a safer place to be.
About how far would you like the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) box placed from the farthest camera?
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How far back would you like to be able to view the footage captured?
How soon do you need us to install the dome security camera equipment?


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Germany national hockey team may refer to:

 Germany men's national ball hockey team
 Germany men's national field hockey team
 Germany women's national field hockey team
 Germany men's national ice hockey team
 Germany women's national ice hockey team
 Germany men's national ice sledge hockey team
 Germany men's national inline hockey team
 Germany women's national inline hockey team
 Germany national roller hockey team

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We stock a select few tools & accessories products from the world famous Stanley.
STANLEY® is a leading global manufacturer of hand tools, power tools and related accessories, and a flagship brand of the wider Stanley Black & Decker Corporation. Ever since its foundation in 1843, STANLEY has been committed to providing professionals across the globe with products which are smart, tough, pioneering and up to the task. For over 170 years, STANLEY has been responsible for unlocking new levels of user performance through creating some of the most useful tools ever made including the mastic man, carpet fitter and any other tradesman's favourite knife the Titan. Today, the company continues to be an industry leader in hand tool innovation thanks to a continued focus on the excellence that is inherent in every product, employee and business.


As you well know due to recent posts, the Jidar Street Art festival is well under way this year and has been featuring a ton of incredible talent. One of the invited artist who is also a previous BBB interviewee is Remi Rough. The UK based artist painted a brilliant new abstract piece in red and black which beautifully bounces off the white background of the Mohamed VI Museum.


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Do you remember when you were twenty-something and you knew everything? Back when being "authentic" was of paramount importance? I do, and the view was nice from that high horse where I could easily call out any poser in a punk bar. And now that I'm far from 20, it's hard not to be annoyed by today's 20-somethings: the hipsters. With the preening of civil war-era beards, the banjo music, and eschewing modernity while chained to social media; they're a tough group to like- no different from any elder assessing the newest crop of "kids." But there is one thing I would like to thank them for and that is the "authenticity" they seek in wine.
It's glorious for wine nerds everywhere that millennial wine drinkers are more adventurous than generations past and that they insist on something different. According to Nielsen data, millennials are drinking more wine than the rest of us did in our 20's, and they're drinking very different wine, actively seeking out obscure or hyper-regional wines. California cabernet is a bore, chardonnay a complete yawn, and don't even try to suggest a pinot grigio (puh-leese! *rolls eyes). Young people today would rather roll the dice on a Txakoli from the Basque region of Spain than the latest iteration of sauvignon blanc. They'll also tell you all about how this crisp, sometimes fizzy white wine is perfect with the grilled fish, cured meats, and tapas dishes so popular in Northern Spain. They might also tell you that the Basque have been making this wine since the 1500's when much of their Celtic-influenced mythology was being appropriated to fit into Roman Christian folklore- and this is pretty much where hipsters loose their audience.
However, thanks to them and their interest in the undiscovered gems of the wine world, the rest of us can find more and more interesting stuff because buyers will now have it on the shelves. Now, the grapes we've never heard of which are steeped in culture and tradition are all the rage thanks to the young bearded ones. Lucky for us, right? But wait, there's more.
Of course, identifying "authentic" wine could devolve into hours of philosophical discussion and is one I relish yet have no one willing to take me up on it. Authenticity can be subjective. For some it can mean minimal manipulation or processing by human beings. For others, authenticity could mean a wine based on centuries of tradition and culture. Still others may qualify anything not mass produced as more authentic.
the next time you're entertaining young wine fans- or anyone with a beard.
Charles Joguet Chinon, Franc de Pied- Chinon is an appellation in Loire, France known for its cabernet franc. It's single-vineyard and the vineyard is tiny at 1 hectare (2.47 acres). What makes it so great is that it was planted in 1982 with vines that were not grafted onto American rootstock. This is incredibly rare because almost all the vines in Europe make use of American roots and have done so ever since it was discovered that our roots are naturally resistant to phylloxera, a devastating aphid which killed off almost half France's vines in the 1800's. So this is wine made from grapes grown on 100% French cabernet franc vines. The vineyard is susceptible to phylloxera, for which there still is no cure, which decimates yield. Plus, Joguet will only release wines in years he deems worthy of bottling so the rareness factor here is great.
Barone Pizzini Nature Franciacorta: Everyone knows Prosecco as Italy's bubbly, but few are acquainted with Franciacorta. Comparing the two is a bit of a disservice to Franciacorta which is truly world-class sparkling wine. No offense to Prosecco, of course, but they are completely different wines, made differently from different grapes. While Prosecco gets its bubbles in a tank, Franciacorta is made the same way Champagne is, with the secondary bubble-producing fermentation taking place in the bottle. The grapes are chardonnay, pinot noir (nero in Italy), and a bit of pinot bianco; as opposed to mainly glera in Prosecco. According to the Franciacorta wine consortium, sparkling wine was made in the area since the 16th century for local consumption, but it wasn't until a 1960's revival that interest in the area's sparkling wines became a realistic business possibility. Almost as interesting as the wine; the name Franciacorta has its own, slightly unclear history. First used to describe the area near Brescia in 1277, Frainciacorta is believed by some to be a combination of Francia (France) and Cotre (court) named for the presence of the French king Charles 1 of Naples who stayed there with his troops in the 13th century. Others believe the name is from the time Clunaic monks lived in the area and enjoyed tax-free status: the name being a corruption of the words "francae" meaning taxes, and "curtes" meaning communes. If you do try a Franciacorta, Barone Pizzini is a tre-bicchieri award winner from the prestigious Italian wine guide called "Gambero Rosso." Bonus: it's organic, so it fits that definition of "authentic" as well.
What's Going on When Wine is Aging?
I have a gray hair. Ok, four. I spotted four glistening silver strands the other day in unforgiving light in a restroom to which I will never return. While on the phone making a hair appointment a nanosecond later, my thoughts turned to wine, as they often do, and I thought about me getting older versus wine getting older. Aging is celebrated in wine, but what exactly happens to it as it does so? The tally of my years was staring at me in the mirror; four gray hairs, a wrinkle or two, reading glasses, and afuller figure thanks to middle-aged metabolism. Is it so obvious for wine as well?
Wine is the only beverage that, once bottled, improves with age. But not all wine gets better. Some need to be consumed within a year or two; most rosés, all "nouveau" wines released within six months of harvest, jug wines, and almost all entry-level wines (under $20) are made to be consumed pretty quickly.
But many of the great wines improve after relaxing in the cellar a while, a few almost require it. Barolo, from Italy's Piedmont region is the best example of wine that must age. A two year old will strip the enamel off your teeth while a 15 year old could have you considering an investment in several cases.
Surprisingly, little is known about what happens in the bottle as wine ages. We do know that chemical reactions cause polymers and phenolic particles (which are leeched out of the skins during red winemaking) to cling together into little solids called sediment. When these particles settle out of the wine and into the base of the bottle they take some of the bluish-red color from the wine, making it appear more brick-red with a faint brown halo around the upper edge of the pour which you can see when you tilt the glass against a white backdrop. This sediment is believed to be partially responsible for pulling out some of the more harsh tannins leading to a smoother mouthfeel; making way for the other flavors in the wine to shine.
It's kind of like being at a party with that one crazy rowdy guy who, while fun, is a bit much so everyone looks forward to him inevitably passing out. The trick is getting him topass out at the right time.
Wine will age faster if you store it in warmer conditions, but it doesn't age better. In fact, the slower a wine matures in the bottle, the more complex the flavor. The more tannic and heavy the wine the longer it can age. Bordeaux, Barolo, Barbaresco, and some mountain-grown California cabernet sauvignon can age up to 25 years comfortably. Merlot, pinot noir, Rioja, and syrah/shiraz can age on average 4-10 years, while grenache, gamay, and zinfandel might start to fade after 5-6 years. These aren't hard-and-fast rules and vintage has an impact on a wine's longevity, too.
Adding to the unpredictability of aging wine, there is a period when the wine "goes mute." After bottling, any time from several months to a few years, the wine enters a phase in which it tastes like almost nothing. It's enough to make a person cry. Ok, me cry. I cried. I'd held on to a bottle of Brunello for about 5 years and opened it with a spectacular dinner I'd prepared and the wine was just not there. It tasted like thinned pomegranate juice steeped with chalk. There is no scientific explanation for this behavior, sort of like there's no real reason the rowdy party guy I mentioned earlier would sit down and cry on the couch before he passes out, but it happens. Unpredictably. and heartbreakingly.
White wine is also capable of aging and generally the best whites to age are those with the greatest acidity; Chablis, chenin blanc, and riesling being the sturdiest old-timers. But what little is known about the processes of red wine aging, even less in known about whites. They become a bit more brown as they age, or "honeyed" as some like to say, which is more of a flavor term than appearance. But that may also be an apt description for some whites whose acidity recedes to the background allowing fruit flavors to come forward- and since fruitiness tends to trick the tongue into thinking it's tasting sweetness, "honeyed" makes sense.
I suppose the aging of wine isn't too far afield from the aging of people. Sure it doesn't sprout gray hair (except in the dankest of cellars) but it does undergo subtle, inner transformations that lead to greatness. Like wine, people are all so very different, maturing at different rates, going through moody phases, and settling out the rough edges of sediment. Aging isn't so bad for us either, I guess.
The magical red wine of Sardegna, which will make you healthier than people living in zones that are not blue; behold, Cannonau.
Here is an article I wrote back in January in honor of those who make resolutions. How are you doing on yours? I'm pleased to report I have succeeded in drinking a lot of wine.
As this is the month of making and breaking new years resolutions, I though I might present a wine for the health nut. Cannonau, a red wine grape from the island of Sardinia, is considered healthy (in moderation!) by the people behind the "Blue Zones" project. It is consumed in small doses, 3 ounces each, several times throughout the day by a population that boasts more men over 100 years old than anywhere else in the world. It should be noted that these are people who eat about 1000 times the veggies most Americans do, and keep their stress level about 2000 times lower than ours. These are not actual statistics, but imagine a world in which several little glasses of wine are sprinkled throughout the work day. Stress? What stress?
So why cannonau and not vermentino, the island's white wine? Scientists point to resveratrol, a phenolic compound found in the skins of the grape. When red wine is made, the juice sits on the skins for longer, thus extracting more resveratrol. There have been thousands of studies that show resveratrol preforming heroic feats such as protecting the inner layer of arteries to prevent heart disease, reducing inflammation, even preventing cancer cell replication. Nevermind that the lab mice are given resveratrol in concentrations equivalent to a human drinking a hundred bottles of wine a day. Disclaimer: please don't try that.
Cannonau allegedly has more resveratrol than other varieties. However, I cannot for the life of me find evidence of this. If you do, please let me know. Most studies say pinot noir has the highest amount of resveratrol, depending on where it's grown and how it's made. Malbec scores high, as does petite sirah. Malbec because of it's thick skins, and petite sirah because of it's small berries and high skin-to-juice ratio. Thin-skinned and disease-prone pinot noir likely tops the list since resveratrol is produced in the vine naturally to defend against fungus and rot.
But let me get back to Sardinia's cannonau, which is all but forgotten in scientific resveratrol research. The grape goes by grenache in France and garnacha in Spain. It's spread through the western Mediterranean was likely due to the expansion of the Aragon empire in the 1400's which once held all the major wine growing regions now dominated by grenache/garnacha/cannonau. It's a dry red wine that tastes noticeably different when produced in different places. In Sardinia it is spicy and bold, very dry and medium bodied making it a good pairing with the island's ubiquitous vegetable dishes and garlicky fava beans. Spanish garnacha is decidedly more fruit-forward and a bit rounder on the palate. This is where the variety originated, so it's made in a number of styles throughout the country; from the concentrated style favored in the Priorat region to the tannic wines of Navarra. In France, it is the most planted grape in the Rhone valley where it's blended into a number of different styles, the most luscious of which being Chateaneuf-du-Pape.
One of my favorite producers of Sardinian cannonau is Renato Spanu whose brand, Jankara, is a labor of love. His vineyards are on a spot of land in Gallura that he admired since he was young working alongside his grandfather in the fields near his home. When he was able to, he bought that land, planted his vermentino vines, and has been making the best, most traditional Sardinian wines ever since. His cannonau is dry, spicy, and a true experssion of what this grape becomes on this island off the west coast of Italy.
Syltbar is named for a vacation destination island in Germany which is depicted in gold on the bottle.
This column was in the paper the day before Thanksgiving; thus the "standing on the precipice" part. Still, this Syltbar Prosecco is pretty darn good for so few calories.
This is it, people. We stand today on the precipice of the official holiday season which is known the world over for its blatant disregard for diets. Forget moderation. It's go-big-or-go-home time and it begins with Thanksgiving. There will be office parties, school socials, family gatherings, cookies, cakes, and all manner of savory delights for the next 5-6 weeks. Next to all that food, if you're lucky, there will be wine.
As a professional glutton, I've become aware of a little secret about that wine, innocently offering refreshment between bites of mashed potatoes, sausage & cornbread stuffings, pecan pie. This traitorous beverage contains calories. What? Yes. Life can be so unfair. We just have to accept it and move on.
Here's the break down. Calories in wine come from sugar and alcohol. Higher alcohol means more calories. More sugar means more calories. However a gram of alcohol brings 7 calories while a gram of sugar is only 4 calories. So a sweet, low alcohol riesling could conceivably clock fewer calories than a bone-dry cabernet with 15-17% alcohol. I have found calorie counts on wine from 160 calories per 5 ounces of California zinfandel to 120 for 5 ounces of Burgundian pinot noir.
At the low end of the spectrum, Prosecco and other sparkling wines wear the little wire crowns for having the lowest calorie count with only about 85-90 calories per five ounce pour thanks to their low alcohol content (around 11%) and low residual sugar.
And then comes along a low-cal Prosecco called Syltbar. Typically anything low-fat or low-cal has me running in the opposite direction, but the gravitational pull of wine made me check it out at a recent trade tasting. The impossibly stylish and beautiful owners of Syltbar, Claus and Regina Blohm, were there to share the story of their wine. "It is lower in calories because of an additional fermentation we do," Claus said.
"How many fewer are we talking here?" I asked, eying the bottle suspiciously.
So naturally I expected to hate it.
But Spanx be my witness, it was great. Really. I loved it and I'm not just saying that because I want (need) to like something with fewer calories. It was light and refreshing with the characteristic green apple and floral aromas for which Prosecco is famous. I looked up at the Blohms and they could tell by my eyebrows' position near my hairline that I was surprised and impressed. Their patient and smiling nods showed they've seen this response many times from wine buyers and taste makers far up the food chain from little ol' me. Syltbar is in the Ritz-Carlton, Nobu, Morimoto Sushi Bar, Capital Grill, the InterContinental, Breakers, the Biltmore, Wolfgang's Steakhouse, Bern's, pretty much every one of the most desirable wine lists in South Florida. These are not people who will put something on their list just because it's low-cal. It truly is good, and the bonus is it's really low cal.
I've seen other entire lines dedicated to advertising low calorie counts but they're usually only 10 calories lower than normal wines which are almost always 5 times better in every other aspect. Thus my early skepticism.
It's tempting to think sommeliers and wine writers relish seeking out the most obscure little wines and teeny winemaking regions simply to feed their superiority complex, and while that may be true of some I'd like to point out that we're not all like that. I'll make my case with the region of Alsace, France. It's a place that everyone who's into wine knows about and almost no one who isn't into wine notices. It sits on the eastern edge of the map of France sharing a border with Germany and Switzerland and has been quietly producing great wine through all the shifts from German to French rule. That wine has recently become a wine media darling and is often cited as the perfect accompaniment to a Thanksgiving feast.
If you're rolling your eyes, I understand. French? German? C'mon! Can you get any more esoteric?
Fear not- while I can, I won't.
Alsace is possibly France's easiest region to understand.
First, the approachability level is boosted by the fact that it's wine is almost always varietally labeled, meaning it's named after the grape it's made from. Riesling is riesling and gewürztraminer is gewürztraminer.
More than 90% of the wine is white and the only red is pinot noir.
Alsace is pronounces Al's (as in Al Bundy's) - zass, with the emphasis on the last syllable. If something is from Alsace it's called Alsatian (al-SAY-shun; rhymes with Dalmatian).
Riesling. You must set aside all memory of mass-produced sweet German plonk from the '80's and know that riesling from Alsace is almost exclusively done-dry. The style of food in this part of the world is rib-sticking Franco-German fare which benefits from a straight-forward, fruity yet dry wine. Mashed potatoes and gravy, anyone?
Gewürztraminer. Slightly less dry, this grape has low acidity and beautiful fruit-forwardness with a bit of a topical floral bouquet. Think jasmine scented lychees. When made poorly it might remind you of big, billowy pirate shirts on the cover of Harlequin romance novels; just too much. But when made well, it is a definite crowd pleaser and fabulous with all things Thanksgiving.
Pinot gris: The grey pinot, so named for it's pinkish skin, makes a more acidic white wine than gewürztraminer with spicy stone fruit flavors. It's sort of a middle road between the dry riesling and fruity gewurz (which is what wine dorks like to call gewürztraminer- connoting a friendly familiarity- like calling a Ronald Ron or a Julie Jules- which is not recommended).
Muscat: With a name synonymous with sweet fruity wine, muscat from Alsace is often misunderstood, just like riesling. It is actually dry here, low in acidity, and actually tastes like fresh grapes, an ironic rarity in wine. It'll be great with the ginger cranberry compote.
Sylvaner: A make now/drink now kind of wine, sylvaner reminds one of flowery citrusy perfume. It's got decent acidity and a little bitterness which will make it a perfect pair for cornbread stuffings.
Pinot blanc: The white pinot could be better known as the quaffer. It is lean and acidic without much of the Alsatian perfume and spice, making it an unobtrusive accompaniment to many flavors. I'd use this in place of water for the holidays, but that's just me.
Auxerrois and chasselas: You don't see these grapes on many labels, but it is often blended into pinot blanc to add some spice and fruitiness. They are also part of the region's cheep date called Edelzwicker which means "noble blend," and as its name implies, it is a blend. Nobility is in the eye of the beholder so I'll let you be the judge if you happen upon a bottle.
One of the greatest things you will discover in Alsace are the cremants- these are the sparkling wines. Good sparklers made anywhere in France other than Champagne are called cremant de (insert region here). The cremant d'Alsace wines are made in the same way Champagne is made, with a second fermentation in the bottle, and it is known for a fine mousse. As opposed to Champagne, Alsace producers rely heavily on the local workhorse pinot blanc, blending in any of the grapes I've mentioned above. The rosé cremant d'Alsace mush be made entirely from pinot noir. Usually produced dry, my favorite is a white cremant from a producer called Meyer-Fonne which is usually around $19-23.
So the next time a wine nerd like myself goes on and on about Alsace, be sure to correct their pronunciation, call gewürztraminer "gewurz" (because you guys go way back) and note how brilliantly the region's wines complimented your Thanksgiving feast, because honestly, they will.
Me: I'm glad you all could make it to the meeting today. We need to go over a game plan because as you know the holiday season is upon us and you're all an important part of keeping everything festive.
Chardonnay: Hold up there, missy. There's a lot more going on over here. Just because the oaky-buttery thing is out of style doesn't mean Chardonnay can't handle her own. They're making me a lot lighter these days and I go great with all the holiday foods.
Me: True, Chard, but we have a lot of other players on our team. Rhone?
Me: I'm going to lean on you three on Thanksgiving so be chilled and ready.
Pinot Noir: (interrupts) Really? Are you suggesting Beaujolais Nouveau?
Gamay: Well, it's there and it's cheap and I'm not saying it's my best expression; Cru Beaujolais is more the face I'd like to put forward at gatherings like this, but if there's any plan for sangria or mass quantities, I just want to put Nouveau out there. It's timely and celebratory.
Me: Ok, guys. Let's not get heated- you know how bad that is for you.
Merlot: Yes, let's keep our cool. I've been snubbed ever since that "Sideways" movie so I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of negative press.
Cabernet Sauvignon: I don't know what that's like personally, but I imagine it leaves a nasty taste....like sour grapes?
Merlot: Funny, Cab. But really, it's given me time to regroup and now I'm better than ever- I'm being planted only where I should be now and overall my quality has improved exponentially.
Cabernet Sauvignon: True, and it's so cool to blend with you these days. Don't you love hanging out with Petite Verdot and all the other guys? Red blends are so trendy...I was getting bored being saved for steak all the time.
Me: You're right, Cab, and we'll be bringing in some blends for the red fans at parties since they're so approachable. And bubbles? Where are the bubbles?
Zinfandel: They're all up in the 45 degree section in case of unannounced guests- but we've got them on speaker phone.
Me: Cava, Prosecco, Franciacorta, Brachetto, Asti, we're going to need all of you and the Cremants from France, too. Everyone needs to be ready for anything and I admire your dedication to staying cool. Good work.
Me: New Year's is your night, but be ready all season. I'm going to need the little 187ml and 375ml bottles in the crisper drawer for the next few months for bubbles-on-demand, ok?
Me: Kosher crew? We've got a solid eight days to plan for Hanukkah, and you've all come a long way from the Manischewitz days. We have a lot to choose from; many are award winners. I'm lookin' at you, Hagafen cellars- so let's show what we can do in early December.
Kosher wines: We're ready all the time, you know. Not just for holidays.
Me: Good point, and you're delicious so be ready all season.
Sauvignon Blanc: I'm ready for the seven-fishes Christmas Eve thing- you want California this year, right?
Me: Yes. And for Christmas day it's an all-play; everyone will be on offer all day, but we'll need Syrah at the table for the prime rib.
I'm ready! Maybe my bros can come too? Like, Grenache and Mourvedre from back in Chareauneuf-du-Pape?
Me: Sure. They'll fit right in. Ok, we've got a plan, everyone. Now just lay on your sides, keep your corks wet, and stay cool. It's going to be a great holiday season.
I welcome comments and questions at juliewriteswine@gmail.com. You can see more of my writing at www.julieglenn.com, and can connect with me on Facebook and on Twitter @mouthfeeler.
Diane de Putymorin was also in town last month to introduce her flagship label, Chateau d'Or et de Gueules. Her more affordable and widely recognizable label called Domaine de la Petite Cassagne is already successful here, so now she's bringing her slightly more expensive, yet still totally affordable second-tier wine to town.
Chateau d'Or et de Gueules rosé will retail between $15-$17 and brings a bouquet of fruit to the palate. Made from 40% grenache, 30% cinsault, and 30% mourvedre this wine hails from de Putymorin's southern Rhone vineyard just outside of Nimes. The hot climate of the area means the regional style of wine is fresh and light, and this rosé is definitely a refresher. Elegant and flowery, the palate is more citrusy than berry and the finish is longer lasting than her Cassagne bottling.
The red blend in this line is 60% syrah, 30% carignan, and 10% grenache and is also refreshing with little tannin, yet full body. It is a great pair for backyard winter grilling in Naples and will be an easy crowd-pleaser priced $19- $23.
There I was, minding my own in the driver's seat after picking up my daughter from Pre-K when her sweet, innocent voice came from the back seat.
"Um...mom," she built herself up.
Unprepared, I said something about being from Florida - even though I knew she sought a more biological answer - and luckily something else caught her attention before she redoubled her inquiry. Whew. With that discussion tabled, my mind quickly wandered to wine.
Turns out merlot is the offspring of cabernet franc and a decorative grapevine from Brittany named madeleine. It's named after a local black bird called "merlau" who would eat the grapes off the vine before winemakers had a chance to harvest.
In Italian "merlo" also means blackbird, and its namesake grape merlot has been an important part of northern Italian and Tuscan winemaking for hundreds of years.
The first time I saw an Italian merlot I thought it was an attempt to capitalize on the well-recognized French varietal name. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Maculan makes a number of wines from traditionally Italian verietals as well as French named grapes. Angela Maculan will be in Naples this Friday at a small, intimate tasting at Osteria Tulia where tasters will work their way through six wines including a chardonnay, a cabernet sauvignon, and a cab/merlot blend that scored 94 points with the Wine Advocate.
While most wine grapes have clearly branded points of origin (sangiovese = Tuscany, pinot noir = Burgundy, sauvignon blanc = Sancerre) there is value in trying these wines when made in different places. While cabernet sauvignon was born in a Bordeaux vineyard (to parents cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc) it has done quite well in its travels to Napa, Australia, and Chile.
This season the Wine Merchant in North Naples will offer a series of tastings featuring a given grape grown in numerous locations. Trying side-by-side pinot noirs grown in Oregon, New Zealand, Burgundy, and Sonoma will be an interesting study of the impact of geography.
For more on the Wine Merchant's tasting series, call 239-592-0000.
To learn more about the Maculan tasting at Osteria Tulia, call 239-213-2073.
If you've ever driven highway 29 up the Napa Valley, you've likely seen the Merryvale Vineyards building right across the street from everyone's favorite hangover spot (I mean burger shack) Gott's Roadside Grill (neé Taylor's Refresher). The ubiquitous mortared wall has stood on the side of that road since the 1930's. It was operated as a co-op for a while, then as storage for Christian Brothers, and eventually the winery was sold to Bill Harlan in 1986. In 1991 Swiss businessman and realtor Jack Schlatter invested to become a partner and eventually bought 100% of the winery in 1996.
Since then the newly-minted Napa Valley wine family from Switzerland saw the business convulse through a recession or two, but thanks to the Schlatters' continued investment in pursuing excellence, Americans' growing love for wine, and Merryvale's historic pedigree, the brand has not only survived but thrived.
Evidence of the winery's continued evolution is its newest label called Forward Kidd, which René Schlatter was in town to present to buyers last week. Named for two types of soil present in Napa Valley (Forward Gravelly Loam and Kidd Loam) the wine is an elevation of the current trend of red blends with big fruit and a softer appeal.
The largest percentage of the Forward Kidd blend is petit verdot, a black grape variety once grown on a much larger scale in Bordeaux. Transplanted to California, the grape enjoys the warmer climate and the long mild growing season of the 2012 vintage brought out it's rich, spicy side. It makes up 30% of the blend; the other grapes ranking in the bottle are cabernet sauvignon (25%), merlot (20%), malbec (20%), syrah (3%), and petite sirah (2%).
On the palate it is softer than a big cabernet sauvignon, but it is by no means a wimp. There are bold flavors of ripe cherry, some raspberry jam and baking spices. The tannins are soft which makes it a perfect companion to fillet or other lower-fat beef. It will also drink well without food, as long as you like a mouthful because this wine is not shy. Up front fruit will make it a perfect upgrade for people following the red blend trend, and challenge them to experience a much more complex expression of fruit and spice (retail price $50-55).
While evolving and adding news blends, Merryvale continues tradition with its signature red blend called "Profile." The just released 2012 vintage sports upgraded packaging with the profiles of René Schlatter and his wife, Laurence seemingly carved into the label.
Every year, Profile is made up of the best wine grapes the estate has and in 2012 the blend turned out to be 85% cabernet sauvignon and 15% petite verdot. To call this wine big would be like calling Trump confident. Major understatement. Huge. It's a massive wine with piles of black fruit flavor; but it's complexity lies in the floral and cedar aromas that combine with broad-shouldered tannins and unifying oak notes. It needs to be decanted now since it's just a baby, and can easily lay down in your cellar (if you can stand the temptation) for up to 10 years, although I suspect it will continue to develop even longer (retail price around $200).
Vermouth has gotten a bad rap, but the days of maligning this fortified wine are coming to an end thanks to the revival of traditional cocktails and a new-found love of artisinal producers.
Yes, I know vermouth is usually categorized with the hard stuff and it languishes in the liquor cabinet with the rest of the big boys, but therein lies part of the problem. Vermouth is wine based and should be kept in the refrigerator. That bottle that's been collecting dust next to the sloe gin and chambord since 1985 probably tastes terrible. No wonder martini drinkers scoff at it in favor of iced gin or vodka.
Spiced and fortified wines have been around since the before the Romans. The ancient Greeks were flavoring wine with all manner of spices including wormwood as an aid to digestive ailments.
The presence of wormwood (Wermuth in German) was a key selling point for early vermouth as a medical curative for gastric issues. French royalty loved it, calling it vermutwein, and eventually its name was Anglicised to vermouth.
Many of the botanicals originally prized for vermouth were found in the alps which run along the northern border of Piedmont. These include hysop, quina bark, rose petals, chamomile, elderflower, thyme, and gentain to name a few. This is why the major industrial producers, Cinzano and Martini & Rossi, are based in that area.
The dawn of cocktails boosted vermouth's popularity worldwide. It went from medicinal elixr to mixer in a New York minute.
It comes in three major types: sweet (which is red), dry (which is clear), and Bianco or Blanc (which is also clear but not as dry or bitter).
While the sweet and dry are staple ingredients in Manhattans and martinis, the bianco/blanc should not be dismissed. When it's hot outside and I want something with ice, I fill a tumbler with white vermouth add some cubes and top it with a slice of orange or lemon. My favorite brand is Dolin blanc Vermouth de Chambery which is from France's only AOC (appellation d'origine contrôlée) for vermouth. It is only slightly bitter, very herbal, and just sweet enough. Dolin has been making vermouth since 1821 and they still use up to 50 botanicals with their local fortified wine, which sets them apart from most major producers who tend to use extracts and pre-made infusions rather than actual plants.
Another newcomer to the Florida market (it arrives sometime this month) is La Quintinye Vermouth Royale. I was able to try it and there is a more pronounced spice and cardamom throughout the line, which is also made using real botanicals.
I'm not sure when it happened, but wine tastings have devolved into a contact sport. There's the impenetrable wall of backs at the tasting table through which you must snake. Then there's the guy who won't take a breath as he delivers a monologue about his latest trip to Napa; the person pouring the wine trying to smile and nod while surreptitiously reaching over to pour you an ounce of wine. Then there's the person behind you who thinks it's a wine "drinking" who's tasted everything five times and stumbles into your shoulder, nudging your aloft glass just enough to put your wrist in the stream of Cabernet. Apologies spill from everyone's mouth and you assure them that it's quite alright. No really, it's fine.
These kinds of wine tastings remind me of the mosh pits of my college days, only more polite with better drinks.
Thank goodness the independent wine shops in Naples are raising the bar. Many are now offering better, more educational, interactive wine tastings by people like Tara O'Leary, a Champagne specialist for Moet Hennessy USA. She recently led a guided tasting of her portfolio's Champagne at Bleu Provence.
"Ruinart is the oldest Champagne house commercially producing sparkling wines; since 1729," she tells about thirty wine lovers who have before them a sampling of Ruinart blanc de blanc and brut rosé. Pictures of vineyards, cellars, and maps of Champagne, France fade in and out on the screen behind her.
This is the first in a series of guided wine tastings planed by Jacques Cariot, owner of Bleu Provence.
To properly taste Champagne, you are supposed to take a sip and then push it with your tongue towards the roof of your mouth. This way you feel all the tiny bubbles and your tongue really accesses all the flavors in the wine.
Champagne houses make still wine from pinot noir, chardonnay, meunier, and a few other grapes (only those allowed by law) then they blend the still wine together, bottle it, and allow the second fermentation which brings the bubbles.
Dom Perignon never uses meunier grapes- always chardonnay and pinot noir. Conversely, Krug is famous for using this dark varietal liberally.
Cariot says he plans to host a series of educational, guided wine tastings. The next one is not planned yet, but the best way to remain informed is to sign up for their e-newsletter at bleuprovence.com, or call 239-261-8239.
Plan on pairing a hearty syrah with your burger, or a spicy all-American zinfandel with your ribs? These and other fuller-bodied reds show best at 60-65 degrees. Achieve this by putting your bottle in the refrigerator for 40-45 minutes.
For lighter reds like dolcetto, grenache, Beaujolais, or some pinot noir you'll want to chill them a bit more, down to 50-60 degrees; an hour to an hour and a half in the fridge.
More complex white wines like chardonnay, viognier, sauvignon blanc, Champagne and Oregon pinot gris could stand a solid two hours in the refrigerator to get down to 45-50 degrees.
Simple whites like vinho verde, non-vintage sparkling, or easy-drinking pinot grigio can be served as cold as 40-45 degrees (3 hours chilling). They could bob in the ice bucket with the beers and sodas if you want.
I like to think of temperature and wine like this: would you like a bowl of ice cream completely melted and at room temperature? No. Why? It's too sweet. But no one added sugar to it. When things are warmer we can taste more, especially sweetness. Giving your reds a little chill while you grill will give your wine some modesty. You'll be able to sense the wine's complexity which would otherwise have been buried beneath wide-open fruit and hot alcohol.
Conversely, over-chilling a wine will make any flavor inaccessible to your palate, so if you forget a bottle in the refrigerator or it spends too much time in the ice bath with the beer, set it out on your lanai for about one minute and it'll warm right up.
The most well-known family in the pantheon of wine grapes is the pinot family. Named for the pine cone-like appearance of it's grape clusters, the pinot dynasty stretches back millennia and is believed to be one of the most ancient grapes on record. Like any family, they're a diverse and colorful bunch. Allow me to introduce you.
Pinot noir is the patriarch who reigns from the Burgundy region in eastern France where he has been the undisputed king of red since gamay was kicked out in the late 14th century. He also contributes to the bubbles of the Champagne region. A world traveler, he goes by pinot nero in Italy and spatburgunder in Germany, but he uses his French name in Oregon and California where he's redefined himself as a fuller fruitier kind of guy than his European self. Mr. Noir is easy to get along with since he's low on tannin, but in cooler climates his acidity rises making him more of a foodie.
Pinot blanc is a stately matriarch who was first observed in Burgundy but has since found her French home in Alsace where she is vinified as a still or sparkling wine. As a still wine pinot blanc is full bodied, high in acidity, and brings aromas of flowers and peaches. As a sparkler, she's called Cremant d'Alsace which is a refreshing and affordable dry apperitivo. Italians call her pinot bianco where the best examples are grown in the northern Alto Adige region. Here, pinot bianco is best vinified in stainless steel so her dainty characteristics can shine.
Pinot gris is the eldest daughter of the family and is bit of an over-achiever. Captain of the Italian white wine cheerleading squad, little miss grigio has become the most popular mutation of pinot noir. Gris and grigio mean grey, referring to the grey-ish blue to dull pink color of the grapes. The wine can be rose if the juice is allowed contact with the grape skins during winemaking, but mostly it is made white. Like any over-achiever, mass production can cause a dilution in quality and unfortunately an anti-pinot grigio backlash contingent would compare her flavor to water. But when produced well and in smaller quantities, pinot grigio can be a bright, lively and richly aromatic dry wine with moderate acidity and tropical fruitiness.
Pinot meunier is the brooding younger brother who often likes to drop the pinot part of his name. Dressed all in black, this grape sports a downy peach-fuzz on his leaves making him easy to identify. He grows in the Champagne region of France and is blended with chardonnay and pinot noir to lend fruitiness to the worlds most famous sparklers. While Meunier accounts for 40% of the regions' plantings, few Champagne houses claim to rely heavily on this grape in their blend with the notable exception of Krug. As a stand alone made into a still red wine, Meunier is a bit jammy and low on tannins.
As I walked into a Greek wine seminar at FGCU a few weeks back, I couldn't help but wonder; what happened to Greek wine? I mean, Greece invented wine culture. It was the required beverage at philosophical discussions which brought us democracy, stoicism, and the Socratic method. The Greeks introduced wine to Egypt. They vinified Europe. So what happened? Where did Greek wine go?
The host of this seminar, Greek wine importer Ted Diamantis of Chicago based Diamond Importers, Inc. says it's been there all along, just at varying levels of success. "Greek wine is currently having its renaissance," he says, "It's an exciting time now, but history was not always on Greek wine's side." As the rest of Europe was enjoying its renaissance, Greece was under Ottoman rule, which wasn't particularly wine-friendly. Later, after World War Two, cities swelled and vines were left untended when Greeks abandoned the agricultural life for prosperous city jobs. But now going back to the land is in vogue and Greece's new wine movement has revived long forgotten varietals for the wine world to rediscover.
My favorite is Domaine Sigalas' assyrtiko from the island of Santorini. Almost nothing grows on this windswept pile of volcanic ash where temperatures often top 100 and only 8 inches of rain fall per year. The vines are trained into little round spirals which create a basket to protect the grapes from brutal elements, making it one of the most expensive cultivations in the world. Still, the resultant wine is only around $20 and brings a nose of lemon merengue with a bright, minerally palate. Use it in place of Sauvignon Blanc and say goodbye to grassy grapefruit and hello to rich tropical notes along with lean acidity.
In the reds the grape xinomavro is interesting in that, like Piedmont's nebbiolo, it has four seeds rather than the usual two which adds to its tannic punch. It would rush to sugar-ripeness with too much heat, so at Alpha Estate in northwestern Greece it's planted at a 2600 foot elevation to prolong its hang-time. The wine is floral and herbaceous on the nose to the degree of smelling of incense. On the palate it is slightly viscous with tart blueberry flavors, earthiness, and long tannins. Alpha Estate xinomavro retails around $30.
Both are distributed locally- if you don't see it on the shelf, it can usually be special ordered.
There is no place in the world that can compete with Naples in terms of its wine scene.
I once owned a wine shop in a midwestern town where I never met a winemaker, saw a salesperson only occasionally, and was thrilled if they ever brought a sample bottle.
My first day selling wine in Florida I had a bag of six sample bottles and their creator, Napa winemaker Bob Broman in the car with me.
And now, eight years later, I get to write about it for the Naples Daily News.
This is the first of what will be a weekly column featuring everything about wine. I will talk grapes, regions, business, events, personalities, history, and most importantly taste. Before I expect you to take my word on anything wine related, let me tell you a bit about myself.
Professionally I began as a TV news reporter and anchor in Quincy, Illinois where I befriended a wonderful French woman whose wine shop became my second home. She and her husband were responsible for shaping my 20-something appreciation for the culture and history of wine as my taste gradually progressed from Riesling to Barolo.
I left TV news to go to Italy and earn a master's degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. I studied the history, culture, economics and evolution of traditional food products. My wine professor was Jancis Robinson. It was my favorite subject.
After that glorious year I returned to the US to begin my freelance writing career. Starting over always takes a while, so I picked up a wine sales job which was an education in itself. Driving up and down US 41, I learned volumes about the business of this most romanticized commodity. I chatted about winemaking with dozens of international winemakers, brainstormed pricing strategies with importers, and crafted wine lists with restaurant entrepreneurs. Of course, I tasted thousands of wines.
It's said that one learns by doing, and that's what I did; but I am by no means finished learning. In this column I will take readers on a journey of discovery about wine that will not intimidate the newbie, nor bore the aficionado.
I welcome comments and questions at juliewriteswine@gmail.com. you can see more of my writing at www.julieglenn.com, and can connect with me on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Glenn/154259314643131) and on twitter @mouthfeeler.
A beautiful line-up of 2007 California.
I was recently lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when a group of enthusiastic (and generous) wine collectors popped the corks on eleven different 2007 California Cabernet Sauvignons from their cellars. All but one rated above 90 and one, the Shafer Hillside Select, earned 100 points. It was a glorious thing. But it got me thinking....does vintage really make that much of a difference? And is it important for every-day wine?
What makes a vintage famously good is the weather. Overcast, rainy growing seasons are bad. Average or slightly warmer temperatures leading to an earlier harvest make better vintage years, like 2007. However, good winemakers and vineyard managers can make great wine out of bad years, particularly if the vineyard in question has deep, well drained soil. A good vintage can elevate the good wines to great, and the mediocre wines to good. A bad vintage tests the skills of everyone but knowing the producer and the microclimate can help the buyer make a more sound investment in wines to open over the next couple of decades.
But does vintage mean anything for that bottle I'd rate 100 points simply because it is in the right place (my fridge) at the right time (when I want it) and costs less than $20?
Yes and no. The vast majority of wines, particularly in the non-collector budget arena are meant to be consumed relatively quickly and are not meant to be aged. They are vinified to be ready to drink within 30 minutes of purchase- which is the average ageing time of 98% of wines purchased these days. If you happen upon a $12 Cabernet from 2002, it may be drinkable, but it's likely old stock. Likewise for the $3.99 sale bin 2005 Pinot Grigio that is the color of sweet tea-although that may not be drinkable.
For daily-drinking reds look for the winery's current release vintage. For whites, the younger the better and don't buy inexpensive whites that are more than a few years old. For investment wines, check the internet for a vintage chart of the wine region you want to buy, and get a deal on a case. Hold them like Kenny Rogers for a couple of years, then start trying a bottle every once in a while.
As a wine nut and an avid horoscope devour-er it seems natural I'd make some correlations. I began my series on the Zodiac of wine grapes a few months ago in my column for the Fort Myers News-Press and thought I'd share them here. First up is Virgo, which bears a striking resemblance in attitude and structure to Cabernet Franc.
To see other Zodiac signs and their varietal match click here.
I love wine, obviously, and I love the grapes so much I feel like they have their own little personalities. They're almost as predictable as the signs of the zodiac. For example if Virgo were a wine grape it would be Cabernet Franc. Virgos are hard to get to know, coming across as stoic perfectionists with a cool calm exterior. But when you delve deeper you find a hard-working, loyal friend who in spite of the placid demeanor can be filled with nervous energy. They work very well in groups as they don't demand the spotlight but can excel independently because they expect so much from themselves.
Likewise, Cabernet Franc has supported and rounded out Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (Franc's love-child with Sauvignon Blanc) for centuries in Bordeaux. But when devoted winemakers put this grape center-stage, as they traditionally have in Loire, France, the resultant wine is stellar. It is lighter than Cabernet Sauvignon in body but is aromatically complex with tobacco and peppery spice offset by violet and bright raspberry. Just as a Virgo can sometimes come across as harsh; the adverse characteristic of Cabernet Franc is its harshness when it's picked too early or vinified poorly. Think green bell pepper with no fruitiness at all.
Like the Virgo has an air of nobility, so does Cabernet Franc. It will not partake in the sordid fruit-bomb style of winemaking that is currently going out of style. nor will it sway toward watery overproduction. It is one determined, traditional, hard working grape that, once you get to know it, may just be your new best friend for life.
Try: Reserve des Vignerons Saumur Champigny, 2012 for a light take on Cab Franc from the Saumur Champigny region in Loire, France at Total Wine for $12.99.
Or Try: Domaine Catherine & Pierre Breton Bourgueil "Franc de Pied" 2011 for an extremely rare experience of Cabernet Franc grown on European rootstock- an anomaly since the Phylloxera epidemic of the 1800's required grafting of American rootstock to all European vines. Available in limited quantities at Bleu Cellar in Naples for $29.99.


Welcome to What The Fork, Episode 6. Matt and I were able to sit down with Co-Owner,Co-Founder and Brewer of Darkness Brewing in Bellevue KY... Ron Sanders. Also, joining us is comedian Homer Shadowheart. Both Ron and Homer discuss how they got started, struggles, successes, how they create what they do best, etc.


Traditionally, Virtual Reality has been conceived for purpose-built highly instrumented laboratories. However, the commercial release of consumer grade Virtual Reality head-mounted displays has allowed a wider user base to experience VR in everyday environments such as their own home or office. In these domestic environments obstacles are commonplace and tracking is not trivial. If consumer VR is to evolve beyond the desktop paradigm, a rethinking of the way we design and implement interactive VR systems for these environments is needed.
Everyday Virtual Reality focuses on the investigation of well-known VR research themes in all those contexts and scenarios other than research laboratories and specialist environments.
Papers should be submitted via our EasyChair site (http://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wevr2018). Submissions must be anonymised and in PDF format, using the IEEE template (http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera.html). A committee of expert reviewers in the aforementioned domains will review all submissions.
At least one author per paper must register for the workshop as well as one day of the IEEE VR/3DUI conference. Authors of accepted papers will be expected to give a 10 minutes presentation at the workshop. Proceedings will be submitted for inclusion in the IEEE Digital Library.
Please send any queries to Adalberto Simeone ([log in to unmask]). For further information visit http://wevr.adalsimeone.me.


CANOECOPIA 2017 ~ Featuring Guests Lonnie Bedwell and Jim Coffey. | DBP MAGAZINE ONLINE The World's Best Free Whitewater Publication.
March in the Upper Midwest means Old Man Winter is due to depart, taking with him the ice and leaving his snow to melt into the ever increasing flow of our little known but much loved whitewater rivers. It's also when the Wisconsin and Illinois boating community looks forward to Rutabaga Paddlesports' annual Canoecopia, billed as the "World's largest paddlesports expo." Held in Madison, WI on March 10-12, this year featured over 250 exhibitors and 150 speakers and presenters. It's a time for old friends to reunite after the long winter hiatus from boating, dream up excursions, and luxuriate in a dirtbag's favorite non-paddling pastime: gear fondling. Did I also mention spending the winter savings account?
I've been coming to Canoecopia for ten years now, and boating in the local scene for fifteen, so I love attending. There's so many friendly faces around, people I've known for years and new folks that I'm glad to meet. We all share the passion for paddling! There's typically a few DBP Admins kicking around to socialize with as well, and this year was no different. In attendance was Brian Kretschmer of Kayak Chicago, who's been attending Canoecopia as long as I have, Dan Bowers who is now on the staff of Rutabaga (excellent hire!), and the old school master himself, Rick Klade.
This is the third year that I've covered Canoecopia for DBP MAGAZINE ONLINE .COM so after writing about the fun to be had in the expo showroom surrounded by boats and boaters twice, I deemed it was time for a new angle… I thought back on what it is I loved about Canoecopia back when I first started attending. Sure, the gear was great. (Especially for a new paddler like I had been who was slowly but surely collecting all the necessary bits and pieces for a lifetime to be spent sending whitewater in a traditionally underserved market – THANK YOU FOR EXISTING RUTABAGA!) But what I really got into back in the day, and had somehow gotten away from without really thinking about it, was the presentations! That would be my angle this year!
Jim Coffey's talk was an instant choice for me, being about whitewater. I'm familiar with Jim's exploits as a top canoeist who has run some of the biggest waterfalls in an open boat on record, in the world of river rescue training, as well as his career as a longtime raft guide for the world famous outfitters Esprit on the mighty Ottawa River in Canada. He had an entertaining video playing as people walked in early Sunday morning to hear Jim speak, and one the screen I saw a few familiar faces playing on the Nantahala River that immediately brought a smile to my face.
Used to giving technical talks, this day Jim spoke directly from the heart. Engaging and funny, with a district Canadian accent, he worked the intimate setting, introducing us to his wife Barbara and young son Taïgan who were in attendance. You see, Jim's son is on the autistic spectrum, and so he and Barbara and their friends have started a magnificent project called Whitewater Healing. Started two years ago, their mission is to bring young people and their families together for therapeutic adventures on rivers around the world.
Jim told the very personal story of how his small family came to find out their son was autistic, and was very frank in describing the challenges and the small victories they've endured and celebrated along the way. Whitewater Healing now offers trips in Canada, the US, Mexico, and Costa Rica, and is looking to grow to other locations around the world. (Jim is actively seeking to train new members of the staff to expand the program, if you are interested…) Trips are typically one third clients on the autistic spectrum, one third family members, and one third staff, giving families the chance to get outside and experience adventure together. Some folks don't do that very often, get out in public, because it is too much strain on their children to deal with the sights and sounds of everyday life. But the river has a calming effect on them. People on the autistic spectrum experience moving water in a special way, and once Jim and Barbara saw how soothing it was for Tagan, they knew they had to share this gift with the rest of the world.
Jim Coffey ended with an impassioned appeal to us in the audience, asking anyone interested in the mission of Whitewater Healing reach out and join his non-profit program. I must say he inspired me. I'm interested in seeing how our DBP clan can spread the word and get outposts set up world wide. We hope to start with Kosir's Rapid Rafts right here in Wisconsin, where I served as River Manager for many years, by sending DBP's very own Dale #danewho Guarniere north of the border to the Ottawa River for the proper training to utilize his many years of raft guiding and kayaking skills to help the Midwestern autistic community.
Thoroughly inspired, I made my way back downstairs to see the next speaker on my list, Lonnie Bedwell. The presentation room was packed when I entered, but there was seating up front. As I made my way to the front row, I saw DBP Admin Brian Kretschmer, a kayak guide from Kayak Chicago, enter the room too. He's a behemoth, hard to miss in a crowd, working the KC booth at Canoecopia after paddling the green dyed Chicago River the day before in a St. Patrick's Day tradition for the crew. (They got out again this year despite 20-something degree temperatures over the weekend!) After a warm reunion we sat down together to take in the presentation.
Lonnie recounted with extraordinary passion his journey into the world of whitewater paddling, beginning with his first trip on the Yellowstone River in Montana. On his fifth day ever paddling, Lonnie sent Class III Yankee Jim Canyon, using the same techniques of having a sight paddler give him directions "On Me! Hard Left! Hard Right! Stop!! CHARGE!!" that would eventually get him onto the big stuff.
After that first trip, Team River Runner Executive Director Joe Mornini threw Lonnie the bone that he never thought at the time Lonnie would ever grasp… Joe told him that if he mastered 1,000 rolls in his kayak, he'd get Lonnie on the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. It was just the sort of challenge that the blind Navy vet needed to push himself. Lonnie practiced daily on the pond in his backyard in Indiana, and scored descents of the Pigeon River and the Nantahala River, honing and growing his skills. Finally, irresistibly, Lonnie earned the privilege of running the ultimate whitewater river in North America on a Team River Runner excursion. He would be the first ever blind man to paddle the Grand Canyon.
Lonnie enthralled us with his vivid tale of the journey. Perhaps because he has lost his sight, his detailed descriptions, aided by a first rate slideshow of shots taken of the adventure that we but not he could enjoy, drew in our collective minds' eyes a wonderful picture of what he experienced first hand in a way that most speakers could never do. He told of his first big water roll, successfully executed in House Rock Rapid; the group decision to let him paddle Hance Rapid "because we could…"; his first Wallace at Upset Rapid; the skirt implosion in the biggest rapid on the river – Lava – that caused his boat to literally go flying through the air! Lonnie choked up recounting how he cruised the last four miles with an American flag flying from his kayak, paddling with other post-9/11 vets. He then candidly said he ran it again the next year, all 226 miles, with fellow blind boater Erik Weihenmayer, to prove it wasn't a fluke. This time Lonnie ran the river without a single swim! His biggest challenge was hearing the river at night at camp, trying to get rest in his humble bedroll while hearing and feeling the power of the river awaiting him.
This amazing story led directly into the next – Lonnie's descent of the mighty Zambezi River in Africa, one of the most majestic, powerful whitewater rivers in the world. Invited to paddle with legendary kayakers Steve Fisher and Eric Jackson, "two of the best," as Lonnie said to a roomful of laughter, "or so they claimed to be, I'd never seen em kayak!", he knew this was an even bigger challenge but he was game. Lonnie paddled Rapids #1-3, but sat above #4, taking in the roar… He considered not running it, but decided to send it. He got sucked back into the monster hole, flipped upside down, and pinned to the canyon wall… But through pure determination and grit he got through.
The Zambezi was his greatest whitewater challenge thus far, with complex moves, seldom calm, plenty of choices, with the constant question hanging overhead – what is around the bend? Lonnie couldn't quit once committed; there was always the dread of getting stuck in an eddy or being swept downstream… But with fantastic support, the team broke the river down piece by piece. At one point Lonnie took the wrong line, but his natural whitewater instincts kicked in, and as the video on the big screen showed, he executed a perfect boof stroke off a huge pourover rock in the middle of the river! His telling of the adventure was nearly as thrilling to us in the audience as it must have been in real life living it! Lonnie Bedwell is an amazing, inspiring man!!
Lonnie left us inspired, deeply moved by his humility, humanity, and funny depreciating jokes. He left us with these words: "Think outside the box, and realize what you can do." I bought a copy of his autobiography, and got an autograph. At sometime in the near future we will make this available in a contest… Stay tuned! And if you have the chance to meet Mr. Bedwell or catch his life story in person… do NOT pass up the opportunity!
I spent the rest of the day walking around Canoecopia taking in all the new gear and getting new gear for the coming season. DBP Admin Rick Klade and I hung out with friends like kayaker Chris Keller, planning the spring and getting ready for what will surely be an awesome year here in the Midwest! Admin Dan Bowers took some Wallace bumper stickers to Darren Bush; I wish I could've met the iconic owner of Rutabaga, but frankly I was too busy having fun! and enjoying the fruits of his many years of labor, in putting together yet another amazing collection of everything paddling for our small yet vibrant community. Thanks for all you do!! NOW LETS GO BOATING!!
Thank you thank you thank you. You captured Canoecopia better than anyone else has in years, Mike. The guys from the big publications focus on the facts; how big, how many, etc. You focused on the Soul of Canoecopia, and you totally get it. If someone doesn't choke me up at least three or four times a day with their stories, it's not Canoecopia. I met a couple to whom I sold their first sea kayaks in 1995. They've paddled all over the world. They say I changed their lives forever; I say they changed mine.
I don't sleep in the back of my truck anymore, having graduated to the DBP penthouse (as sweet teardrop camper), but I'm still one of you at heart.


The Institute for Economic Studies (IES) was established in April 2013 to support and accelerate cutting-edge economic research activities across the whole Keio campus. For this purpose, the IES acts as a gateway for economic research at Keio University by disseminating economic research results, collecting and sharing useful information and resources for researchers, facilitating active interactions between researchers within Keio, promoting joint research with both domestic and foreign institutions outside Keio, and raising outside funding for economic research.
1 Disseminating results from economic research activities in Keio campus, including the publication of discussion papers.
2 Facilitating joint research and researcher exchanges with both foreign and domestic economic research institutions.
3 Assisting with research seminars, lectures, conferences, symposiums, and mini-courses on economic research.
4 Raising outside funding for economic research and accepting economic research consulting.
5 Assisting the expansion of the economic research network at Keio (only for Keio researchers).
6 Collecting and promoting the shared usage of economic data for research (only for Keio researchers).
7 Collecting and providing any information useful for economic research at Keio (only for Keio researchers).


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Born in 1974 in Barcelona (Spain), Montserrat Rubio studied photography at IEFC Barcelona , specialising in Architecture, Interiors and Urban Landscape. She has been published Spain, France and the UK, also exhibiting and collaborating on projects such as The Brits Who Built The Modern World (RIBA 2014). Based in Kent, South-East England, she runs Montserrat Rubio Photography for both UK and overseas clients. www.montserratrubio.com
Born in 1974 in Barcelona (Spain), Montserrat Rubio studied photography at IEFC Barcelona , specialising in Architecture, Interiors and Urban Landscape. She has been published Spain, France and the UK, also exhibiting and collaborating on projects such as The Brits Who Built The Modern World (RIBA 2014).
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Q: Copying 2D numpy arrays as channels of 3D numpy array efficiently? I want to make multiple copies of given 2D arrays and store them as channels of a 3D numpy array. Currently, I have the following:
finalOut=np.zeros((800,400,3))
output_frame=np.random.randn(800,400)
for i in range(finalOut.shape[-1]):
    finalOut[:,:,i]=output_frame

Is this the fastest way possible?

A: def gks(frame):
    finalOut=np.zeros((800,400,3))
    for i in range(finalOut.shape[-1]):
        finalOut[:,:,i]=frame
    return finalOut

For this size your code is just as good as a tile solution:
In [52]: frame = np.random.randn(800,400)
In [61]: np.allclose(gks(frame), np.tile(frame[:,:,None],[1,1,3]))
Out[61]: True

In [62]: timeit np.tile(frame[:,:,None],[1,1,3]).shape
100 loops, best of 3: 9.36 ms per loop

In [63]: timeit gks(frame).shape
100 loops, best of 3: 9.36 ms per loop

The np.tile code uses repeat (compiled) to make copies, and reshape before and after to apply that in the right shape(s).
There are various ways of using broadcasting, but they don't seem to be any faster.
In [70]: timeit (frame[:,:,None]+np.zeros(3)).shape
100 loops, best of 3: 11.6 ms per loop

Your loop fares well because the size 3 is small compared to the overall array size.

Here's something even faster:
def spl(frame):
    finalOut=np.zeros((800,400,3))
    finalOut[...]=frame[...,None]
    return finalOut

In [105]: timeit spl(frame)
100 loops, best of 3: 5.54 ms per loop

I was hesitant to suggest this because I thought it would be creating views, not copies.  But preliminary testing indicates that it is copying.

A: Look into using np.tile.
>>> a = np.array([[1, 2, 3],
                  [4, 5, 6]])
>>> np.tile(a, (3, 1, 1))
array([[[1, 2, 3],
        [4, 5, 6]],
       [[1, 2, 3],
        [4, 5, 6]],
       [[1, 2, 3],
        [4, 5, 6]]])

Of course, this puts channels in the 0'th axis, so you probably want to move that using np.transpose afterwards:
>>> b = np.tile(a, (3, 1, 1))
>>> np.transpose(b, (1, 2, 0))
array([[[1, 1, 1],
        [2, 2, 2],
        [3, 3, 3]],
       [[4, 4, 4],
        [5, 5, 5],
        [6, 6, 6]]])
>>> np.transpose(b, (1, 2, 0)).shape
(2, 3, 3)

Test
>>> d = np.transpose(b, (1, 2, 0))
>>> c = np.zeros((2, 3, 3))
>>> for i in range(3): c[:, :, i] = a[:, :]
>>> np.allclose(c, d)
True

The fastest possible option is often to use numpy broadcasting, which allows you to create a new axis, and not use it until necessary. For example:
>>> b = a[:, :, np.newaxis]
>>> b.shape
(2, 3, 1)
>>> b = b * np.array([1, 0, 0])   # Set G and B channels to 0.
>>> b
array([[[1, 0, 0],
        [2, 0, 0],
        [3, 0, 0]],
       [[4, 0, 0],
        [5, 0, 0],
        [6, 0, 0]]])

Then, the new 3D-array isn't even constructed until an operation is performed on the channels. But it takes some getting used to...

A: You could also use np.dstack:
import numpy as np

def copy_dstack(frame):
    return np.dstack((frame,)*3)

def copy_for(frame):
    arr = np.zeros(shape=frame.shape + (3,))
    for i in range(arr.shape[-1]):
        arr[:, :, i] = frame
    return arr

def copy_tile(frame):
    return np.tile(frame[:, :, None], [1, 1, 3])

def copy_broadcasting(frame):
    arr = np.zeros(shape=frame.shape + (3,))
    arr[...] = frame[..., None]
    return arr

According to my tests the approaches proposed by @hpaulj and @Praveen are slower than yours, whereas mine gives you a negligible speed gain:
In [244]: frame = np.random.randn(800, 400)

In [245]: %timeit copy_dstack(frame)
100 loops, best of 3: 4.07 ms per loop

In [246]: %timeit copy_for(frame)
100 loops, best of 3: 4.1 ms per loop

In [247]: %timeit copy_tile(frame)
100 loops, best of 3: 6.8 ms per loop

In [248]: %timeit copy_broadcasting(frame)
100 loops, best of 3: 6.71 ms per loop

I also checked that all the methods yield the same result:
In [249]: np.allclose(copy_dstack(frame), copy_for(frame))
Out[249]: True

In [250]: np.allclose(copy_for(frame), copy_tile(frame))
Out[250]: True

In [251]: np.allclose(copy_tile(frame), copy_broadcasting(frame))
Out[251]: True

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange