Forget those points - just concentrate on the words and other food and drink news

The problem with scoring wine - Whitey explains why he's given away his weekly wine review scores, concentrating instead on the value of his words.

French champagne house Taittinger to make English sparkling wine - Champagne Taittinger has bought land near Chilham, Kent where it plans to make wine in partnership with UK wine company Hatch Mansfield.

Battle over coveted Bordeaux wine classification comes to court - Three Saint Emilion chateaux take the governing body of French wine to court, saying they were unfairly demoted or ousted from Saint Emilion Grand Cru Classé rankings

Tannat Is the Ultimate Big Red Wine for Steak - Move over, Malbec, this little-known varietal from Uruguay demands a place at the table.

China, corruption, fine wine and other food and drink news

Quenching China’s Wine Market - The Chinese government helped unleash a thirst for fine wine, until a clampdown on corruption bottled up demand.
Battle of the sparkling wines: Champagne vs Prosecco - Prosecco has gained tremendous ground, as sales grew 36% over the year, while Champagne sales grew just 8%.

Despite the prosecco sales gains, however, Champagne still accounts for 20% of sparkling wine sales in the U.S. The Italian offering accounts for 14% of sales.

Rare steaks 'could put diners at risk of superbugs' - The head of a major Government review warns that consumers could contract superbugs from eating rare and undercooked meats, because of the rise of antibiotic use among animals

Review on antimicrobial resistance - Drug-resistant infections could kill an extra 10 million people across the world every year by 2050 if they are not tackled. By this date they could also cost the world around $100 trillion in lost output: more than the size of the current world economy, and roughly equivalent to the world losing the output of the UK economy every year, for 35 years. ... an overview of the use of antibiotics in animals and agriculture, and the role that manufacturing and use of antimicrobials play in bringing these into the wider environment ... calls for three interventions: First, a global target needs to be set to reduce use of antibiotics in food production and that we should reassess which antibiotics should be used in both animals and humans. Second, it recommends that there be minimum standards set to limit the release of active pharmaceutical ingredients during the manufacturing process. Finally, it proposes that there be improved surveillance to monitor the situation with respect to both these issues and to help to inform global standards and targets.

Small Kitchens, by Choice - The microkitchen, stocked with expensive blenders, elaborate coffee makers and professional-quality knives, suits digital workers who eat free at work or take their meals in homey but globally influenced restaurants in their apartment buildings.

Value wines take the gongs - price not the best guide

When it comes to buying wine, price is not always the best guide.

From behind the paywall of Sydney's Daily Telegraph this week:

And from a recent wine review in The Canberra Times by Chris Shanahan:

Jacob's Creek Classic Riesling 2015 $7.85–$12Humble Jacob's Creek often upstages more expensive wines in Australian wine shows. In the recent National Wine Show of Australia, for example, this riesling's cellar-mate, Classic Pinot Gris, topped the pinot gris class and won the trophy as the best "Dry white, other variety" in the show. Jacob's Classic Riesling, an even better wine on my scoresheet, captures the aromatic appeal and lime-like flavour intensity of this great variety – on a delicate, dry and beautifully refreshing palate. Winemaker Bernard Hickin attributes the quality largely to fruit sourcing from several of Australia's best riesling-growing regions.

Read more: http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/drink/wine-reviews-from-chris-shanahan-20151125-gl7jfg.html#ixzz3tXAgKPDB
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A restaurant guide that rates the quiet ones and other food and drink news

Shhh! Campaigners try to silence noisy Spanish restaurant diners - Spaniards are famously not the quietest of people. Walk past any bar and the chances are you’ll hear a reassuring din of loud chatting against a background of blaring television noise. But now one charity is encouraging restaurants to lower their noise levels in order to create a more pleasant atmosphere for diners, and also help improve conditions for the hard of hearing.

A restaurant guide with a difference - rating the quiet ones

"Without a doubt we have a problem with noise here in Spain," Svante Borjesson, director of the foundation Oír es Clave, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with hearing impairments, told The Local.

Japan bans French foie gras over bird flu fears - Japan has banned imports of foie gras from France following a bird flu outbreak in the Dordogne region of the country. Japan is the biggest importer of the controversial delicacy.

Binge drinking vs drinking every day: which is more damaging to your health?

Adam Sanderson moves to the Deanery; Blumenthal rumoured for Perth

High-Sodium Warnings Hit New York City Menus - A new sodium warning requirement goes into effect in New York City restaurants Tuesday: Diners who eat at chain restaurants will now see warnings on menus next to items that contain high levels of salt. From now on, the New York City Health Department says chain restaurants with 15 or more locations must display a salt shaker icon next to menu items or combo meals that contain 2,300 milligrams of sodium or more.

Acclaimed chef Hélène Darroze on choosing between London or Paris - She runs Michelin-starred kitchens in both cities — and is a single mother to two young daughters

Beer made from avocados 'proving popular' in Yallingup

This common farm pesticide could be damaging the lungs of young children - The research, published Thursday in the journal Thorax, finds that early exposure to organophosphates — a common class of pesticides — is associated with decreased lung function in children. While some past research has indicated such effects in adults, this study is the first to examine the association in children.

Kimchi and Arabic coffee in latest Unesco cultural list

LA's Top Restaurant Charts New Waters In Sustainable Seafood -  Called Dock to Dish, it's a restaurant-supported fishery that allows local fishermen to sell directly to local chefs. It's based on the model of community-supported agriculture, where members share the risks of food production by pre-buying weekly subscriptions. In this case, restaurants commit to buying local seafood from small-scale fishermen. The idea is to create a supply-based system, offering whatever is plentiful and in season.

Internet Food Culture Gives Rise To New 'Eatymology'

'We want beer': State Library of Queensland looking back at Brisbane's 1940 beer riots

Death By Coconut: A Story Of Food Obsession Gone Too Far

Restaurant menu planning

xkcd comments" If anyone tries this on you, the best reply is a deadpan "Oh yeah, that's a common potato chip flavor in Canada."

Note: Do your sense of humour a favour and check in on xkcd's website regularly

Tweeted advice for aspiring restaurant owners

You need a strong stomach for the highs and lows. #entrepreneur https://t.co/XVQVcCdDMp pic.twitter.com/5EiqMsHNTn

— Restaurants Lover (@RestaurantBlog4) December 4, 2015

The days of the banana are numbered and other food and drink news

The world’s favorite fruit is slowly but surely being driven to extinction - The virulent banana-killing disease that quietly stalked through East and Southeast Asia since the 1960s is now on a global conquest. Since 2013, the lethal fungus has jumped continents, ravaging crops in South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. It’s clear the strategies for containing the spread of Panama disease, as it’s known, aren’t working. And since the fungus can’t be killed, it’s likely only a matter of time before it lands in Latin America, where some more than three-fifths of the planet’s exported bananas are grown. In other words, the days of the iconic yellow fruit are numbered.

Israel Aims to Recreate Wine That Jesus and King David Drank

Number Of Beer Barrel Builders In England Are Declining - Cooperage is one of the oldest trades in Britain. The skills needed to make wooden beer barrels were introduced by the Romans. Now there's only one "Master Cooper" left in England.

The science in favor of coffee: Six key studies

Four key studies that link coffee to heart attacks and hypertension

The Death of the (old style) Barista?

Italy's prized pesto at risk as basil prices plunge - A key ingredient in the traditional Genovese pesto could disappear from Italian tables as plunging prices for a basil variety, cultivated in the Ligurian area of Pra', drive its producers out of business. ... The basil, which has been grown on the gently sloping hills around Genoa for centuries, is protected by an EU DOP label of origin, but currently sells for just €0.60 a bunch. Prices have been driven down by industrial competition from farmers growing other varieties for use in the cheap jars of inferior green pesto which feature on supermarket shelves across the world.

Turning Down The Heat When Cooking Meat May Reduce Cancer Risk

In search of the perfect sweetener - "I was intrigued when the team making a new series for BBC One, Tomorrow's Food, invited me to try the extract of an African fruit, called the miracle berry. Derived from a plant called Synsepalum dulcificum, it is unlike any artificial sugar I'd tried before - because it works not by making foods sweeter, but by making them taste sweeter. The so-called miracle berries contain a molecule called miraculin which binds to receptors on your tongue, changing their shape. This makes sour foods taste sweeter. One advantage of temporarily changing your taste buds, rather than the food itself, could be the effect this has on your gut bacteria."

The tea industry boss in love with the drink

Fine Brine From Appalachia: The Fancy Mountain Salt That Chefs Prize
How Long Can Florida's Citrus Industry Survive? - Citrus growers in Florida, California and Texas have contended with a variety of diseases and pests over the years. But none has posed the threat they now face with citrus greening. A tiny insect, the Asian psyllid, carries bacteria that ruin the fruit and eventually kills the tree. It's been nine years now since the disease was confirmed in Florida. It infects every part of the state and has led to a steady decline in orange, tangerine and grapefruit production. The USDA stunned Florida growers when it announced it was lowering its estimate of this year's orange crop to 74 million boxes. That would be Florida's smallest orange harvest in more than 50 years.

Report confirms Nestlé ties to slave labour - Swiss food giant Nestlé is vowing to stamp out any forced labour used in its supply chain in Thailand after a probe confirmed workers were toiling in slave-like conditions to catch and process fish for the company's products.