Cultural Toasts Chinese: Ganbei! (dry your cup) Dutch: Prost! (health) English: Cheers! French: Santé! (health) German: Prost! (cheers) Hebrew: Le'chaim! (to life) Irish: Sláinte! (to your health) Italian: Per cent'anni! (for one hundred years) Italian 2: Salute (health) Japanese: Kanpai! (dry your cup) Russian: Vashe zdorovie! (to health) Spanish: Salud! (health) Welsh: Iechyd da! (health) "Vita vinum est" -- "Wine is life" -- according to Petronius, a Roman writer 7/6/2006 Sherlock Holmes’ advice that “When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” 7/18/2006 A very good impression with my wines to Catherine Fallis, Master Sommelier. Even if the publisher edits me out I must have done something right :-) TC, John Z Catherine Fallis is the world's fifth female Master Sommelier. July 5, 2006 To: John Zuccarino at Silver Springs Winery From: Catherine Fallis, Master Sommelier, and Robert Cohen Co-Authors, Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online, Fall 2006, Silverback Books Re: Inclusion in Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online Dear John: Thank you for submitting Silver Springs Winery to be considered for Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online. We have included your winery and one or more of your wines in the manuscript submitted to the publisher. There may be some final cuts made to the manuscript by the publisher, so we cannot guarantee that your winery will appear in the finished version. In the meantime, we’d like to thank you for helping with the production of Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online. If you have any questions, please contact either Catherine Fallis at grapegoddess@planetgrape.com or Robert Cohen at robertcohen@greatboutiquewines.com. Best wishes, Catherine Fallis, MS, and Robert Cohen Co-Authors Great Boutique Wines You Can Buy Online  10/18/2006 Survey Shows Growing Interest in Unoaked Chardonnay New Report Tracks Latest Trends of High Frequency Wine Drinkers From Daily News Links, 10/18/2006 Press Release, St. Helena, CA (October 17, 2006) - Frequent U.S. wine drinkers are discovering the pleasures of less or no oak flavors in their Chardonnay. Awareness of wines of this style stands at 59% and is growing, according to a report released today by Wine Opinions. "Of those who have heard of these wines, 78% have tasted or purchased unoaked Chardonnay wines," said Christian Miller, the Research Director of Wine Opinions. "And interest in trying these wines among the rest of core consumers is remarkably high. From our data, it looks like the wine consumer market is fracturing when it comes to a taste for oak in Chardonnay."     9/1/2006 Grape harvest boosts Finger Lakes economy 8/31/2006 10:00 PM (Jenny Chu)ce Grape harvesting season is just around the corner and the Finger Lakes are having one of the best years since 1999. Wine makers are expecting nothing but a bountiful harvest in the next three weeks, which means businesses in the Finger Lakes region are going to reap the benefits of this good grape season. you've probably heard it through the grapevine. Finger Lakes wineries are expecting to harvest some of the best grapes in the region. "It started out with a mild Winter, which allowed very little bud damage and that gave us a larger harvest, larger quantity and then the weather's been very warm this Summer. We've had just about the right amount of rain producing the quality grape and helping to mature them," said Mike Countryman, Casa Larga's Cellar Master. For 15 years, Countryman has been growing, tending and harvesting grapes for Merlots, Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and Casa Larga's famous ice wines. "We grow ones that are suitable for our climate and a year like this allows them to mature properly, so we do pretty good," said Countryman. But a good harvest doesn't just mean good business for wineries, it also means good business for the entire Finger Lakes region. 9/21/2006 Publication date 20/09/06 WINE buffs have uncorked a campaign to banish screw caps from bottles. The move comes after it was revealed screw caps can leave some wine just as tainted as corks can. Research carried out for this year's International Wine Challenge - the world's biggest wine competition - found faults caused by screw caps are almost as common as cork taint. Meanwhile, technological improvements have meant the number of wine bottles spoilt by corks is in decline. The findings have been seized on by wine traditionalists, who hate screw caps and say cork has served the industry perfectly for hundreds of years. Screw caps, left, are seen by some wine experts as industrial and lacking the romance of a cork, right, which gives a satisfying pop when the bottle is opened. However, they have been adopted widely by supermarkets because it was thought there was much less chance of wine going off under a screw cap - a problem said to affect 10% of bottles with corks. Now tasters at the International Wine Challenge in London claim cork taint is in decline and problems affecting wines sealed with screwcaps have been underestimated. From a blind tasting of 13,000 wines, they discovered 4% of the wine with corks had faults from oxidation or high sulphide levels - giving it an eggy flavour - compared with 2% of screw-cap bottles. 9/20/2006 Red Wine May Prevent Alzheimer's Tests On Mice Show Promise, But It's Too Soon To Raise A Toast For People Sept. 20, 2006 Researchers say tests on mice show red wine put a cork on the formation of brain proteins tied to Alzheimer's disease. (CBS/AP) Fast Facts After seven months of sipping their designated drinks, the mice individually were placed in a maze and challenged to find their way out. Those in the red wine group performed best WHAT DO YOU THINK? Go To Comments (WebMD) Red wine might put a cork on the formation of brain proteins tied to Alzheimer's disease, a new study shows. But don't raise your wine glass to celebrate yet: The study only included mice. It's too soon to know if the findings apply to people. Still, the data deserves further study and supports the theory that one daily drink of red wine for women and two for men "may help reduce" Alzheimer's risk, write the researchers. They included Jun Wang, PhD, of the psychiatry department at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Wang's team notes that alcohol has risks as well as benefits, and they're not recommending anyone to start drinking wine for Alzheimer's prevention. Their study is due to appear in The FASEB Journal's November edition. "FASEB" stands for Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Wang's team studied female mice with genes that order the production of amyloid-beta protein, which has been linked to brain plaque in Alzheimer's patients. The researchers split the mice into three groups. One group of mice got its drinking water spiked with red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon from California-grown grapes). Another group of mice had its drinking water mixed with ethanol that didn't come from red wine. The mice in the third group were teetotalers, drinking water with no alcohol. The mice were free to drink as much as they wanted for seven months. None went on major benders. The mice's average wine consumption equaled moderate consumption in humans, the researchers note. They defined moderate consumption as: 1 daily 5-ounce glass of wine for women 2 daily 5-ounce glasses for men After seven months of sipping their designated drinks, the mice individually were placed in a maze and challenged to find their way out. Those in the red wine group performed best. The mice in the ethanol group weren't better at mastering the maze than the teetotalers, the study shows. That finding "suggests that ethanol, at concentrations comparable to Cabernet Sauvignon, does not significantly influence spatial memory," the researchers write. Then Wang's team made the maze test tougher. They flipped the finish line to the opposite side of the maze. That way, the mice didn't find the finish line where they expected it to be. The mice in the red wine group were quicker to adapt to that change. But the mice in the ethanol and water groups "performed poorly" in the new maze, note Wang and colleagues. The researchers checked the mice's brains for signs of amyloid-beta proteins. The mice in the red wine group had the lowest levels of amyloid-beta proteins. No differences were seen in amyloid-beta levels in mice in the ethanol and water groups. Lastly, the scientists doused Cabernet Sauvignon, at moderate levels for human consumption, on the building blocks of amyloid-beta protein. Instead of making amyloid-beta, those chemical building blocks formed a different type of protein, the study shows. The researchers caution that there is "no direct experimental evidence" that red wine or antioxidants called polyphenols in wine "beneficially influence" Alzheimer's disease. That is, they're not making any Alzheimer's prevention promises for people. What ingredient in red wine might explain the study's results? That's not clear. Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in wine, has drawn attention in other research. But in this experiment, resveratrol levels were 10 times lower than the minimum effective amount in past studies, note Wang and colleagues. They call for more research to see if red wine and its polyphenol extracts are beneficial against Alzheimer's disease. SOURCES: Wang, J. The FASEB Journal, November 2006. News release, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.: Wang, J. , November 2006. News release, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. 8/15/2006 Study: White Wine As Heart-Healthy As Red University of Connecticut and University of Milan scientists say they have evidence that white wine may be as heart healthy as red. Study leader Dipak K. Das, of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, says that the pulp of grapes appears just as heart-healthy in laboratory experiments as the skin. Past studies have shown that the cardioprotective compounds in grapes -- polyphenolic antioxidants -- reside in the skin and seeds. Grape skins, which contain purple pigment, are crushed with the pulp to make red wines. But skins are separated from pulp to make most white wine, leading to the conventional belief that red wines and red grape juice are the most heart healthy. Although further study is needed to identify the principle ingredients responsible for the cardioprotective abilities of the grape flesh, to the best of our knowledge, our study provides evidence for the first time that the flesh of grapes is equally cardioprotective with respect to the skins, the researchers report in the Aug. 23 issue of the Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry. 6/14/06 . The Vintners Late harvest select Chardonnay . This Chard is done right as nature intended it to be made, unaltered, unoaked and just left alone, no manipulation. The wine is a great seller and the public is voting with their pockets and cases are flying out the door. 2005 was the kind of year that happens to a winemaker once in a lifetime and we have had our chance to participate in this amazing fruit and make wine unlike any other year. The wine is great now and will achieve brilliance as it ages, so enjoy the passion of this grape. 6/21/2006 Can't sleep? Have a glass of red wine - 19-Jun-2006 Scientists in Italy say they have discovered that the grapes used to make some of the most popular red wines contain high levels of the sleep hormone melatonin. Melatonin is naturally secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, especially at night. It tells the body when it is time to sleep. The researchers, from the University of Milan, said the discovery of melatonin in grape skinscould explain why so many of us reach for a bottle of red wine to help us wind down after a long day. 'The melatonin content in wine could help regulate the circadian rhythm [sleep-wake patterns], just like the melatonin produced by the pineal gland in mammals,' says researcher Iriti Marcello at the University of Milan. Until recently, melatonin was thought to be exclusively produced by mammals but has recently been discovered in plants. It is thought to have antioxidant properties. Iriti's study discovered high levels of melatonin in Nebbiolo, Merlot, Cabernet Savignon, Sangiovesse and Croatina grape varieties.Iriti's team have also shown that melatonin content can be enhanced in grapes by treating vines with a plant vaccine Benzothiadiazole. Richard Wurtman of the brain and cognitive science department at MIT is unconvinced, however, and believes further research is needed to determine whether the compounds discovered are melatonin, or something very similar. I The Passion of the Grape ! I am the grape; I am born over and over again, in all parts of the World so the story is told. As a Grape I have thrived longer than mankind for this some say that I shine. As a grape I have witnessed the rise and fall of many a great empires, some not so great not close to the grape. King’s have proclaimed me when I am a wine “ The wine of King’s and the King of wines” when I transform them into something sublime. Sometimes it’s just happens as I lay on the ground, fully ripe and then I am found. My friends I call on have a name called yeast, that live on me to say the least. The animals come to taste me, they drink me and roll all around; some are the birds, yet the biggest fan is the Elephant who runs from wine to wine in search of the pleasures of the divine. When I grow the Deer try to eat me before my time the beetles and other pest have put me to the test, yet I survive you know the rest. I am mostly Bi-Sexual that is unless I can cross bread, as Cabernet Sauvignon did 400 years ago indeed. Why Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc are the parents of Cab Sav. What a shock. It was a brief affaire bold I dare to find Red and White combine to give me life the fruit of such fine vine. Trials and tribulations about and yet I stand strong without any doubt, old World or new this is a choice for you. Each Grape harvest I die in the end, to rise and become something that lives again and again. With each vintage I change so coming back is never the same, yet I feel no shame. Some years are hot others are not, yet I survive and thrive with tender care of the ones that have an affaire. Beauty and fun is what I have become, to some, it’s all about the fun, and laughter that I evoke, the spirit stands awake. Most religions have a prayer for me; this is how life is for me to see. Holly and holding your cup to your lips and your face, some supple in which I express with grace, although I also have a dark face. Each thing that enjoys life is nothing without my life as the passion of the grape no matter what race. White Merlot is the new mystery wines ! This light fruity blush wine features incredible bursting fresh, juicy berry flavors, particularly strawberry and raspberry, softly sweet. Great for sipping alone or with food and extremely fun. RS 4% 7% Tastes like an Ice Wine with out the cost Other releases are the “ NO OAK” Vintners Select Late harvest Chardonnay Stainless steel tank cool, slow fermentation and steel tank aged. The clarity and brilliance combined with the nose of pineapple, apricot, passion fruit and with a tropical fruit finish. Long, clean, and silky mouth feel.  RS 1% The Don Giovanni 04 wines are progressing very nicely in barrel, they will be better than the 03's if that is possible. Our new mystery wines are going to be 4% RS and 7% RS and they will be unique to the area. One clue, think white then think pink then think different. The first one to guess the mystery wine will get a case if they are right... Good Luck!! I almost forgot our steel tank fermented and aged Chardonnay will be all about the fruit. Look for it in May 06, cheers.!! . 3/10/2006 The 04 reds are blended and ready for bottling. I must say I am very impressed at the structure of such young wines. The potential is enormous, wine with a big fat attitude, yet as supple as a ballroom dance. If you like to Tango then Tri-Dition will spice up your life, as the blend 65% CF 25% Merlot and 10% Cab Sav. is perfect. The Chardonnay is crisp fruity no oak and due to the best quality fruit I used deserving the designation of a Reserve out of respect for what was accomplished. The two mystery wines hum all I can say is, well a hum a mystery, release date for them will be mid June. . This Popular Drink May Delay Aging! Sip a glass of red wine with dinner most nights, and it may buy you a longer life as well as delay the onset of aging. That's the word from scientists at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, who have shown that red wine can actually delay the onset of aging thanks to the ingredient resveratrol. At least it works in fish, and the researchers think the findings could apply to humans as well. Resveratrol, an organic compound found in grapes and particularly enriched in red wines such as pinot noir, is part of a group of antioxidant compounds known as polyphenols. Scientists have shown through previous studies that resveratrol can help prevent inflammation and cancer. The Italian researchers, led by Alessandro Cellerino, added resveratrol to the daily diet of 150 Nothobranchius furzeri fish, a breed that typically lives about nine weeks in captivity. The result? It not only significantly prolonged their lifespan, but also delayed the onset of age-related problems, including loss of memory and diminished muscular performance. The fish that received a lower dose of resveratrol lived on average 33 percent longer than fish fed their normal diets, while those fed the higher dose lived more than 50 percent longer. Previous research showed a similar effect in fruit flies and worms, making resveratrol the first compound to consistently prolong life in three very different animal groups. The hope is that resveratrol could someday be used in drugs that would help prevent age-related diseases in humans. The study findings were published in the journal Current Biology. This isn't the first research to show the anti-aging qualities of wine. Women who drink one glass wine daily tend to have sharper minds into old age than do women who abstain, reports Reuters of a large study of 12,500 nurses from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Light to moderate drinking has also been shown to prevent heart disease and stroke. Led by Dr. Meir Stampfer, the team found that female drinkers aged 70 to 81 were 20 percent less likely to experience a decline in their thinking skills over a two-year period than women who did not drink at all. Specifically, women who drank daily tended to have the mental agility of someone a year and a half younger than abstainers. Just in case you have any ideas about beefing that up by imbibing more, forget it. Drinking more than one glass of wine a day didn't provide a greater cognitive benefit. 3/16/2006 Palate expansion The expansion of ones palate can happen by tasting wines that you never tasted, now you don't have to drink them, just do the four S's if all you want to do is taste. I had a bottle of Musar red that opened up my palate, so when I went and opened up a bottle of my traditional staple wine, it tasted deeper, fuller,complex and I was able to taste things that I never did before. I experienced palate expansion as my cognitive abilities to peal the wine layer by layer seems to have evolved, literally overnight. We all fall into a rut where we seem to drink what we like, so be it that's fine, but open up your adventurous side and taste as many different wines as you can. Now don't think this can be done in one night, rather think of it as a lifetime adventurous experience with open ended results.   . 4/06/2006 What is Terroir ? Well now that Spring is upon us you have the best chance to really understand the term Terroir. Many fields in the USA are being tilled this time of year, if you are lucky enough to see this in real time stop the car, bike or whatever you are travailing in. Get out and take a good smell of the tilled earth, that smell is a part of Terroir and will make it into the product that is grown on that site. I suggest you take Terroir notes just like you would with wine. Now the fun part travel a few miles and do it again if you have time make about six stops and take notes. You should note the site the time of the day and date. Now summer comes up faster than you think, go back and repeat the smelling and take notes, repeat for each season. After one year you will have had a hands on experience of the tale of the soil as she will have something different to express each time. Understanding the Terroir will now enable you will be an empowered wine taster. George is a mineral man as he tells us although he does enjoy the fruit. Some of us will have the preference of the fruit or the minerals or both. Anyway whatever your wine preference you are right, being this is a subjective choice, so why would you subject yourself to something you don't like. AP - Wed Dec 7,11:00 AM ET A makeshift peace sign of flowers lies on top John Lennon's 'Strawberry Fields' memorial in New York's Central Park, Wednesday Dec. 7, 2005. The memorial is near the Dakota building where Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, lived with his wife Yoko Ono and son Sean when he was murdered outside the building. Thursday is the 25th anniversary of his death. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews) Beatle John Lennon during a gathering of fans and supporters at Lennon's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California December 8, 2005. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)   HEALTH WATCH What causes red wine headaches? Tribune Media Services Q. I get headaches after drinking red wine. Why? I'm 56 years old and in excellent health. Getting a headache after drinking red wine seems to be common, but no single explanation has been found. Several theories have been proposed, but none has much evidence behind it. One theory holds that the culprit is histamine, a compound found in grape skins. Red wine contains more histamine than white wine because it's made from the whole grape (including the skin), not just the juice. Some people have a shortage of an enzyme that breaks down histamine in the small intestine. Alcohol also inhibits the enzyme, so the combination may boost histamine levels in the blood, which can dilate blood vessels and cause a headache. Tannins, another grape-skin constituent, could be at fault. Tannins are plant chemicals that impart flavor to red wines and contain antioxidants. But they also spur the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which at high levels can cause headaches in some people. Other plant chemicals (polyphenols) may be involved. Some experts think that sulfites, a preservative in wine, are to blame. But sulfite sensitivity usually causes breathing problems rather than headaches. Moreover, many white wines and other foods also contain sulfites. These potential culprits vary from wine to wine, so if you don't want to give up red wine altogether, you might try different brands or grape varieties to see how they affect you. When you try a new red wine, start with less than half a drink. If it's going to give you a headache, it'll do so within 15 minutes. Any alcoholic beverage can dilate blood vessels in the brain and cause a headache. Avoid drinking wine, beer or liquor on an empty stomach or when you're dehydrated. Try to drink a glass of water between glasses of wine. And limit your wine intake. One glass per day is most healthful. But if you have two at a sitting, they should be separated by at least an hour. Red wine is a matter of the heart (February 14, 2006) — The month of February offers up two opportunistic holidays for wine lovers to celebrate. Speaking of lovers, today happens to be the first of them. Happy Valentine's Day to all, with wishes for lots of love and resveratrol! The second holiday is ... wait. Could it be you don't know the story of resveratrol? Yikes! Back up. Today is the universal day of the heart. OK, that love thing is a big part of it, but more importantly we must think about the health and longevity of that wonderful organ that does it all for us. The heart has a friend by the name of anti-oxidant. You can find this friend in products such as dark chocolate. (Rather appropriate for the day, don't you think?) And you can also find the "A" friend in a compound called resveratrol (pronounced "rez-VAIR-uh-troll), which happens to hang out in many red wines. Cool. Why red wine and not white? Well, the "Res" resides in red wines because it comes from the actual grape skin. During the winemaking process, the juice for white wines is extracted from the grape skins right away, so the "Res" leaves hand-in-hand with the skin. However, the juice from red grapes will soak with their skins for some time. This not only gives the two of them the chance to say farewell after a long growing season, but it also allows that luscious juice to absorb the deep color pigments, the tannins and the inherent flavors of that soon-to-be extracted red skin. And yes, that is when the "Res" friend decides to finally leave the grape skin and travel with the grape juice to that great barrel in the sky. So it conveniently ends up in your wine glass. Now I am not a health expert, but apparently, resveratrol does not get along with the bad cholesterol (LDL) in our cardiovascular systems. This discovery became public in November 1991 when 60 Minutes aired the episode about the French Paradox. This surprising report focused on a small town in southern France. The inhabitants pretty much lived on cheese, foie gras, croissants and rich pastries — some of the highest saturated fat and cholesterol foods you can find. Yet, these folks had one of the lowest rates of coronary disease in the world. It didn't make sense. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that the party responsible for this phenomenon was a compound found in red wine — resveratrol. This polyphenolic phytoalexin reportedly has the ability to inhibit platelet aggregation, reduce lipid levels and protect cells against lipid oxidation. Yada Yada. After 60 Minutes, the sales of red wine soared. Subsequent research has led to the discovery that our good friend and current screen celebrity, Pinot noir, offers some of the highest levels of "Res" on record. Not only that, but New York state seems to rule the roost. As a matter of fact, one of the highest "Res" levels in the world has been found in a lovely little red wine called Fleur de Pinot Noir from Dr. Konstantin Frank on Keuka Lake (available in limited quantities only at the winery). When measured, this wine contained four times as much resveratrol as the nearest California Pinot noir tested. Long story short, you can feel good about red wine and chocolate today, and for that I am thankful. Of course, as my mother always says — "Moderation in all things." So in addition to your dinner reservations for tonight, don't forget to reserve some room for resveratrol. Tutankhamen liked his wine white 16 February 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition IT SEEMS that Tutankhamen, the teenage king of ancient Egypt, sloped off to the afterlife with a good supply of fine white wine. It's a surprising discovery, considering there is no record of white wine in Egypt until the 3rd century AD, 1600 years after the young pharaoh died. Rosa Lamuela-Raventós and her colleagues from the University of Barcelona, Spain, used liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyse the residue from six of the jars in Tutankhamen's tomb. All contained tartaric acid, a chemical characteristic of grapes, but only one contained syringic acid, found in the skin of red grapes. It's this skin that gives red wine its colour. The absence of the chemical in the other five jars suggests the wine in them was white. Because it is unlikely Egyptian wine makers would have removed red grape skins to create white wines as modern wine makers do, white grapes probably did exist in Tutankhamen's time. In ancient Egypt, red wine was placed in tombs to accompany people into the afterlife. Now it appears that white wine was on the menu too. "It must have been considered a very good drink," says Lamuela-Raventós, whose findings are reported in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. From issue 2539 of New Scientist magazine, 16 February 2006, page 22   NewsTrack Study: Drink red wine, live longer ROME, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- Italian researchers say an antioxidant in wine called resveratrol slows aging and makes you feel better. The researchers tested resveratrol on killifish --a tropical fish whose short life span makes it ideal for aging studies, ANSA reported . The molecule boosted lifespan by 30 percent, warded off muscle weakening and delayed a decrease in learning ability. Alessandro Cellerino of Pisa University and Antonino Cattaneo of Lay Line Genomics said their experiment provided the clearest evidence yet that red wine can help animals live longer. The study is set for publication in the journal Current Biology.   © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved     Dramatic expansion of US wine drinkers January 11, 2006 Adam Lechmere Wine is reclaiming its place on the family dinner table and more US adults than ever are drinking it, a new survey has revealed. The survey by the Wine Market Council found that between 2000 and 2005 the wine drinking population in the US increased by 31% among adults in households with a household income greater than US$35,000, while the number of adults drinking beer and/or spirits but not wine decreased by 25%. Wine is increasingly being chosen as an accompaniment to meals in 'casual chain' restaurants, and at home when all the family dine together, the survey found. Wine Market Council chair Michaela Rodeno said, 'The tremendous surge in popularity for wine is coming from several sources. Young adults of the millennial generation are embracing wine in a manner not seen since the baby boomers took to wine in the 1970s.' Beer and spirits drinkers, she added, are also increasingly finding they like wine as well. The new generation of drinkers was also found to be interested in learning more about wine, and are open to experimenting with wine from all over the world. Drinkers are also most interested in brands that convey a lighthearted and relaxed image, the survey of 1,398 wine consumers, conducted by Merrill Research, found. It is the fifth wave of a series of studies undertaken by the Council, beginning in 1994. The findings were presented this week at the Culinary Institute of America in St Helena, Napa. Wine Market Council is an independent, non-profit trade association of grape growers, wine producers, importers, wholesalers, retailers and other organisations affiliated with the wine industry.       E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.   Take a Hair of the Dog that Bit You.   After a debauch, take a little wine the next day. Take a cool draught of ale in the morning, after a night’s excess. The advice was given literally in ancient times, “If a dog bites you, put a hair of the dog into the wound,” on the homœopathic principle of “Similia similibus curantur” (like cures like).