BudBurst

Marking the first anniversary of the 24 hour drinking licence laws, a 'rescue remedy' called Dink has been released.

It is supposed to mitigate the ill-effects of binge-drinking with ingredients that mop up free radicals produced by the liver when it is processing alcohol. It is also cheap and readily available.

It is being marketed to "people who like to get merry". Presumably because they feel it is unwise to market it to people who like to get smashed out of their skulls every Friday night and throw up partially digested burgers on street corners. I think we know who it is actually aimed at.

I must admit that my first thought was "great idea", sounds so useful. But while I'm no Catholic I do think the pain of hang-overs is justly deserved and should reflect any excess. The sparkle generated by a few drinks with friends too easily degenerates into boorishness  and incapacity beyond a certain point. There are very few elegant drunks.

And aren't we supposed to be cutting down binge drinking, as a society? We need a cultural shift that comes collectively - social evolution if you like, of the kind we've seen with smoking, drink driving and wearing seat belts.

Most Friday-nighters, though by no means all, are young people with their whole lives ahead of them and of course there is a natural protective urge to want them to stay healthy. The price that many of them pay for their excesses can be heart-breaking. Blaming them as being responsible for their own actions is ridiculous if the message they absorb is that getting really drunk and doing stupid things is clever and/or funny.

And now we are giving them the tools to avoid hangovers. I like drinking and sometimes I drink more than I should, but I also know that my body hates it when I do. It's a natural defense mechanism to show us our limits and should not be overlooked as a preventative.

If we no longer have any medical consequences we will push our bodies over the limit as a matter of course. But often the real trauma of binge drinking is the wider physical and emotional damage caused by violence, bravado, promiscuity or recklessness . Can we  develop a pill for that too?   

Many people would be able to identify a bottle of wine that was truly faulty and, in a restaurant, ask for a replacement. But would you be able to tell what the fault was or what to blame for it? It is all to do with perception threshold. Different faults require different parts per thousand or even million to be perceived.

Some people are more sensitive to certain faults than others so while the host, who may taste the wine as it is brought to the table, is happily quaffing, one or more guests could be secretively retching into their napkins. Depending on how well you know your host and judging, diplomatically, how much of an ego dent your comments could produce, it might be worth discreetly asking people to have another careful sniff.

 At a wine faults workshop this week, it was made clear that a fault is only a fault if the people drinking the wine consider it to be. For example the "fault" brett - produced from brettanomyces yeast acting on the phenolic acids of the grape - is a characteristic that some tasters love and some winemakers deliberately introduce. It can produce strong animal characteristics that enhance a wine's complexity and increases some people's pleasure.

Of course it is very important to get the balance right because the smallest increase tips a wine over from animal (yum) to bretty (yuck).  And even in the lower doses some people adore the fragrant pong while others will recoil in horror at the filthy stench. Perception is all.

Then there is actual corkiness. Produced by TCA, TBA and TeCA it has various origins like the high levels of chlorine used to clean the winery and equipment, the breakdown of other cleaning agents by funghi in the winery - low ventilation and high humidity contibuting to high levels in the atmosphere.

The cork industry is keen to point out that it is not something inherently present in the corks more of a contamination at the winery. The plastic in alternative closure linings etc are equally susceptible to this contamination. With increased awareness, far higher standards of hygiene than ever before and alternative cleaning solutions available the problem should be getting better. However despite some high profile cases in California back in 2004, there are still many wineries taking the easy option and continuing bad practices.

At the other end is a sulfide problem that produces a tomato, truffle, cabbage, rubber character. This is reduction, the opposite of oxidation and the result of a complete seal which prevents any movement of oxygen into the wine. Unlike oxidation though, this can be corrected sometimes as simply as swirling the wine in the glass or decanting the bottle thereby allowing some air contact and dissipating the bad aromas.

This problem has been most associated with screwcaps which provide such an affective seal that all the positive benefits of cork permeability have been lost alongside the problems that can occur for freshness through excessive permeability.

New Zealand wineries have famously chosen to address this by slightly oxidising the wine before bottling in order to achieve balance once the wine is in bottle. As is often the case with the New World, they are quick to respond to problems and criticism.

However this is a dangerous and nervy solution and not always successful. Pascal Chatonnet, leading faults scientist, oenologist and consultant to wineries all over the world, argues that some of the essential character and originality is lost through this process and the overall quality and elegance is compromised, though this is not necessarily understood by the consumer as the original wine is not available to compare.

What is important to the cork industry is that while a consumer might recognise the wine is faulty, the only real language employed to describe or attribute the fault invokes cork. This is of major concern and is where the charm offensive needs to conentrate, for cork may not have played any part whatsoever.

For consumers the challenge to the industry as a whole is to find a closure with the correct level of permeability and which is kept free of contamination. It is in everybody's interests and with a more frank discussion opening up we can only hope that solutions won't be too far away.

This merry band of merchants, flying the flag for small, artisanal wineries with distinctive, regional wines came to Fulham last week to give both press and public a chance to see what they have to offer.

The lower and upper ends of the wine market are well served by supermarkets and the "establishment"  but there is increasing demand for wine between these extremes. The best value for quality of wines with integrity and interest.  These merchants are really passionate about their lists and usually have personal relationships built up with the producers so they have fairly extensive knowledge of the vineyards, wineries and vintages.

Some of the listings are inevitably idiosyncratic and not all the wines will be to everyone's taste but these are dedicated people who will help you find treasures you will come back for again and again.

Jim Monks from Decanter Wines is a private collector who started by bringing in pallets for his own cellar, his approach is unashamedly personal (all the wines are aged in his cellar until he feels they are ready to drink and only then offered to the public) and any commercial success is second to his goal of providing himself with the kind of wine he wants to drink. Luckily, his taste seems to be shared and his wines show very well.

Also showing was Nick Dobson a self-proclaimed "niche player" with some outstanding and unusual wines from Switzerland, Austria and Germany.  With these countries slowly garnering a following for their wines it is worth knowing where to track down some great examples.

Also well-represented were Amordivino, Italian importers; The Big Red Wine Company showing mainly the Southern Rhone on this occasion; Abbe Arrous whose "Cyrcée, Collioure 2002" was the outstanding wine of the day for me; and Leon Stolarski with a wonderfully diverse selection of regional French wine.

The full list of tasting notes will be put up on this site but have a look at their website and sign up to their free monthly newsletter asdw.org.uk it is always going to be worth finding something a little bit different and a little bit special.

I have just spent the day tasting  sample wines with the lovely Tim Atkin, wine writer for the Observer newspaper. He had a backlog of wines, which are sent to him on a regular basis by enthusiastic PR agents.  He was looking for about 30 odd good-value wines to recommend for Summer drinking and anything else of particular interest.

It was such a treat to taste so many (almost 200) wines in this way - shoes off, sun streaming through open doors, the World Cup on in the background and the exclusive company of an MW to set the pace and answer any random questions. Tim is generous with his knowledge but completely unpretentious and respectful of other palates, making him one of the best co-tasters around!

Unfortunately I didn't make notes as there were so many wines, some of which were absolute dross, and we were tasting at speed;  the shortlist was going to be re-tasted anyway. However it was fascinating to see what gets sent to a wine writer - it really did run the gamut of the sublime to the ridiculous.

There were some absolute bargains around the £5 mark as well as the obligatory toilet cleaners - that's a bit harsh but really some of the wines did make me wonder who on earth is making this stuff and expecting to sell it. Then some real standouts for me such as Lopez de Heredia, Vina Tondonia White Rioja 1987 which is very distinctive and almost sherry-like in its evolution. Absolute treat!

We also tasted lots of wines between £5-20, some of which were true examples of why it is so worth paying a bit more, the leap in quality can be so much greater than the extra pounds. A few seemed to be simpletons posing as poets which is what makes people nervous about shelling out in the first place.

For a full rundown check out Tim's Saturday column, always worth a read anyway.

I went to a wedding yesterday at the Catholic church off Marylebone High Street. It was unrehearsed which made it very moving, unusual and utterly captivating. There were also cute moments of pure comedy. The Groom, half Italian half English, had grown a luxurious handlebar moustache and was crowned with a splendid bouffant coiffure - which would all have somewhat stolen the Bride's thunder except that she was stunning, yes stunning.

But it was the reception afterwards that I was curious about as I had had a hand in choosing the wines. A few weeks before, the couple along with the Groom's parents, sister and her partner (my brother) - our hosts for the night - and I got together with several wines, some tasting sheets and sharp pencils.

Everyone was  deadly serious, our hostess even dressing up for the occasion, "Ambassador's Ball, darling?" my brother enquired. The evening got underway with some earnest swirling and nosing of glasses. They listened intently as  I held a Masterclass (just kidding) in the principles of tasting and they were enthusiastic about putting it into practice. Subtle nuances in aromatics, mouthfeel and style were teased out and passionately discussed. The only information that was held back was the price. This allowed fair and sometimes surprising results.

As the evening progressed notes got shorter and descriptors grew more elaborate, debate was heated over two Argentinian Malbecs - was there more chocolate in one or too much weight for a Summer's day in the other? It was such a pleasure as a wine nerd to watch this engagement in my sport. Maybe like getting your girlfriend to watch the World Cup and actually enjoy it.

On the actual day we had a fantastic time, the guests drank the wine too deep in animated conversation to really appreciate those elusive notes of elderflower and cigar box that seemed so vital to our choice on the night. Then the Groom led his Bride out onto the dancefloor to "When the moon hits your eye..."

That's Amore Folks!

 
Louis Bouillot Cremant de Bourgogne Grande Reserve Brut NV £7.19/2  Beautifully creamy with a fine mousse. Fragrant with delicate apple and cherry blossom with a biscuity base.  Outshone all the (more expensive) sparkling wines from New Zealand, Australia and California.

 Les Fontanelles Sauvignon Blanc 2004, Vin de Pays d'Oc £3.99/2  A bargain find, this was a crowd pleaser. All the ripe fruit character of a New World Sauvignon but at this price I find some of them cariacatures of the variety. This had admirable subtlety and refreshing acidity but was not the icy blonde you sometimes encounter from the Loire.

 Alamos Malbec 2004, Catena £5.00/2  Big generous wine, silky fruit wrapped around the ripe tannins with enough acidity to make you go back for another sip.  Chocolate and black cherry fruit. Not too sweet. Simple but effective.

All wines from Majestic, prices may vary depending on current offers.

www.majestic.co.uk