For all of our readers in the United States, Friday is the 4th of July Independence Day. For most, this means a day off of work and an opportunity to relax, get some sun, picnic, bbq, grill up some Brats (NOTE: do NOT poke a hole in them while you’re grilling), and drinking beer, Red Zinfandel and Champagne while we get ready for the evenings fireworks.  When the fireworks finally arrive, we’ll most likely be with family and friends contributing to the choir of fireworks with our ooh’s and ahhh’s.

If you are in the mood for traveling, or nearby, you should probably set your sites on one of these cities, as they we’re recently ranked The Top 10 Places to Celebrate July 4th:

1. Boston
2. Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard
3. Chicago
4. Mount Rushmore
5. Philadelphia
6. Queen Mary 2
7. San Diego
8. San Juan Islands
9. US Virgin Islands
10. Washington, DC

Enjoy a safe 4th of July and Happy Birthday America!

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I received this Press Release in the inbox a few minutes ago, and thought we could share. We had several conversations with Chris at ZanMedia a while back concerning this film, and really like the direction it is headed in promoting the wine industry. Just a helpful tip to anyone marketing movies… It is ALWAYS a good idea to put your trailer on youtube. (I would have embedded it into this page for our readers if I could have found this one)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For More Information contact:
Niki Scioli, Associate Producer
Zan Media
(415-897-8393)

The University of Rochester Medical Center yesterday, released research information concluding that the antioxidants in red wine not only enhance the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy treatment, but also appear to kill cancer cells. Read the rest of this entry »

Admittedly, its largely to the work of dedicated bloggers like Lenn Thompson that I owe my continued fascination with New York State wines. New York’s white wines, from the fertile Long Island soils and the Germanic climate, have a unique and distinctive character that quite frankly, puts Californian whites to shame. This Chard shows off tropicality with mineral structure, making it a perfect aperitif or a between courses palate cleanser. Along with the rounded touch of malolactic fermentation there’s a perfectly balanced element of wood that integrates well on the palate, leaving a hint of tinned-pears on the finish.

Seeing as the United States is playing against South African on the 30th of September, in the white wine department I will have to concede a handful of points the America for this fine Estate.

We’re looking for some cool young people from around the world to join the Grape Thinking team and become global liaisons for us. This will involve writing posts, discussing the cultural unifying power of wine, and most importantly, reviewing wines from your country or region of the world. You can write posts on Grape Thinking, put up reviews, and interact on our forum at World Cup of Wine. The perks of being on the Grape Thinking team are expense paid travels, free wine, and becoming part of a team that wants to help bring the world together. Ruarri has been doing an awesome job of rep’ing South Africa and the UK. Now we’re looking for people anywhere else in the world that would like to be a part of this — France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Romania, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Singapore, India, China, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey, Hungary, Israel, Indonesia, Tunisia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Morocco, Taiwan, Puerto Rico, Peru,– just to name a few… However, the great thing about wine is that it’s in virtually every country in the world, so anyone anywhere interested, contact us.

Most of the players in the United States Rugby side probably wouldn’t know where to point if you asked them to indicate Tonga’s position on a map, and thus it must have been quite satisfying for the small island to serve a cold can of whip-ass to the world’s only remaining superpower yesterday when the shamed Eagles lost 25 points to 15. The USA’s dismal performance in the Rugby and Soccer World Cup all serve as a startling reminder of the tremendous lack of interest in world affairs on the US’s part - and that when it comes to world sport, environmental protocols and UN resolutions, the US is not a team player. Of course it is not only in sport that the US are beaten by small and obscure nations, it would seem that recently the score-board in War hasn’t been to flattering either (think Vietnam, Somalia and Iraq where most of the soldiers who have been thrown into wars there probably couldn’t have found the country they’re fighting in on a map before they were stationed there.) Perhaps the lesson in all this is that aside from at a bit of geography in high-school, it would perhaps be good foreign policy to try prime the pumps of worldly curiosity within the Nation. I dare say that there’s no better way to get to learn a little geography and some history than by drinking wine and having a love of food. Imagine people switching off the mind-dulling and hate spewing Fox News, and switching over to the Food Network for a cooking show in Tuscany, a wine tour in Syria or a cuisine pilgrimage to Morocco. Perhaps we could do away with some of the demonization of the Middle-East if we were to explore their culture. Hell, how’s this for an idea: instead of trying to destroy the rest of the world, how about enjoying it! What a crazy thing that would be, enjoy and don’t destroy. There is after all such a thing as soft-power, which is where you win wars not with bullets and rifles, but with culture and ideas.

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