budrichard

Roland Anchovy Paste. It dissolves very easily with your olive oil mixture. -Dick

Thanks for all your advise and comments and the interesting wine sites. Therry Thiese is very interesting but I don't want to send anyone money and then have them send me wine. Part of the enjoyment is the learning process and being responsible for your own wine selections, acquiring the knowledge and experience to allow one to not have to rely on a wine merchant or steward for advice. The other sites appear to offer very good wines for an overhead that I think I can avoid. Just picked up two cases of 1999 Dr Thanisch Wehlener Sonnenuhr BA for a very reasonable price. If I had to rely on someone else's expertise on whether this wine was any good, the price would have been triple what I paid. -Dick

Mark, I am not trying to disparage you or your friend but Professor (of what?) at UC and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory does not impress me. Just remember the physicists who brought you 'Cold Fusion'! I'll stand by my assertion that the 'Wine Clip' is junk by all known laws of physics and that it cannot be objectively tested, blind, double blind or whatever. I'm incredulous that we (I) are still wasting time on this post. -Dick

Mirriam-Webster: Main Entry: au·toch·tho·nous Pronunciation: o-'täk-th&-n&s Function: adjective Date: 1805 1 : INDIGENOUS, NATIVE 2 : formed or originating in the place where found - au·toch·tho·nous·ly adverb -Dick

Quote from the Times article, "In the long run, it doesn't really matter. Even now, the sons and daughters of American winemakers are working in vineyards and cellars all over the world and their counterparts from Tuscany, Penedes, Alsace and Coonawarra are here with us. There are appellations in wine country, but fewer and fewer borders. What kind of wine will come out of all this? Hard to say, but it should be pretty good. " Since I am founded in the classical European wines, both the vineyard and the grape variety matter to me. Knowing both allows one to have a sense of who made this wine and the grower a sense of pride in making the wine. I do not believe that the outcome is inevitably 'pretty good'. Different wines from the past but not inevitably 'pretty good'. -Dick

It is refreshing to hear from someone that doesn't allow the 'Wine Spectator's' evaluation of $100+US bottles of Red and White French Burgundy as 'good values' to influence their thinking! My belief is that the valuation system of the classical French Burgundy is out of control . We are drinking up the stocks we have and not purchasing anymore. There is a lot of wine available in the world right now, at excellent prices. It doesn't pain me to not have a Montrachet or Musigny on my table anymore. -Dick

Have not had good experiences at Izumi's and we stopped going. Have never had a bad experience at Hama's other than no one is Japanese! Karl Ratch'es used to be the place for hearty, heavy German cusine. To purchase fish, try Grashe's in Brookfield on North Av which is the only vendor I now use in the Milwaukee area. The first Stone Crab claws arrived on Saturday and on the way back from the Badger game, I picked up a dozen I had pre-ordered. They were the best I have ever had outside of Florida and HUGE @ $24.99/#. Two were enough for one person. They regularly have fresh sturgeon, skate wings, white salmon. With all fish mongers, you have to ask about when things arrived and make an educated judgement about freshness. The only problem is that they along with all other retailers are now only selling filets and not the whole fish. Makes it harder to judge freshness and no bones for soup stock. Swordfish is $7.99/# since the restaurant trade stopped purchasing and they will cut to order. I like my swordfish steaks about 2-3" inches for the grill. -Dick

I have been using the 2 gal Zip Lock bags for corning my brisket. Just be sure that it is contained in another pan because eventually the seal leaks a little. As already stated useful for marinating or dry rub for a lot of things. You can prepare your own lox very easily using liquid smoke along with salt and brown suger. Not as great as 'Russ & Daughters' but acceptable in a pinch. 'Stainless Steel Magic' for cleaning and polishing those stainless panels on your major appliances. -Dick

For corned beef there's Jake's on North Av. Not a great neigborhood but Jake's still serves the best corned beef in Milwaukee. Dancing Ganesha's for Indian, even though it's very expensive for Indian food. The little sides that come with the meal at most Indian buffets, each cost here but the food is uniformaly excellent. Coquette Cafe is the little sister of Sanford's and afford's a better value. I wasn't too thrilled about Sanford's. Hama in Bayside north of the city has the best Sushi in the area. One of my favorite's over the years has been Karl Ratche's but I just don't know if they are doing any good now with all the management changes. Of course as already mentioned, the custard at Kopps is the best. I dare you to eat a Double cheeseburger at Kopps! -Dick

Hugh Johnson lists the 1962 vintage of Sauterne's as " very fine, elegant" which translates to me as not having great sweetness but still drinkable. He says to drink by 1974. Old sweet wines can be a crap shoot. The color will be an indication if the wine has undergone madurization. If golden, it may be Ok, if dark in color than maybe not. In any event is not something that is worth a fortune to someone so you might as well enjoy it. Be ready to consume it at one sitting because old wines fade fast. I will be opening the next to last bottle of 1969 Niersteiner Rebach TBA at Thanksgiving and I have no idea how it will have changed since we last had a bottle. -Dick

Plum wine is an acquired taste which I never have acquired. When we get a bottle we give it away. You may our bottle! -Dick

Since I live in Wisconsin and Usinger's is a 45 minute ride away and the car knows the way anyway, let me reinforce what others have correctly stated. I also grew up in Neenah Wisconsin which is 15 minutes away from Slkinsey's alma mater, Lawrence College. Usinger pre-cooked brats are finely ground and more akin to knackwurst. They are excellent in thier own right and deserve to be lightly grilled and nothing else. Usinger regular brats are course ground and of course raw. The traditional method is too pre cook in beer, onions and butter. This allows some of the grease to be removed and avoids overcooking on the grill to assure the pork is fully cooked. Then all that is needed is a light grill just like the precooked. Either is fantastic and we always serve both type along with Usinger veal wieners which are a special order item. Enjoy! -Dick

30 minutes seems a long time. We just clean and poach for about 5 minutes and chill in ice water. Browne Trading http://www.brownetrading.com is in Miane. Call them and they will tell you what the situation is. -Dick

Mark, thanks for the recommendations. I now have 9 cases of the 2001 German vintage but I always have room for one more. I will find the book at read it. My first wine book was Hornickel's, 'The Great Wines of Europe' published when the wine world was a lot smaller. I purchased that book as an undergraduate and it led me to many great wines. -Dick

Of all the Bordeaux vintages, the 61 consistantly yielded very good to great wines. We are down to our last case of Chateau Beausejour. All the rest were excellent and we have fond memories of the wines and the prices. -Dick

Let me clarify. There is a supply of German wines available and much of what used to be generic is now labled with vineyard appelations, not great wines. Certainly not what we have become accustomed to over the years. I am usually looking for Specific vineyards,specific grades, years and growers of which i have a history with. Wines with these attributes are often difficult for me to find. Certainly more difficult than 20 -30 years ago. I certainly can find other wines but I believe that the specific wines I have identified may not be getting out of Germany and the Germans are sending to us the lessor wines or the big name wines that as Mark pointed out have declined in quality to a great extent. As I stated, to get the specific Hochheimer, I had to contact the grower directly, coordinate the importer and retailer and as far as I know, i possess the only three cases in the US. 20 years ago a trip to one of a small number of retailers would have been sufficient to order the wines. Mark, you are certainly correct about Dr Thanish wines. We have enjoyed some wonderful Dr Thanish wines over the years and have a few left in our celler. For 2001 I purchased a case of Dr Thanish Benrkastler Lay Auslese and 375ml Bernkastler Dokter BA. They are and always have been wonderful wines if overpriced. Uerziger Wurzgarten has always been a favorite of ours at a better price. Too bad about the count. there are all sorts of stories floating around. -Dick

As an advid German wine drinker from the early 60's when my future father-in-law introduced me to German sweet wines, I took it upon myself to learn everything I could about this arcane wine and it's nomenclature. This type of investigation was well suited to a Nuclear Engineer who investigates everything in great detail. In the past 10 years I have noticed that many of the top vineyards wines(by my standards) are not represented in the US anymore and the wines we getting, I believe are the excess judged not worthy by the German's. Often the name wines such as Steinberger and Schloss Vollrads are obtainable but the quality has not been good. Many of the great German sweet wines are just no longer readily available in the US. One of my favorites is Domdechant Werner's Hochheiemer Domdechaney of which our first was a 59 BA, sublime! Since 2001 was a good year I decided to lay in a few cases of what i liked. My contact with wine retailers in the mid west was not fruitful. The cases of 2001 Hochheiemer Domdechaney from Domdechant Werner that I purchased were obtained by my direct negotiation with the grower after I could not obtain the wine in the US. For 2001 Werner is only sending a Trocken Spatlese to the US and agreed to send me a sweet Spatlese. These wines came through Ron Breitstein of Great Lakes Import to a retailer and were very difficult to obtain. For a number of years now I have been frustrated in not finding many of the German wines I wanted and I regularly visit Sam's in Chicago as well as other retailers. Milwaukee used to be a hot bed of German wine but no more. Sam's could not help at all? I also attempted to contact the importer for the State's Domain Kloster Erbach wines with no success. I finally found some of the Kloster Erbach wines at Sam's last Sunday which I purchased, A 2001 Marcobrunner Kabinet and a 2001 Rauenthaler Baiken Spatlese. I was looking for a Hochheimer Domdechaney to compare with Werner's but no luck. Has anyone else perceived this problem? -Dick

Are you sure it's 1963? I do not remember ever seeing any 1963 French wines of any kind? Hugh Johnson classifies 1963 for Sauternes as 'Bad' and when to drink as 'Never'. Coming on the heels of 59,60,61 and 62 and before 64, there was a lot of good to great wine available around that time. Still working on our last case of 61 Bordeaux. All the other 60's are gone. -Dick

I quote, "Here is the science: When a conductor or conductive fluid (in this case wine) passes through a magnetic field, an electrical charge is created. That charge can have an effect on molecules that are suspended in the fluid - loosely bonded molecules can have those bonds broken, resulting in smaller molecules. We can hypothesize that the taste of many small molecules is smoother than the taste of fewer large molecules. There is no proof of this, however. There is no scientific data that stipulates that smaller tannin molecules taste better than larger ones." The first part of the above statement is absolutely incorrect. When a conducter or conductive fluid passes through a magnetic field, a current consisting of the movement of electrical particles is created. If that didn't happen, then you wouldn't have the electricity to read this post, as that is how electricity is generated, by moving a conducter in a magnetic field. Electrical charges are not created, just like matter or energy is not created in normal circomstances.( We won't talk about Quantum Mechanics where it is possible to create matter and energy just as long as the net effect is zero!) The rest of the statement is pure junk! Who said wine is a conductive fluid? In terms of optical and audio testing. There are quantitative methods available to test each area. The use of subjective testing is left to the 'FanZines' where all products are great and the more one pays for an item, the better it sounds or looks. You can go to BestBuy and purchase 100' rolls of 'Monster' HP cable and install your 7.1 system yourself(I plan for the future) or you can purchase esoteric cable with all sorts of unjustifiable claims at outrageous prices. The choice is yours. Those of us that believe in science choose to believe rigerous quantitative testing. I do believe in the subjective when visual perception(art) is the subject and yes, you can't quantify it but know it when you see, hear, feel or taste it. But when I see, hear, feel or taste something I don't like, I have no problem in saying so. We walked out of the Chicago Lyric Opera's performance of 'Gatsby' because we didn't like it. If we believed the critics, we would have stayed. I believe many individuals are not confident in thier perceptions (wine being a prominent area) and don't want to contradict what the experts say. BTW, did you ever wonder why they use placebo's in testing? I certainly appreciate the efforts some of you are going to for this product and I am not ridiculing you. I simply am trying to point out that your testing is nonconsequential. In fact when you come right down to it, wine tasting is nonconsequential. Wine tasting makes an enjoyable product into a contest or trial wherein one loses sight of just enjoying wine. Definition: Wine Tasting, where one tastes a wine with the objective of giving it a numerical rating and describing the flavors. Now I'm beat. I need to have a glass of Domdechant Werner's 2001 Hochheimer Domdechaney Spatlese. http://www.domdechantwerner.com/dwwine.htm Not the Trocken Spatlese but the sweet Spatlese. Try to find that at your local wine store!-Dick

Some us are professionals with extensive scientific backgrounds and investigation histories. I for one have degrees in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a resume that starts at Plasma Physics experimentation to Root Cause Analysis along with 27 years in the Commercial Nuclear Power Industry in between. We understand the world from a perspective that allows one to analyize whether something is 'Voodoo Science'. We also understand how an experiment must be performed to determine what is affected along with how an individuals perception can lead to false positives. I stand by my original assertion that objective testing of the 'Wine Clip' is impossible. Not only from a perception aspect but from control of variables i.e. the wine changes with time. Reidal has been making a fortune on their line of glassware and even though I doubt all their claims, I do use their glassware but only have a set of tasting glasses because I like the hollow stems and rolling around on the table and a set I purchased for cheap at 'Sams'. All Clad tries to sell 'copper cookware' but when you ask them for the thickness of the layers of copper, they will tell you that information is propietary. In effect, thier cookware is aluminum with a thin copper veneer. I purchased Falk Culinair. About the Heisenberg Uncertaincy Principle. Their is a lot of misunderstanding of this famous equation. The equation more correctly states that if one measures the position of a particle to a precise degree, than one loses all measurement of its momentum. This is for sub atomic particles where the measurements are made by light and since the particles are so small, the light being used to measure, affects the particle path. In the non atomic world, it is possible to measure with high precision many things. The 'Wine Clip' just isn't one of them. -Dick

I read the first few posts and initial testing methodology and 'results'. I can't believe that this forum is wasting it's time and energy on this product. As I previously posted, by the very nature of the qualitative methods of testing available and the imprecise nature of our perceptions, a truly scientific and objective testing methodology is impossible to do. With the abscence of any qualitative testing available, science must prevail, and science says the 'Wine Clip' is junk. BTW, if you debunk science and scientists, remember, it is they who keep your lights on(well most of the time for you in the EAST), make all your egadgets work and keep the planes in the air. Having read a few more posts, I firmly agree with Mr Camp on decorum, and I find that 'The Wine Clip' has held up remarkably under all the negative posts, unfortuneatly, his product has no scientifc basis and cannot be tested. One last thought on testing methodology. When endeavering to determine the effect of a variable, one wants to eliminate the effects of all other variables and hold those variables constant. By it's very nature, once you open a bottle of wine, even if you open two, one clipped and one unclipped, you cannot hold the other variables that are causing the wine to change constant. Add that to the subjective perceptions of the tasters and you must conclude that any scientific testing is impossible. -Dick

Great article! As a wine drinker/collector for 30+ years, I long ago stopped listening to the pundits and thier ratings. The pronouncements of Wine Spectator that $150/bottle white burgundies are a good buy cause me to convulse. I continue to read about vintages and seperate out the chaff from the wheat and purchase what I want. In some cases(pun?), this involves actually going to the source and ordering the wine thourgh an importer. The Internet and email have made this easier. In a restaurant, I order what I want with no intervention from the wine steward who invariably obtained the position yesterday. I have no fear of ordering the wrong wine but only fear the price and when I ascertain the price is out of line, it's beer for me! -Dick

One last comment and then I'll bow out of this discussion. The reason the 'Wine Clip' is percieved to work is very simple. An individuals perception is not a rigerous means of accomplishing a measurement. Perception is not reality, as we have been taught. at least in this case. Because an individual is told that he must determine if there is a difference between two wines, his mind is subconsiously looking for the difference and in many cases, social stigma of not wanting to not perceive the change will cause an individual to confirm a positive. When objective methods of measurement (read scientific instruments) are used and statistical variance employed, the measurements show no difference. The 'Wine Clip' cannot be proved by individual perception, you aren't that good. So the 'Wine Clip' works simply because it cannot be proved to not work by the methods employed. As a trained root cause investigator, I can regale you for hours about investigations where individuals swear on a stack of Bibles that something occured and the objective instrumentation shows nothing or vice versa. -Dick

I stoped reading the posts after the one posted by "The Wine Clip". My degrees are in Nuclear Engineering and I assure that I am well learned in scientific theory and investigation. The statement "Sometimes science can't be explained but it also can't be denied! " is used by individuals to try and debunk the scientific method. An area such as wine tasting does not lend itself to rigerous scientific investigation simply because one cannot seperate out ones perceptions from objective evidence. In the absence of investigation, it's a little like answering the query " Prove to me that it doesn't work". My reaction to the 'Wine Clip' is bull$#*t. Plain and simple. -Dick

The question to be asked is "Does color affect one's taste sensation of a wine?". Without any qualitative or quantitative(hard to obtain in tasting) evidence, I prefer to see my wine and the thought of tasting a wine in a black glass leaves me cold. Since the subject of taste is so subjective, the black glass is " a solution in search of a problem. More likely it is another of Riedel's marketing ploys to sell glasses, at which they have been very successful. The only Riedel glasses we have are a set of the tasting glasses and the ones i picked up at Sam's Club for cheap. Over the years we have used and broken at least a hundred or more from slamming in the tailgate of a Yukon to simply dropping! Can't afford Riedel at that rate of breakage. -Dick