StephenT

Try warming it up, probably with hot water? Sounds a bit extreme so try dunking it into a full saucepan for a bit. The heat should expand the metal more than the glass, making it easier to open. In theory.

Funnily enough, one of the best things about the Special Theory of Relativity is its simplicity and elegance.

So how was it? Were the gullies flaming? I hope everyone is hung over enough to tell me it's a good thing I didn't go.

Sorry everyone, I think this is my fault. Forces outside our control have obviously conspired to keep me on the path of righteousness that is Dry January by removing this temptation. With this in mind I think I'd better not go as that might result in the bar being hit by a meteorite to prevent me from drinking there.

heavily sauced pasta is NOT Real Italian

Good point. With this in mind, I suggest the following system. RP and his ilk rate wines on a number of different criteria (there are possibly many, many of these) to produce a "rating vector" which lives in "objective wine space". Now, if you wanted to eat it with a steak, you'd transform that vector into "steak space" by applying the "steak matrix" and you'd get a better indication of how the wine would drink with steak. "Steak space" would preferably have many fewer axes/dimensions than "objective space" so as to make this more apparent to the untrained eye. Now, add to that peoples' individual tastes. Everyone should know their preferences and determine their own personal "preference matrix" with which to weight different wines according to their own preferences. When you discover that your aunt from Sioux City is coming to visit, you'd simply ask her for her "preference matrix" to assist you in your choice of wine. Should you not be entirely happy with her preferences, you could always take the average of her preference matrix with yours to get something in the middle. So, assuming that your aunt from Sioux city is coming to visit and eat steak on a Saturday evening in June, your calculation to determine how well a particular bottle of wine would match this occasion would go something like this: First calculate the "occasion matrix": (occasion matrix) = (personal preference matrix) X (Saturday evening in June matrix) X (steak matrix) Then transform the wine's "objective weighting" with this matrix: (wine's "objective space" vector) X (occasion matrix) = (wine-steak vector) Don't forget to normalise the personal preference matrix should it be composed of a number different peoples' preferences or it'll lead to incorrect results. If you have an ideal wine-steak vector in mind (as everyone should), you can invert the "occasion matrix", apply it to this ideal vector and you'll be able to determine an "objective space" vector of the ideal wine to drink. Enter this vector into your cellar management system and it'll inform you of the closest match that you have in your cellar. Simple really. I don't know why more people don't use this system. Edit: couldn't spell "occasion"

That's exactly why I'm planning to go. I'll probably hate myself more for missing it than for going. This is the second year of Dry January. Last year it was a really good idea after a decidedly wet December. This year it's less essential for actual survival. Sure I'll be shunned by most of the people I work with and they'll call me weak, but I'll just have to put up with it

Vanessa, thanks for the post! Speaking of Chartreuse, do you have any favourite cocktails made from green Chartreuse? When a friend recently travelled to France, she asked me if she could get me anything and I asked for green Chartreuse, specifically with the intention of making cocktails with it. But I haven't actually done so yet and the bottle is giving me displeased looks.

I've heard that as an argument for not chilling your gin (or vodka) when making a martini. If you chill the spirit then it doesn't melt enough of the ice and your drink is unpalatably strong. Of course, those who like their drinks to be tongue-numbingly strong will disagree

Hmm... this might make be break my Dry January rule...

Fast food corporations market themselves at young people because they know they're gullible. And those that aren't immediately taken in by the advertising are still sucked in because their peers are. Those that have a brain will grow up, figure it out and stop going there. Except on the way home when very drunk.

Something I liked about the New York subway (at least at the stations I used) is that it was just below street level which meant there there were relatively few stairs to go up or down. On the London Underground you have to use mile-long escalators and travel through mazes of twisty passages, all alike, to get to and from the platforms.

PERKINS, PAKENHAM-WALSH, and AINSWORTH: A tiger?! EVERYONE: A tiger?! [mayhem] PAKENHAM-WALSH: A tiger... in Africa?

I've just done a search on Google and have found the web site of The Pinotage Club. It lists far, far more than I thought there were, including some outside of South Africa.

I don't own fine glassware, but I wish I did. When I'm in a restaurant with good glasses, I often spend ages tipping my glass back and forth, marvelling at the perfect balance and staring at the splendidly thin rim. To me, it does make a bit of a difference to the whole wine-drinking experience if not to the taste itself. Not as big a difference as there is between drinking wine from a cheap coffee mug and from a normal wine glass though!

Ah, UCT. The old stomping ground. When I thought that good wine came in 340ml bottles and had "beer" written on the label. Do have a look at the 5-star Platters lists to which Kikujiro posted links. I've tried hunting down 5-star wines before with little success, but it seems to be a general trend that wineries that produce good wines of one variety also produce good wines of other varieties so some of the names on there could serve as guides. Many South African Chardonnays are oaked and very new world in style so you probably don't want them. You can often pick up fairly good bottles of wine at a run-of-the-mill liquor store (or "bottle store" as they're usually known in South Africa) and don't have to go to a specialist wine shop. There is one in Rondebosch, down the hill from UCT. If you look at this map then follow Grotto road (in the middle of the map) down to Main Road. Cross over Main Road at the traffic lights and continue, with a car park on the right. The bottle store is there on the left. I remember it as being somewhat grungy and frequented by students and hobos, but it's close. I'm sure your wife will be visiting the Waterfront at some point (if she hasn't already) so she could go to the shop there that Kikujiro mentioned. There are some other wine shops there as well, this page lists them. Prices at such places will doubtless be higher, but she'd be more likely to get competent advice and they'll have a higher proportion of good wines. Fairview is a fun winery to visit. They make cheese there as well, which you can taste along with the wines for a small fee. Almost next door is Landskroon which is producing some decent wines at good value. Those are two that I tend to visit regularly, but there are lots and lots of others. If your wife has some time to get out and about, she should definitely pick up a Platters Wine Guide (probably available at most liquor stores and also in book shops) as it'll give her an idea of wineries to visit. In fact even if she doesn't go visiting wineries, it's an invaluable guide to the wines themselves so she can decide what she wants when she goes shopping.

Table Bay Hotel is a hotel on Cape Town's Waterfront. It's a fairly recent development and I remember reports about its restaurant having a zillion-bottle wine cellar or something like that. I also remember they toned some of it down slightly after a while because very few people could afford to stay there. Of course you'd be within quite easy reach of many other restaurants in Cape Town from there. Sun City is a resort at the other end of the country, vaguely near Johannesburg. It was built mainly as a casino in the bad old days when gambling was banned in South Africa but allowed in the various "homelands". I've never been there, but I'm sure it has at least one or two decent restaurants as it caters to a large degree to international customers. I didn't go to game reserves much when I was young, but last time I went back on holiday I did. The restaurants there didn't impress me much, but I do recall eating game. I don't recally what it was, probably a small to medium antelope. There is a restaurant near Johannesburg that serves large chunks of grilled game - giraffe, zebra, etc. Not sure how "big" it gets though - probably buffalo. Elephants are not endangered in South Africa (in fact they need to be culled in game reserves from time to time) but I don't recall ever seeing an elephant steak on a menu.

I don't know what does or doesn't make it to the US, but here is a (rather long) list of wines that won awards at the Veritas wine industry awards last year. I've had the Bellevue Pinotage which is near the top of that list. Pinotage used to be something of a joke grape (it was "invented" in 1926 by crossing pinot noir with cinsaut/hermitage) but this dispells that. I can't remember the specifics, but I found it a very well balanced wine which probably reflected the best ever value I've had from a bottle I've bought. It cost me R54 which was about £3.60 when I bought it a year ago. Further down the list is the Neil Ellis "Sincerely" Sauvignon Blanc which is made in a Sancerre-like style (hence the name) which I thought your wife would enjoy, but I've just found it's specially made for a supermarket chain in the UK so won't be available in SA. I'm sure she could ask someone in a shop about wines fitting your preferences... can't think of any wine shops to specifically reocmmend at the moment. Do you know whereabout in Cape Town she's staying? Edit: Realised I couldn't divide... 54 / 15 = 3.6 not 5!

A meta-topic of sorts: Does it matter whether or not it's elitist? It's clearly the right thing to do, so go ahead and do it regardless of its... er... elitistness.

Is Burgundy your favourite wine?

It should certainly have had a good head. Maybe it was an iffy bottle? The picture here looks rather like the head I've had whenever I'd ordered a Chimay. Or in fact any other Trappist beers.

That'll be me then. You like the idea of drinking liquid charcoal?

I don't know if this is too late, but here goes... I used to live in Cape Town but now go back once a year or so. Last time I went (almost a year ago now), some friends suggested that we go to Bukhara, which didn't exist when I lived there. So we did and it was great. The dishes weren't quite what I'd come to expect from eating at Indian restaurants in London, but they were really full of flavour, the service was good and I loved the general ambience. Possibly because we waited for quite a while for a table and drank a bottle of wine while waiting and then were given a free bottle of the same for our trouble. I shall certainly return when I'm next in Cape Town in a couple of months. I've not been to Africa Cafe... might be somewhere to go if your wife wants to taste African food. I don't know if you've seen their web site, it's here.

From what I remember, the confusing nomenclature occurred due to the way champagne evolved during its history. In the beginning, champagne was a rather nasty wine and was artificially sweetened to disguise its tartness. As the producers began to improve their techniques and produce better wines, there was less need for this. So demi-sec appeared and then dry and extra dry and finally brut and even extra brut. So "dry" and "extra dry" get their names because they're drier than the original champagnes, but are still noticeably sweet by modern standards.

I think the £450 was quoted as a meal for two wasn't it?