Alt+Wine

Not many people know about all the clones used in winemaking. While it would certainly be an interesting ethical dilemma if I was talking about HUMAN clones, I’m not. I’m talking about grapes. FRUIT CLONES, PEOPLE.

When (ok, let’s be honest, IF) you hear someone talking about grape clones again, just know this: grape clones are cuttings from an existing vine that share identical genetic information.

In this way, you can look at grapes like dogs (bear with me). Dogs are all one species - so are most winegrapes (vitis vinifera). Then there are breeds of dogs, like German Shepherd Dogs - and there are varieties of grapes, like Pinot Noir. Now, imagine if you cloned a German Shepherd named Bruce - you would have an exact copy of Bruce’s likes and dislikes, his behavior, his proclivity to chew your shoes, the scratching-spot on his belly that makes him thump his leg, you get the idea. If you had the ability to raise Bruce’s clone (we’ll call him Bruce II) in the exact same environment as Bruce, they would be exactly the same. Now, there’s no way you could produce exactly the same environment for Bruce II - it’s impossible - but you can try. And because it’s Bruce II, you will have a pretty good idea of how he’ll react to things.

It works the same with grapes. Grape clones have the same “behavior” as their original genetic bretheren - they respond well to the same weather conditions, soil make-up, are susceptible to the same pests, have similar flavor profiles, etc. However, just as it’s impossible to create an environment that is exactly the same for Bruce and Bruce II, it’s just as difficult to do so when growing grapes.

So with clones, you you have a general idea of how they will react and an understanding of what they CAN be, but there is almost no way to make them truly identical to the original (as anyone who has seen THE ISLAND and lived to tell the tale could tell you).

A big day for the hedonists.

A recent study covered here by Jacob Gaffney at Wine Spectator just discovered that resveratrol, a polyphenol found in red wines, can dramatically help to rebuild lung cells damaged by cigarette smoking.

This means that while resveratrol doesn’t prevent damage caused by smoking and other lung pollutants, it does help to clean up after them. This clean-up act could lower cancer rates and increase overall lung health in smokers.

While the scientists DO say this will help smokers combat the terrible damage done while smoking, they DON’T recommend red wine as an alternative to not smoking at all. Shocker.

Personally, I would rather selectively read this for the parts that I like. When I do that, this is how it goes in my head:

“If you smoke a cigarette, you pretty much have to have a glass of wine. Otherwise you’re being irresponsible with your health.”

This makes me more happy than the much more obvious and actually true alternative which goes like this:

“Those things will kill you.”