I always see this stuff in the Duty Free and am always afraid of it.

We have to admit, it was a bit disconcerting at first to drink black vodka. It kind of felt like opposite day, where up was down, Goths were cheerful and vodka was black instead of clear.

But we got over that quickly, and we were very impressed with Blavod Black Vodka. It has a pleasant nose, and while it’s definitely got a bit of a bite, the aftertaste is spicy instead of the medicinal flavor you get with some vodkas. It was tasty straight or on the rocks, but we enjoyed it in mixed drinks, if for no other reason than the fact that they looked cool.

Blavod Black Vodka Review [Liquor Snob]

Glad they put the label in the review. Sounds like a nice one.

I’ve smoked about twenty of these, all from the duty-free store in Amsterdam (Schiphol) airport. They’re extremely good value for money. They smoke just like a MC No.4, just not as flavourful. They’re much lighter, but still have a lot of taste. I’ve never had a bad one yet!

Partagas Mille Fleurs Cigars [Cigars Review]

The three-alarm fire at Wines Central sent plumes of smoke more than 700 feet high that could be seen for miles. The blaze could not be controlled by firefighters because the Mare Island building — a 1942 structure that once housed Navy torpedoes — had steel doors and 3-foot-thick concrete walls and a concrete roof that could not be penetrated.

Wines Central converted the old military fortress three years ago into a 240,000-square-foot specialty warehouse that stored more than 500,000 cases of rare vintages believed to be worth up to $100 million, officials said. Clients included wineries, private collectors and some other businesses.

Warehouse fire destroys huge wine collection [SFGate]

Turnabout is fair play, I suppose. I’m making some cab right now in time for Turkey Day so it’s nice to see some folks telling us what it’s like to become a “real” winemaker. It definitely isn’t pretty.

Thanks to the masochism and keen observations of one of our local wine writers, W. Blake Gray, we now have an answer. Blake spent a day working both as a picker and as a cellar rat for Seghesio vineyards last month, and on Thursday he published a piece describing his experience. It’s well written and a lot of fun to read.

Get Out From Behind That Desk and Into The Fields [Vinography]

From WristWatchReview.com - This needs no introduction. Excellent work by Velociphile on how to buy a watch.

1. Know your target. Know the bottom line cheapest price in your country, and rest of world from greys (and then take off 10%).
2. Persistence -Agree with all the dealer’s points whining about shop rent, “last one available” nonsense or a “special price for today” - whatever. Just nod sagely, but don’t budge from your view; preferably based on well researched facts from ‘1′.
3. Pitch several dealers against each other if possible.
4. Patience. Say less, do not fill silences in the conversation. The fact that you haven’t walked away signals you are still interested.

Check it out here.

Can’t quite figure this one out, but it appears to be another system for chilling wine.

Made of high grade stainless steel - the same as used in wine tanks, a chilled Winesceptre is inserted into a bottle of wine to keep the pre-chilled wine at a perfect serving temperature over an extended period of time. The design allows you to continue pouring wine without removing Winesceptre from the bottle.

Winesceptre Keeps Wine at Ideal Drinking Temperatures [Daily Olive]

Easy, Italian, and delicious - three great tastes that taste great together.

Real home-made risotto is a lot of work. Making the stock. Stirring. Adding the stock in small lots. Stirring. It’s worth it, but not all the time. Sometimes you just want some comfort food without all the work. When that time comes, here’s a recipe to try.

Souped-up Store Bought Risotto [Professor Bainbridge on Wine]

Part 1 of a nice review of the new MX-5.

The new Mazda MX-5 is the car I always wanted. It’s a small, sexy, sure-footed sports car that outwits all those huge, over-embellished, slow-witted American muscle machines. The only problem is, I wanted the MX-5 back in ’75. Things have moved on. There’s now a wide range of well-balanced sports cars vying for the enthusiast’s attention. Some of them are even American. And none of them are as dangerous as Mazda’s diminutive roadster.

Endless reviews praise the MX-5’s purity of form, clarity of purpose and banquet of sensations. None mention the pint-sized roadster’s lack of “compatibility.” In other words, when the MX-5 hits something, the something’s driver gets out, scratches his head and says “Dang!” whereas the MX-5 driver… doesn’t get out. No wonder the official website’s safety section begins with “Beyond the safety benefits of having a car that allows you to react quickly to avoid hazardous situations…” and touts “systems that help make it easier to avoid accidents in the first place.”

2006 Mazda MX-5, Part 1 [Jalopnik]

Aging is a chemical process, but to “speed it up” relegates the process to pure, mechanistic forces. The result might be an “older” wine but is it the same wine you’d get if it aged naturally?

Squirrelled away in his chemical engineering laboratory in rural Shizuoka, Hiroshi Tanaka has spent 15 years developing an electrolysis device that simulates, he claims, the effect of ageing in wines. In 15 seconds it can transform the cheapest, youngest plonks into fine old draughts as fruit flavours are enhanced and rough edges are mellowed, he says.

Reds can become more complex, and whites drier. A wine costing £5 a bottle could taste the same as one costing twice that, which “will create huge changes to the global wine industry”.

Umm, OK.

Premature ageing device that puts old wine in new bottles [TimesOnline]

The Perrin Family have created a blog to discuss their latest vintage, Beaucastel 2004. The interweb shore is complex!

For the very first time, we have decided to give you the opportunity to follow our harvest day by day, thanks to this “blog”. We will try to convey the intensity of the event as we live it, almost as if you we here with us. This will help you to understand how our Southern Rhone wines are produced, via photographs and comments.

Website [Beaucastel 2004 Blog]
Product Page [Beaucastel]