It’s Harvesttime for Wine in … Tahiti?! (Wine Spectator)

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In the Northern Hemisphere about now, winemakers are trimming, pruning and frost-proofing their footprints, along with hibernating their selves; south of the equator, veraison and the pesky birds and bugs that include it are here, or will be shortly.

But in one most peculiar vineyard, the Carignan and Muscat grapes have reached peak ripenessthat the pickers have retreated their gloves and grabbed their shears, along with the cellar hands have fired their skiffs to transfer the grape trickle down the shore into the winery. It’s mid-January, and harvest is just finishing for Vin de Tahiti about the Rangiroa atoll from Tahiti, 3,100 miles away from the nearest continent. This was a special vendange for its vineyard–the 50th harvest since it began bearing fruit in 1999.

In the Mosel to Mendoza, nearly all winegrowing areas possess winter dormancy, spring growth and fall harvest, but in the town of Avatoru, where the Cave de Tahiti has been processing a successful harvest bounty, it’s 83 F at this time, and it’s going to be 83 now come July. Where there is endless summer, you can have two, sometimes three, grape harvests each year (an occurrence which could also happen in hotbeds of unusual viticulture such as Brazil and India). “It’s so incredible to have a vineyard in such a place,” longtime winemaker Sébastien Thépénier told Unfiltered through email.

Photos courtesy of Vin de Tahiti

Vin de TahitiVin de TahitiVin de TahitiVin de TahitiVin de TahitiVin de Tahiti

But for Vin de Tahiti (also known as Domaine Dominique Auroy), it’s not always clear skies and sunny days. Auroya French journalist, started experimenting with European cuttings in websites about French Polynesia in 1992; his group finally planted own-rooted vines on Rangiroa and discovered how to browse the exceptional coral soil–the defining feature of the terroir, based on Thépénier. Today, the vineyard encompasses about 15 acres yielding 3,000 cases each year.

Every year, the start and duration of harvest, that occurs every five to four five-and-a-half months, is dependent on the erratic precipitation conditions which struck the island. Throughout vigorous pruning, then Thépénier tricks the vines into brief dormancy and new growth after harvest, but the choosing dates are always in flux, and there is no off-season. Stillthe”biggest challenge” today is just one familiar to vintners this side of heaven as well: conversion to natural, and now biodynamic, clinics.

Looking toward around No. 51,” Thépénier has released a fancy pneumatic media –andhe advised Unfiltereda new drink: the very first cane-sugar rum made in Tahiti, that is available exclusively to on site visitors. And upon learning this, Unfiltered checked our local climate (“freezing rain”), sighed, and searched”NYC to Tahiti flights tomorrow.”

Australian Animal Antics: Tasmanian Winery Gets ‘Seal’ of Approval

Down Under, vintners know that surprise visits from wild animals–such as hungry koalas and movie-spoofing Chris Hemsworths–are part of the outback’s charm. But if one visitor is an 550-pound sea dweller, it’s understandable to be a little shocked, as employees at La Villa Wines in Spreyton, Tasmania, were when they were greeted by the sight of a seal dangling outside the winery on the morning of Jan. 2.

Courtesy of La Villa Wines Flipper day

“When staff were arriving at 7:00 for work that morning, they encountered Mr. Seal on the driveway,” stated Gail Burns, who owns the winery with her husband, Marcus. The wayward critter is supposed to have made its way out of the sea, swimming about 3 miles off the Mersey River and then ambling another half-mile on land on its destination.

Courtesy of La Villa Wines Cooldown

“It’s pretty tough going to get where he was,” Burns informed Unfiltered. “We called Parks and Wildlife, and they came to assess the situation. They recommended to let him be, and that after a rest amongst the Pinot Grigio block he would find his way back to the river.”

A rest in a vineyard followed by a nice swim? Sounds just like Unfiltered’s perfect Sunday afternoon.

Why Are Tesla Owners Pouring Red Wine All Over Their Car Seats?

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is blamed for a whole lot of questionable ideas, but his latest claim is something Unfiltered could not have predicted. The Tesla CEO lately tweeted that the car seats in the Tesla Model 3–even people outfitted with all the sexy”Ultra White” interior update –are very stain resistant, so much so that”you can spill red wine on the seats and just wipe it off.” Today Tesla fanboys are placing that assertion into the test on their own brand-new automobiles, and documenting it for each of the Internet to find out.

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The very first video came just one day after Musk’s tweet. A Twitter user using the manage @TeslaAmit519 posted a video of himself drizzling a splash of Blackstone Merlot on his Tesla’s pure-white passenger seat, hastily wiping away the wine using a paper toweland showing no stain in the aftermath; Tesla superfan Vincent Yu upped the ante by massaging none, but two splashes of Trader Joe’s Two-Buck Chuck Cabernet all around the seat of his luxury vehicle. But after a quick toweling, again, there was no indication of the spillage.

Twitter Having fun on Twitter.

Naturally, these videos have been fulfilled together with the requisite,”Why would you have an open bottle of wine in your car in the first place?!” But as Yu tweet-splained into the haters,”It’s a test of the stain-resistant level. It’s a test [based] on Elon’s statement,” and Tesla stans made the movies to demonstrate its accuracy … and to demonstrate their unwavering trust in Elon Musk, needless to say.

Prosecco Protest Goes Viral, Prosecco Conquest Remains Unimpeded

Prosecco is anywhere, by bottomless boozy brunches into fine-dining matching menus into Shake Shack milkshakes. However one Friulian eatery, that stands firmly in the camp of”love it or hate it,” is mounting a lonely protest to talk truth to Prosecco power.

Osteria di Ramandolo, run by husband-and-wife owners Ilenia Vidoni and Pietro Greco, ceased serving Prosecco about one year ago, and today, the restaurant will be agitating to find different businesses to ditch the fizz too. On the holiday season, the restaurant distribute its message, together with a meme-friendly say-no-to-Prosecco logo, on social media, bringing advertising into its motion, dubbed”Locale Deprosecchizzato.”

“As you know, about a year ago … we completely excluded Prosecco from our cellar to focus on promoting quality sparkling wines produced in our region,” slams a translated informative article on the business’ Facebook page, which continues,”people who do our task should not just sell what is fashionable, but also have the task of communicating their land and its own excellence.”

One of the likes, remarks and shares the Facebook article has racked up, reactions are misto. While a few of the eatery for shedding light on additional quality Italian bubbliesothers were confounded by the position. So far, at least another restaurant has jumped on boardbut elsewhere that the globale Prosecchitzzato continues apace.

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