I’m a day late, but yesterday was the anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. December 5, 1933 is a day that every wine lover should celebrate.
I’m going to start celebrating it as my own little ode to the vine, saving me from a life of drinking pirated communion wine, certainly. Ironically enough, I didn’t drink any wine yesterday—blame it on airports, I suppose.
I was in New York City yesterday, which is always enjoyable. A day trip with airport connections isn’t always conducive to a glass of wine, but the city is always enjoyable.
I love the energy of the city—the simmering vitality that pulses from the sidewalks no matter the season. Humanity streams hither and yonder in every direction.
The news yesterday in the city was the announcement of a new ordinance that goes into effect July 1, 2007 that bans trans fats in the city—frying oil will be first and than all foods with trans fats will be banned on July 1, 2008.
The jist with trans fats are that they contribute to the bad cholesterol which can contribute to heart disease
The other re-occurring story seems to be that wine, red wine in particular, is selling like crazy—attributable to the recently reported health benefits from resveratrol, a compound found in the skin of grapes.
This article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat indicates that AC Nielsen data shows that red wine sales are up 8.3% year over year.
Shoppers bought 4.2 million cases of red wine during the four-week period ending Nov. 18, an 8.3 percent increase over the same period in 2005, according to ACNielsen, which tracks wine sales at grocery stores, drugstores and liquor markets.
The surge followed a flurry of stories in major U.S. newspapers Nov. 2 about a new study on resveratrol, a natural substance in red wine. The study, which was also widely covered on TV, found that resveratrol extended the lives of fat mice.
Ironically enough, I had my lunch on the run at a NYC McDonald’s yesterday—a Big Mac with fries. I was able to make it into Crush Wine & Spirits immediately afterwards in order to buy a couple of bottles to have shipped back to Indianapolis.
My own little LDL bad cholesterol lunch with a red wine chaser.
Call me crazy, but if trans fats are frequently full of bad fats and high calories and they are going to be banned shouldn’t New York also put in place a mandate for people to take Resveratrol to counteract any of the negative effects from an ongoing bad and high calorie diet?
I can see it now, instead of celebrating the repeal of prohibition, we can celebrate fast food by quaffing a lot of wine. Mission accomplished either way, really.