PARIS — Many thought it would never happen. But France, a country that has had a long, loving relationship with the cigarette, is banning smoking in all bars, cafes and restaurants beginning today.
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Some Central Coast wineries are busted for serving minors.
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Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you a year of new wines, new experiences, happiness, and health for you and your family. Here in Japan it’s already 2008. Along with three million of our closest friends, Ruth and I visited the Meiji Jingumae shrine in Tokyo to ring in the new year (literally) by ringing the bells at the temple. Seeing he crowd control alone is worth the experience:
Wouldn’t police action be so much better if it were always accompanied by such lovable characters?
That’s a picture up the main walkway to the shrine, and there are about 40,000 people in front of us waiting to pray at the shrine to welcome in the New Year.
Of course, this is a wine blog, so what I’m really here to tell you about is wine related? Hard to believe there would be a wine angle on three million Japanese queuing for New Year’s blessings. But of course, there is!
One of the things that you do after you ring in the New Year is drink fresh sake, which is provided by thousands of sake breweries all over the country. Donating a cask of sake is quite prestigious, and I’m not sure about the whole protocol or significance of it, but the casks are very prominently displayed at the shrine. This sake is used to consecrate the shrine in some way (Shinto experts, help me out here).
These casks are a common site at such shrines, especially around the New Year.
What AREN’T such common sights, however, are several dozen barrels of Burgundy!
My jaw nearly hit the centuries-old cobblestone path when I saw this rack of barriques bearing some of Burgundy’s top names sitting opposite the racks of sake casks.
It turns out that one of Japan’s members of Parliament is not only a wine lover and the head of the Japanese Burgundy society (whatever that is) but he also owns a Chateau in Burgundy himself. And I guess he managed to convince enough Japanese MPs (and Burgundy winemakers) that it would be a good idea to have a bit of Pinot in addition to sake, and voila!
So whether you’re ringing in the New Year with wine or sake, you can rest assured that the gods are smiling on you.
Here’s to a fabulous 2008!
Original post by Italian Wine Guy®
The French are getting ready for one of the biggest changes in their country’s history, with smoking banned in cafes, bars and restaurants from today.
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The French are getting ready for one of the biggest changes in their country’s history, with smoking to be banned in cafes, bars and restaurants from tomorrow.
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Many New Year’s celebrations include a glass of champagne, or sparkling wine. Wineries in the Finger Lakes produce many sparkling wines. News 10 Now’s Kat De Maria shows us how.
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As the world welcomed in 2008, Thai celebrations were marred by bomb blasts and in French cafes smokers puffed on their last cigarettes.
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Prohibition on smoking in bars and restaurants has finally caught up with France, where smoking has long been a part of its culture. Oui. On New Year’s Day, France joins many of its neighbors to ban smoking in restaurants, hotels, casinos and its famed brasseries and cafes.
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France, the nation that coined the words cigarette and nicotine, bids adieu to centuries of smoking tradition today with the start of a ban on lighting up in cafés and restaurants.
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Mardi Gras celebrations in places like New Orleans and Mobile, Ala., are well-known. But a Missouri village with French roots has its own pre-Lenten party - a traditional ball that dates back more than 250 years.
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