It’s good to be creative and to feel creative, better still when the two inersect as they did this morning, which means that I must be getting better after going into a nosedive two weeks back +++ I also started thinking about the future, by which I mean beyond the next meal +++ in just seven weeks at 4:30 pm on 25.12 the first episode of my TV series WEINWUNDER DEUTSCHLAND, or wine wonder Germany, will go out on BR 3 (also on www.br-online.de), and in just over a week one of the most exciting tastings I ever took part in happens in Berlin +++ I’m thinking of WEIN LAB 8 at 5 pm on 15.11 at Hammers Weinkostbar in the Körthestrasse 20/Kreuzberg (Buchung unter Tel.: 030 / 69 81 86 77 oder info@hammer-wein.de), and the subject is sparkling wines +++ we’ll taste everything from Prosecco to Prestige Cuvée Champagne, from 6 Euros to 180 Euros, blind ! +++ instead of scoring the wines with points we’ll each decide how many Euros the taste of each sparkling wine is worth, calculate average percieved prices for the group, then compare these with the actual prices +++ why aren’t all blind tastings organized like this ? +++ if so there would be far more active discussion about how much money which wine is really worth +++ the highest production costs for wine I’ve have ever seen were over 30 Euros per bottle, but they were only that high because the purchase of the land, the cost of clearing and planting it, building the winery, offices etc were all included +++ in the case of established wine estates most or all of these costs aren’t relevent any more +++ then even with very low yields, doing all the vineyard cultivation by hand, then cutting no corners in the cellar or with the packaging the total cost per bottle rarely tops 20 Euros +++ of course, winegrowers and wine merchants have to make a living too, but obviously there are some juicy profits being made by wine producers (and sometimes also merchants) on those bottles with three figure price tags, be they Champagne or whatever +++ in a world where marketing, media and the stock market distort the prices of almost everything, this is something which ought to be seriously discussed +++ as Oscar Wilde said, the cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing +++ I’d add to those words that (also with wine) you have to decide which side of the fence you’re on: the cynic’s side or the other side +++ but what was I being and feeling so creative about this morning ? +++ new material for this website currently in the development stage which will hit your computer screen before those seven weeks are up and WEINWUNDER DEUTSCHLAND rolls +++ now I have to lie down again, because I’m still only feeling about 60% of normal strength, but perhaps I’ll see you at Hammers on the 15th ?