WineCanine

I've put off reviewing the Pillar Box Red 2006 from Henry's Drive for quite a while because of something my mother taught me: If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

The Pillar Box Red 2005 was any easy-to-drink red blend – all one needed to do was to crack open the screwcap, pour it in a glass, and drink it. When the 2006 vintage arrived last winter, I expected it to be much the same, but it wasn't. Instead, as it came out of the bottle it was bitter and harsh, and packed a lot of alcoholic heat.

Due in part to the perseverance of our wine rep, we wine guys and gals discovered that its personality changed dramatically after it was exposed to air for a while, so we sold the ’06 with a caveat: Decant it for at least half an hour, or leave the bottle open for three days before drinking. Because of those requirements, it definitely wasn't a party wine.

Lately I'd been curious about what effect six months of bottle age had wrought on the Pillar Box Red, so I gave it another try last night. Cracked open the bottle, poured a bit, gave the glass a swirl, and ... "hey, this is good!"

Age has definitely mellowed this vintage of Pillar Box Red. It does open with a streak of tannin, but that is quickly overpowered by jammy blackberry, blueberry and cassis flavors. It's full-bodied, and the alcoholic heat it once had is nowhere in evidence, despite its 15 percent alcohol content. After a brief (20 minute) decant the wine opens even more and the streak of tannin vanishes, a cedar nose emerges and the fruit flavors deepen. It could benefit from even more bottle age, but this Australian blend of Padthaway Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot is perfectly drinkable right now, and is an excellent candidate to pair with burgers or serve by itself -- and since it's only about ten bucks a bottle, as a party wine!

Aussies love to give their wines strange names, but they don't come out of thin air. (D'Arenberg's Footbolt Shiraz is named after a horse; Tait's Ball Buster Shiraz is named in honor of the winemaker's wife, who we are to gather is not a shy, delicate creature.) Pillar Box wines are named for the ubiquitous mailboxes that populate Great Britain and, to a lesser extent, Australia. Pillar Box's wine labels further extend the tribute — and as a variation of the theme, Henry's Drive also makes a Barossa Shiraz called Dead Letter Office.

Music can have an effect on the way listeners perceive the qualities of the wines they are drinking, according to a study performed for Viña Montes by the Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

When a powerful piece of music is played, a wine such as Montes Alpha's Cabernet Sauvignon is perceived as being 60 percent richer and more robust than when there is no musical accompaniment, according to Professor Adrian North. "It is widely acknowledged within the scientific community that music affects behavior," said North, who conducted the research. "However, this is the first time it has been scientifically proven that music can affect perception in other senses, and change the way wine tastes."

The research by North's Department of Applied Psychology is based on the theory of cognitive priming. This postulates that when a particular style of music is heard, it stimulates or 'primes' specific areas in the brain. Subsequently, when wine is tasted, these areas of the brain are already active and prime the taster to judge the wine in a corresponding way. The effect is more pronounced with red wines than with white, the study finds.

Music is already used in the production of Montes wines, as monastic chants are played to maturing casks of wine in the winery's Feng Shui-optimized barrel room. The company is now looking into adding music recommendations to its back labels.

That Arbor Crest Merlot ’03 I had a couple of nights ago was particularly good — or was it the London Symphony Orchestra's rendition of Dvorák's New World Symphony...?

If you're a wine-loving meat-eater, you'll want to pay a visit to the new Fogo de Chão Brazilian steakhouse that just opened in downtown Indianapolis. (Welcome, race fans!)

Located in the newly-renovated Broadbent Building at 117 East Washington Street (aka The Building Formerly Known as The Zipper), the restaurant is contemporary and elegant, with a large central dining area, a bar and a private dining room. This Fogo de Chão (which translates to "fire of earth") is the eleventh link in a chain of restaurants started by two brothers in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1979. They opened their first U.S. location in Dallas in 1997; by the end of this year there will be 13 Fogos in this country and five in Brazil.

In the approximate center of the dining area is a massive salad bar brimming with all kinds of greenery, fresh vegetables, cheeses and a few meats. An entire wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, carved out and filled with chunks of itself, anchors one end.

After the buffet comes the main event: Meat, and lots of it! Each diner is provided with a small round disk that is green on one side and red on the other. Turning the green side up provokes a flurry of service, as waiters armed with skewers of various flame-grilled meats descend, asking "rare, medium rare or medium?" Some customer participation is occasionally required, as some tongs are provided so the diner can grab meats that are sliced off the skewers. It doesn't take long to figure out that the best plan is to flip the disk to red after two or three items accumulate on your plate — which is to say about a minute or two.

There are 15 different meats to sample, including various cuts of beef, lamb and pork, as well as chicken legs and bacon-wrapped breasts and some fabulous little pork sausages called linguica. If you identify one thing in particular you want to focus on, all you need to do is make your wishes known and an entrée-sized portion will appear on your plate. Bread and side dishes of garlic mashed potatoes, a yummy polenta and grilled bananas are served family-style.

Wine lovers should be delighted with the selection and service as well as the dining room decor, which consists mainly of the restaurant's wine collection, much of which is on display. Chances are you'll be able to find something suitable for your taste and budget on the extensive and well-organized list, from a glass of White Zin ($7.25) to a bottle of Château Haut-Brion Pessac Leognan ’00 ($925). As you would expect at a steak house, there are twice as many reds on the list as whites, including no less than a dozen from Bordeaux. There are also 11 splits available (reds and whites) and several by-the-glass selections. We drank glasses of Cono Sur Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile (also available at $28 per bottle), which turned out to be an excellent match for the flame-grilled meats. Wine pricing is fair at about twice retail for most wines, and as you move up the list in price the markup moves down. Their wine glasses are of high quality and generously sized — a good thing, since a by-the-glass pour is a quarter of a bottle. This restaurant has earned six consecutive Awards of Excellence from the Wine Spectator for a good reason!

Beer enthusiasts don't fare as well, since just the usual suspects are available and no microbrews. However, at least one Brazilian beer (Xingu, I think) is on the list. The well-stocked bar includes several after-dinner drinks and a few single-malt Scotches. They also of course stock Cachaça, and although I didn't sample a caipirinha there, Feed Me / Drink Me reports that they make good ones.

For the quality and service (and potential quantity) that Fogo de Chão delivers, its prices are reasonable: $38.50 for dinner, $24.50 for lunch, plus drinks and dessert. The salad bar is available by itself for $19.99, so even the wayward vegetarian who happens to wander in should be able to leave happy and sated. And for the meat-loving omnivore, Fogo de Chão is simply a must-go.

Fogo de Chão
117 E. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-638-4000

Zionsville's newest restaurant, Noah Grant's, is now open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Noah Grant's is a block west of Main Street at 65 South First. The space previously housed Brix. (And for you history buffs, before it was Brix it was an ice cream parlor.)

Here's a sure sign that Spring has actually arrived, and that Summer is on the way: The local farmers markets are beginning to stir.

The Broad Ripple Farmers’ Market will open for the season this Saturday at its location behind Broad Ripple High School; hours are 8 a.m. until noon.

This Friday also marks the start of the season for the Green Market at Traders Point Creamery. Hours are 4 p.m. ’til 8 p.m.; dinner is available 5 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Big, mouthfilling, smooth and satisfying describe the Quattro Mani Montepulciano 2006.

This easy-to-drink Italian starts off with dark berry, leather and smoke on the nose. The dark berries continue on the palate and are joined by dried cherries and a little more smokiness.

This robust, full-bodied wine is enjoyable by itself, and its smoky component would make it a good match for burgers, barbecue and grilled meats. Its price is a very reasonable $10 per bottle.

Pennsylvania is one of those states that controls the distribution of alcoholic beverages by operating state-run stores, so one wouldn't really expect it to be a hotbed of wine-distribution innovation.

However, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is looking into the possibility of operating wine-dispensing kiosks at up to 100 locations around the state, and is soliciting bids from contractors to operate them. The machines would hold about 500 bottles, and dispense a dozen different selections. Users would have to register to make purchases with the machines, which would take credit, debit or PLCB gift cards. The kiosks would incorporate security identification measures such as fingerprints or biometric readings.

Recently Tom Wark posted a piece on Fermentation titled On Dogs, Wine & God that compares wine characteristics to the traits that are bred into dogs. Quoting one of his commenters, wine blogger Arthur Z Przebinda of Redwinebuzz, Tom says: "What makes a Doberman a classic example of the breed? The way it best displays the traits and characteristics that define the breed," then goes on to point out that over time dog breeders have bred out or in certain characteristics based on evolving breed standards, that the same thing has happened with wine, and that's perfectly OK.

The Doberman is a perfect example, since the Dobes of today are bred to be companions more than the protector that German tax collector Louis Dobermann created in the late 1800s. Today's Dobes are bred to retain all the qualities Herr Dobermann was after — intelligence, power, speed, and ease of mainenance — but with a more tractable temperament suitable for a family dog. Similarly, some wines that were previously unapproachable or challenging have been changed so that they can be enjoyed by a larger segment of the population. In each case, there are curmudgeonly traditionalists and those who embrace the new style, and their viewpoints are equally valid.

This seems like a good way to segue into an introduction to our newest staff member here at WineCanine, a 10-month-old Doberman named Hobbes. Hobbes came to us through Southwestern Ohio Doberman Rescue, which had him in a foster home in Louisville, Kentucky. Hobbes was named Sirius by SWODR and apparently had been called Buster at one time, judging by the name on the leash that he came with. We had originally gone down to meet a red Dobe named Calvin, who, with his long tail and natural ears, looked quite a bit like our Red, who passed on in late March. Calvin was nice, but this young, fawn-colored fella turned out to be a Weim lover. So, we went down to look at Calvin, but ended up with Hobbes.

Hobbes has been very interested in learning about everything in the kitchen, so after a brief training period he will assume the position of WineCanine's official ChowHound.

I'd heard about Bern’s Steakhouse from a few people, so when I was in St. Petersburg last week I made it a point to go across the bridge to Tampa and try the place out. Here's the executive summary: If you're a wine enthusiast, you should definitely give the place a try.

"Over the top" is the phrase that kept coming to mind, from the decor (which I've heard described more than once as "19th century New Orleans brothel"), to the management of their food sources, to the 172-page wine list. Bern's boasts an impressive collection of awards from the Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and other magazines, and it's easy to see why.

The restaurant started in 1954 in one small space in a strip mall. As the steakhouse became more and more successful it took over all the other spaces in the mall, and the original location is now just one of several dining rooms. A second story was also added, as well as a huge kitchen space.

After dinner (I'll get to that in a moment), diners have the option of touring the kitchen and wine cellar, and if you're a wine or food geek you should definitely do that. If you do, you'll see the computerized command center; the humongous charcoal grill that can accommodate up to 200 steaks at once; the areas where they bake their own bread; their onion ring production system; and where they raise the sprouts that they put on their salads (from seeds imported from England). At the top of the stairs to the wine cellar is the wines by the glass station, where one busy bartender pours from a selection of around 150 different wines.

Then it's down into the cellar, which isn't fancy but is nonetheless impressive. There are about 100,000 bottles down there and 8,600 different selections, ranging in price from about $20 to $10,000 and in age from centuries-old vintages to quite recent. Bern's backup inventory, which totals somewhere around 500,000, is stored in three different nearby warehouses.

My two dinner companions had mostly gone along to humor me, so I ended up ordering a Martini (regular Bombay Gin, straight up with olives and three drops of vermouth from the eyedropper our waiter carried) and two reds from the by-the-glass list. I chose a Père Anselme Crozes-Hermitage 1978 ($6.50) and a l’Aventure Optimus 2005 ($16.50) to accompany my aged, one-inch-thick Porterhouse, and both wines, while very different, were quite good. The ’78 was medium-bodied and had plenty of fruit still, but paled in comparison to the Optimus, which was huge, rich and satisfying, and an excellent match for the steak. I spent a good, long time with my nose in the glass, inhaling its wonderful bouquet.

I wish I could say that I was as blown away by the food as I was by the Optimus, but it was just a steak. There wasn't anything wrong with it, but it wasn't exceptional, either; I can make a better one at home. Still, it was a very nice meal, and not outrageously priced — my steak was $52.48, and came with French onion soup, a salad, baked potato, onion rings and a medley of vegetables raised at Bern's own organic farm. We didn't have dessert, but if we had we would have gone upstairs to the Harry Waugh Room to select from 39 different desserts and who knows how many dessert wines and after-dinner drinks.

Would I go again? You bet I would, and I'd recommend the experience to any wine lover. Just go with the expectation that wine is the star and food is the accompaniment, rather than the other way around.

Beverage giant Diageo is enjoying the burst of free publicity that its Crown Royal whiskey got when the campaigning Hillary Clinton downed a shot of it in an Indiana bar.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Diageo is using the incident to promote one of its smaller brands, Jeremiah Weed Bourbon Liqueur by sending bottles of the sweet, 100-proof beverage — reportedly a favorite of fighter pilots — to the three major presidential campaigns.

While Crown Royal hails from Canada, Jeremiah Weed is at least made in the United States, in Connecticut. (So it's not really Bourbon — ask any Kentuckian.) It's not likely to happen, but it's fun to speculate about what would happen if Hillary's beer-and-a-bump, just-folks strategy catches on. Nothing breaks the ice like a little Tequila followed by jello shots....

Those who pay attention to the world of wine already were bemoaning the fact that the drought in Australia is forcing up the price of grapes, but today's New York Times features a story about a crop that has been even more dramatically affected: Rice.

Australia's rice production has dropped by a staggering 98 percent, and the largest rice processing mill in the southern hemisphere has been mothballed as a result. This has caused the price of rice — a staple food in much of the world — to double during the last three months. Higher prices are in turn causing food riots in some of the world's poorer countries.

While there hasn't been much rain in southeastern Australia for the past six years, there has still been enough water to grow less water-intensive crops, such as wheat and wine grapes. And there's a considerable economic incentive to switch to grapes, too — even at the new, higher price for rice, wine grapes produce a pretax profit of close to $2,000 an acre as opposed to around $240 an acre for rice.

As far as critter labels go, you've got to hand it to Marquis Philips. They've managed to make an icon out of a non-existent creature (I've never seen one, anyway), the Roogle, and somehow make it even more believable by putting an illustration of one in its juvenal phase on their bottles of Roogle Red 2006.

The Roogle, which symbolizes the Australian-American partnership behind the Marquis Philips line, is a formidable beast — half kangaroo, half eagle — and is a fitting mascot for the S2 Cabernet, Shiraz 9, Sarah's Blend, the other wines on whose labels it appears. And judging by the Roogle Red, they're big and powerful even when they're young.

Roogle Red is a blend of Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon which has been aged in oak for a year. It's very dark in color, huge in body, and oaky and plummy in flavor. It has a little heat straight out of the bottle — related, perhaps, to the 15 percent alcohol content — but that moderates quickly (or maybe you just don't care anymore) and the wine becomes a real pleasure to drink.

Roogle Red is about $10 a bottle, which makes it a great candidate for quaffing on the deck with friends, washing down cheeseburgers, or just having a couple of relaxing glasses in the evening. Hooray for ornithosupials!

Allegrini has opted to pull out of the Valpolicella Classico denomination because the DOC will not allow Classico wines to be bottled with screwcaps. The estate's Valpolicella Classico will now be known simply as Valpolicella.

"We have been waiting for the regulations in Valpolicella Classico to be amended so that we could use screwcaps on this wine," winemaker Franco Allegrini told Decanter magazine, "but they haven't, so we have decided to pull out of Classico. The closure is more important to us than the denomination."

Allegrini has a history of being more interested in producing good wine than in following rules. The winery's excellent Palazzo della Torre is made using a variation of the ripasso method rather than the traditional one, at the expense of not being eligible for a more prestigious designation.

After a lengthy remodeling, the Brick Street Inn in Zionsville is opening its Lobby Lounge tomorrow in the spaces formerly occupied by a café and gift shop. With hours from 3 p.m. - 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and 3 p.m. ’til midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, the lounge will offer tapas, desserts, cocktails, microbrews, and if what I've heard is accurate, an extensive by-the-glass wine selection.

The Lobby Lounge will also incorporate the tables in the Brick Street Inn's front yard, which is without a doubt the most pleasant place to sit and watch the activity on Main Street. And just in time for warm weather, too!

Fed Chairman Ben Beranke finally uttered the R-word, unemployment is at its highest level since 2003, the dollar is at par with the Loonie, and home values have tumbled as much as 20 percent in some areas. And, as anyone who eats regularly has probably noticed, food prices are on the rise — due, in part to increased motor fuel costs.

As consumers adjust their spending, some changes will occur in the wine industry. For one thing, some of the wines that normally only appear on restaurant wine lists will hit the shelves in retail stores, as people cut back on eating out. And high-production domestic wine producers like Bogle, Franzia (maker of the Charles Shaw brand) and Columbia Crest will win more business as the weak dollar forces up the price of imports.

But here's a bright spot: There will be bargains to be had as distributors wheel and deal to improve cash flow by unloading products that are moving slowly.

Just such a bargain is the Tormaresca Negroamaro-Cabernet 2005, an 87-point wine that is being closed out at Grapevine Cottage in Zionsville for $3.99 per bottle. (It hasn't been advertised yet, so WineCanine readers have a couple of days to stock up before it sells out next week.)

This is a really decent everyday drinker, perfect for pizza, burgers or red-sauce pasta dishes. Those with an appreciation for old-world wines will take to it more easily, but after decanting the nose moderates, the tannins mellow, the the rich, plummy fruit comes to the fore. (I left half a bottle uncorked for 24 hours, and was pleasantly surprised.) A case or two should fill out the wine rack nicely....

Following the success of its innovative, stemless O and Tyrol collections, Riedel Crystal has introduced the supersized OMG line of stemless wine glasses.

Similar to the O in shape but much larger in size, the OMG comfortably accommodates an entire 750 ml bottle of wine, with plenty of room left over for sniffing and swirling. In the publicity photo that accompanies this post, the OMG Bordeaux is shown holding its intended 750 ml payload, while the (from left) O, Overture, Vinum and Tyrol each contains 187.5 ml.)

Designer Maximilian Riedel introduced the new line at a press conference in England, where larger glasses — like those made by his family's company — have been blamed for that country's binge drinking problem, along with bottle sizes and the higher alcohol content of modern wines. "If you're only going to allow yourself one glass of wine a day, this is the glass you'll be wanting," Riedel said. "And if your government gives you any grief about buying one, just say it's a vase for your flowers."

The Department of Health took a dim view of the new glasses. "We are not amused," said Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister. "Anyone who uses these glasses will certainly be imbibing more than the suggested limit of 3 to 4 units per day." A unit is 10 ml of pure alcohol. A 187.5 ml serving of wine with a 13 percent alcohol content is equivalent to approximately 2.5 units.

Reaction to the OMG was more positive in the United States, where it is more easly understood and accepted. "All right, it's super-sized!" was the typical comment of American consumers who were exposed to Riedel's new line. The first restaurant to lay in a stock of the new glasses is Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, Penn., which is famous for its 6-lb. cheeseburgers.

The retail price of the OMG series, which will include shape-specific glasses for Chardonnay / Viogner, Shiraz / Syrah, Cabernet / Merlot, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Single Malt Scotch, is $49.95 each.

Sunday's breakfast was delicious: Scrambled eggs, spelt toast, and alligator bratwurst from the Goose.

I usually prepare my non-reptilian bratwurst by simmering first in a batter of beer, butter and onions, browning on a grill, then finishing in a second container of batter. This time I took a different approach, and it worked well.

Grilled Alligator Bratwurst
allow 1-2 sausages per serving

Ingredients
alligator brats
olive oil

Preparation
Apply a thin layer of olive oil to the sausages, and allow them to come up to room temperature.

In the meantime, preheat grill to an internal temperature of 350°F. When grill is hot, place brats briefly over center burner (if using a gas grill) and cook until nicely browned, 2-4 minutes. Turn center burner off (if using charcoal, move away from coals), close lid and cook using indirect heat for 10 minutes. Remove from grill, let rest for a couple of minutes and serve.

You *could* put these on a bun and load them up with mustard and grilled onions, but then you'd mask the flavors of the brats themselves, and that would be a shame. They have just a little spicy heat — not whoo-eee Cajun hot, just enough to give the old jaded tastebuds a little kick. They'd be good served with lots of things, but I'm thinking some dirty rice, a side of grilled onions and slices of fresh tomato (c’mon, tomatoes!) would be just the ticket.

Goose proprietor Chris Eley says the alligator brats are on regular rotation with other featured sausages, but they aren't available all the time. The best way to find out when they're coming around again is to check in with the Goose's blog.

And until a local source for free-range, organically-farmed alligator becomes available, the Goose will continue to source its meat from Louisiana. Hmm ... I wonder how they'd do in the pond at Trader's Point Creamery?

Rutherford winery Orin Swift is known for making big wines. Its Zinfandel-based blend, The Prisoner (Zin, Cab, Syrah, Petit Sirah, Charbono and Grenache), is a favorite of fans of big, dark, rich wines.

Papillon is Orin Swift's first vintage of a Bordeaux style blend containing five of the six classic varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. It is every bit as big and luscious as its Zin-based sibling, with a huge nose of blackberry and cedar and a palate to match. Its tannins have already softened and the wine is spectacular poured right from the bottle, but a brief decant will open the aromas and flavors even more. It is well-balanced and powerful, and if it seems expensive at $55 then just glance over at the prices of the 2005 Bordeaux that might be ready to drink in 10 or 15 years, and consider that you could take Papillon home and enjoy it without having to consult an actuarial chart first.

If I have a quibble with Papillon, it's the label. Yes, it's arty, and it would look good on a gallery wall, and it's a movie reference, but as a wine label it's hideous. In fact — and I just happen to know this — the biggest thing a wine salesman has to overcome in selling this wine (and believe me, an unknown $55 wine is a hand-sell) is the label. If the customer is already familiar with The Prisoner and its merely grim label, it's easier — but otherwise it helps to suggest ways to get around the art. ("You could decant it! Or wrap it in a towel like they do at restaurants! Or pour it into a nice, pretty Far Niente bottle! Trust me, you'll like the wine a lot better than you do the label!")

I had a woman tell me once that she would never consider trying Toad Hollow Chardonnay because she thought that label was "gross." I'm afraid that the same thing will happen with Papillon, and that would be a shame — just remember that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and the same principle applies to wine.

We sent our dear red Doberman, Red, off to the Rainbow Bridge this morning.

He was slowly wasting away from ... something, we're not sure what — mostly liver failure and diabetes, we're thinking. Whatever it was, it reduced our vibrant, robust 90-pound companion to a feeble shadow who weighed half of what he should have at the end. During the past few days, he quit eating except for an occasional morsel of bacon, and he was so weak he could barely stand.

Dr. Kohlmann came over at about 8 a.m., and Red stood up to greet him and wagged his tail while Dr. K scratched his ears. Then Red went right back to his bed, and relaxed while a small area on his back leg was shaved so that his vein was more visible. We both patted him and talked to him while the injection was given, and in a short time he peacefully slipped away, free at last from the health problems that had been plaguing him.

* * *

Our first meeting with Red was at the Indianapolis Humane Society. He really wasn't at all what we were looking for; Opie, the dog we had lost most recently, was a Border Collie - Golden Retriever mix (maybe) with one blue eye and one brown. Our other dog, Pantone, was a black Lab. We interviewed another Lab and looked at some other dogs, but this one big guy kept trying to get our attention whenever we walked by his pen, so we finally took him outside to interview him.

What a good show he put on! He knew sit, down and stay, and he was calm around other dogs. We didn't exactly connect, but he made a good impression and pleaded with us to get him out of there when we took him back to his pen.

He wasn't what either of us had imagined our next dog to be — short-haired, tall and lanky, with medium-sized ears that folded over and a long tail. He was nothing like Opie, and nothing like the big, beautiful black Lab who had collapsed in a heap of misery when I had taken him back to his pen after his interview. But we couldn't get him our of our minds, and when I woke up in the middle of the night and said "Let's go get that big red dog!" we agreed that's what we had to do.

And get him we did — lucky for him, since it was his third trip through the Humane Society, and dogs didn't usually get that many chances there. As it turned out, he was a Doberman, which is something we didn't realize since he was a chestnut-colored dog with long ears and tail, instead of the black, pointy-eared, short-tailed breed we thought we knew about.

All of our dogs teach us something, and Red taught us that Dobies don't have to be black, cropped or docked, and that they aren't fierce or mean by nature. They are intelligent, powerful, loyal and loving — and there's nothing wrong with that!

* * *

Red taught me something else, too. One evening we watched in horror, unable to help, as he went into violent convulsions in the middle of our living room. As it turned out, he had epilepsy — caused perhaps by having been hit by a car when young, but a life-changing affliction for all of us.

We tried to control Red's seizures with Phenobarbitol (and a few other things), which is one of the drugs that humans use for the same purpose. Phenobarbitol can cause liver damage in dogs, but we made the choice to use it because it meant losing him later rather than sooner. Later has finally come.

* * *

We have eight years of stories about Red, and it would take nearly that long to type them all out. I'm not even going to attempt that, but I must tell everyone who thinks Dobes are mean, fierce dogs that nothing could be further from the truth.

This isn't to say that they can't be intimidating, because they can. Once a construction crew that included a few rough-looking individuals came into our yard and Red appeared on the deck, ears up, tail high, looking each one straight in the eye. I was impressed by him, and very proud.

I was even more proud the time I took him to the Zionsville Farmers Market and a little girl came up to pat him. She was probably about two years old, and not as tall as Red. She held a cookie in her left hand while she patted him with her right, her parents beaming. To my great relief, he endured her attention and ignored the cookie, which a lesser dog would have snatched away.

* * *

Red had seizures about monthly. He usually had one big one, with a few lesser episodes the same day or the day following. We made a lot of changes in his diet, took him off of most of his vaccines, and he eventually went for more than a year with no seizures at all (or none that we knew of, at least).

Then last summer he began to have other health problems. For a while he had trouble walking a straight line. Then he started licking and then chewing on his feet, and eventually chewed all his nails off until they bled. He developed skin problems, and his fur fell out in patches.

We were very distressed by all this, but Red took it in stride. Then his other symptoms subsided, but he began to lose weight rapidly, until his ribs, spine and hipbones were clearly discernable under his skin. Not surprisingly, he became weak and listless.

Last week we made the call to Dr. Kohlmann to come put him down, but then he started eating again, his ears perked up, and we put it off for a bit. This week — today — it was time.

* * *

I feel as though this is a clumsy tribute. Eloquence doesn't always come easy, even when grief is dictating.

Farewell, my dear, sweet Reddy Boy. I fervently hope that there really is a Rainbow Bridge, and that you, I, and all our friends will one day rendezvous there, where the fields are green, the skies are blue, and the pain of separation is but a distant, faded memory.

A: Altos Las Hormigas, of course!

I'm just not able to let a photograph of an anteater sipping wine pass by without comment. A Flickr user called Tamanduagirl features many photos of her family's pet anteaters eating, playing, being walked on a leash and engaging in activities that I'd never thought to associate with anteaters. The beverage in the wine glass in this photo is actually grape juice, but apparently anteaters do like wine, beer, Champagne, ketchup and vinegar, among other things.

They sure look like fun little companions, but I can't locate any Anteater Rescue groups on Google....

Iconic Sauternes producer Château d’ Yquem has sold all 100 of the Nebuchadnezzars of its 2005 vintage that it began offering for sale a year ago.

The 15-liter bottles, which sold for €12,850 each (the equivalent of $20,392 at this moment), are part of a limited edition of 120. The remaining 20 bottles will be kept in the château's collection.

Fifteen liters is a lot of wine, and especially a lot of Sauternes. A typical serving is three ounces, so if you ever decided to pour your Nebuchadnezzar you'd want to wait until 169 of your closest friends could come over (or what the heck, just invite 80 people and have two glasses). The price works out to roughly $1,020 per 750ml bottle (there are 20 in a Nebuchadnezzar), which makes the current price of $600 for the 100-point 2001 seem like quite a bargain.

Of course, the odds that any of the big bottles will actually ever be consumed are quite small. They're really investment vehicles, the bottled equivalent of 20 ounces of gold (19.76, actually). And just think how nice one would look as a cellar decoration!

In other Yquem-related news, this spring Sotheby's will auction a single lot of 70 vintages ranging from 1892 to 2001, two bottles of each vintage except four, for a total of 136 bottles. This particular vertical is exceptional, in that none of the bottles has ever surfaced from the cellars of the château and the collection will be sold at the property, Sotheby's says. The sale is expected to bring more than £100,000 (currently $201,292).

Now that ethanol is being touted as a fuel source (although not a very efficient one), quite a bit of discussion has focused on the effect that the increased demand for corn will have on food prices. This has already had a very real impact in Mexico, where the price of tortillas for a typical family increased last year from 63 cents per day to as much as $1.81 per day — a staggering increase in a country where the income for half the population is $4 a day or less.

Gasoline prices have been in the news lately, as the price of crude oil climbed to a new high and motorists start considering the possibility of paying $4 a gallon to fill their gas tanks. This is something that owners of diesel-powered vehicles already have to contend with, as local fuel prices passed the $4 per gallon mark a couple of weeks ago and have now topped $4.16 in some areas.

That's about a dollar a gallon more than a five-gallon jug of soybean oil costs at Costco or Sam's Club — and many diesels will run just as happily on vegetable oil as they do on petroleum-based fuel. (Even more happily, actually, since vegetable oil provides better lubricity that dino-diesel, although at a slight reduction in power.) Vegetable oil gels at a higher temperature than petrodiesel, but if high pump prices persist past the arrival of warmer weather, switching their vehicles to a straight vegetable oil diet will be an attractive option for owners of diesel-powered vehicles.

The number of diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. passenger-car fleet is relatively tiny, but fuel consumption figures change dramatically when trucks are taken into account. Factor in the fact that semitractors average about six miles per gallon, and all of a sudden a $1 per gallon savings in fuel cost is a very big deal.

Truckers in European countries have already discovered vegetable oil. It's illegal to use unlicensed motor fuel in many places — at least in part because doing so circumvents paying road use taxes that are collected at the pump. Even so, groceries still find plenty of empty vegetable-oil containers in their parking lots.

As long as vegetable oil is more cost-effective than diesel fuel, it's really not too hard to imagine the same thing happening here. So if you think you catch a whiff of French fries while you're cruising down the Interstate this summer, it could be because the 18-wheeler ahead of you has gone veggie.