Pliny* had a point when he quoted Alcaeus who said that in vino veritas and so did the barbarians who enjoyed a good couple of goblets when they were having meetings.  When one pages through a copy of the Janis Robinson Oxford Companion to Wine it becomes clear that in wine there is no discrimination of any kind. Winemakers and wine lovers are interested only in the wine and in the facts pertaining to the subject. No winery is passed by (no matter how small), no area forgotten and no country ignored because the politics aren’t de rigeur – there is simply the wine and then there are the facts.

In light of the horror at Xinjiang recently as well the discrimination present in every single country on earth, be it against a group or be it against a person one wonders whether the time hasn’t come for all of us to sit down and have a couple of glasses together.  Wine is healthy and when enjoyed moderately, can do little harm, in fact scientists are, increasingly, discovering that there are many advantages to moderate consumption and we have all known, for years, that people living in the Mediterranean regions are healthier because of the fact that they do drink red wine on a daily basis. Could that be the reason that they aren’t warring nations? Take a look at this:  “The role of micronutrients in age-related cognitive decline is being increasingly studied. Fruits and beverages such as tea, red wine, cocoa, and coffee are major dietary sources of polyphenols, micronutrients found in plant-derived foods. The largest subclass of dietary polyphenols is flavonoids, and it has been reported in the past that those who consume lots of flavonoids have a lower incidence of dementia. Is it not possible that this hate and aggression observed in so many parts of the world is a form of dementia? The latest findings seem to support the theory, although the researchers caution that more research would be needed to prove that it was flavonoids, rather than some other aspect of the foods studied, that made the difference. The effect was most pronounced for wine.   ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2008)

It is interesting that men, in particular, benefit from wine consumption and this, again, supports the theory that we should all look at wine anew and consider the advantages, in this case healthier men that aren’t suffering from dementia. It seems a good enough reason to me. ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2009) — Drinking up to half a glass of wine a day may boost life expectancy by five years—at least in men, suggests research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The Dutch authors base their findings on a total of 1,373 randomly selected men whose cardiovascular health and life expectancy at age 50 were repeatedly monitored between 1960 and 2000. The researchers looked into how much alcohol the men drank, what type it was, and over what period, in a bid to assess whether this had any impact on the risks of their dying from cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and from all causes. Finally it seems that even serious ailments can be positively affected by this incredible liquid and it seems strange that so many religions ban the use outright. ScienceDaily (Apr. 24, 2009) — Pre-diagnostic wine consumption may reduce the risk of death and relapse among non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients, according to an epidemiology study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009. Xuesong Han, the first author of the abstract and a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Public Health, said their findings would need to be replicated before any public health recommendations are made, but the evidence is becoming clearer that moderate consumption of wine has numerous benefits. Something has to be done to end the continuous vehement mudslinging and the way in which politicians (and their supporters) the world over slate one another and something must be done about discrimination and racial and cultural hatred so let us sit down with a glass of wine, a plate of good food and talk.

COQ AU VIN

Ingredients

• 1 x 2.5 kg organic chicken, cut into 6 pieces (do not discard giblets and carcass)
• 1 carrot
• 1 teaspoon peppercorms
• 1 onion
• 150 g pancetta (one piece, not sliced)
• 12 slices streaky pancetta or unsmoked bacon
• 30g butter
• 2 onions, sliced
• 6 large carrots
• 2 sticks of celery, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5 cardamom pods
• 2 tbsps flour
• 2 tbsps cognac
• 1 bottle good red wine
• 5 small sprigs of thyme
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 40g butter
• 12 small onions, peeled
• 200g morel mushrooms (you can substitute shitake or ceps here)

Method

• Put the chicken carcass and giblets into a stock pot, cover with water and add an onion and a carrot, 1 teaspoon peppercorns, 5 cardamom pods and boil.
• Turn the heat down and allow it to simmer until you need it.
• Cut the pancetta into slices.
• Fry them in the butter until they are golden and remove them without the fat.
• Season the chicken sections with salt and pepper and put them in the fat from the pancetta.
• Do not flip them constantly, turn them over when the bottom of the piece of chicken is honey coloured and when both sides are done, remove and set aside.
• Take the sliced celery and onion and fry them in the pan in which the chicken pieces have been fried until they are translucent.
• Add the chicken and the pancetta to the vegetables and stir in the flour and cognac and the herbs.
• Pour in the chicken stock and the wine and allow to boil gently.
• After about 15 minutes, add the small onions, the carrots and the mushrooms.
• Cook, partially covered, on low-medium heat until the chicken is just starting to get soft.
• Remove the lid and start to reduce the stock until it is just getting thick.
• Grill the  streaky pancetta and garnish each serving with crispy pancetta.
• Serve with rice or crunchy bread

*The elder