Today’s guest blogger is Pia Gardner, area manager in Perth.

Pia Gardner

My territory comprises the on-premise trade here – bars, hotels, restaurants, cafes, bistros, nightclubs, and function centres. I focus on the Perth CBD and the South Metro. Spending most of my time in this area is special, surrounded by the river, beach and lots great places to wine and dine.

To try and paint a picture for you … when I’m in a restaurant, before seeing a client, I find myself looking out the window. I can see kite surfers, small boats, big boats, fishermen, cyclists, or school groups at rowing training, not bad hey! We Perthites can sometimes forget how truly lucky we are to live here. “How good is this?” I think to myself … ah now back to work.

It is a competitive industry around here, especially being on the doorstep of “Margs”, Swan Valley, Great Southern and Pemberton. There are lots of wines around and people want to support their home turf.  It’s common to say a quick “hi” to another rep entering the restaurant you’ve just left. Sales will always be competitive, so you just have to get out there and enjoy what you do.

What makes my job most enjoyable for me are the wines I get to sell (OK, get to taste, too). People ask me, “What is your favourite wine?” I could go on for days, so I think, “What is good now”?

Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache

Well as of today, I am feeling summer knocking, and if I were on a boat on the Swan River this would be my perfect line up:

• Pour myself Jansz Premium Vintage – keep a close eye on who starts to hang around you because once they “sample” the 04 vintage, it could be gone before you say “Freo”.
• Throw the fresh lemon and cracked pepper marinated prawns on the portable barbie, give a couple of stubs to the skipper. Gotta keep them happy, and also to keep them away from your Jansz.
• Hmm … Riesling with the prawns – yep sounds good. But which one? Heggies 2009 drinking lovely, crisp, fresh pear and apple characters. Balanced with a clean, mineral finish.
• Can you go on a boat without another cold white? Yes you can. Get your hands on The Y Series Sangiovese Rose. This is bang for your buck. Funky new label too. You can afford more than one or two of these.
• Drink the Y Rose with a tandoori chicken salad. Fresh coriander thrown in is a must.
• Keep the chatter and the tunes going, no dancing unless your boat legs are in fine form. The sunsets here are really something special.  If the Freo doctor (read: sea breeze from Fremantle) is still around, it’s time for a red to warm you up on the 8 knot cruise back to shore. The choice for me is very difficult- it would have to be the Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 2008. Put it in the glass and enjoy it while it keeps you warm.

The best to be had on this overcast day…

"Dusty Rose" (Rose, Side View) Nikon D300, 105mm, F/8, 1/40s, -1.0EV, ISO 640, Built-in TTL Flash, -2.0EV

Ever since Shakespeare the ultimate symbol of beauty...

It is tempting to sing the praises of nature. Sweet-smelling flowers, colourful kingfishers, a pastoral pond to dangle your feet in – gorgeous. The standard is (at least in Europe) set by breathtaking BBC-documentaries and dodgy TV-commercials. Presenting washing your hair in rivers as the ultimate state of happiness, and cheerful families in delightful green surroundings, buttering sandwiches all day long.

But jellyfish, spiders and round-worms, that’s a horse of a different colour. And what about the bacterial ooze in your drain or the snails that dine on the doings of a dog? Sheer nature, but hardly considered beautiful. Richard Attenborough once said that some footage is never broadcasted, for instance the cute little antelope that ran for its mother after a lion attack, with its bowels hanging out. Not all in nature is beautiful.

A long time ago Plato thought that beauty is evoked by the extent to which something resembles a pre-imprinted ideal in our ‘realm of thoughts’. In a way it seems logical. For instance, I have some holiday pictures in which I sit under a palm tree on a white tropical beach, a clear blue sea in the background. The more this picture resembles our idea of holiday, the more beautiful it seems. Apparently we have some idealized picture in our mind. But then: where does this idealized picture come from? Do we have a free supply when we are born?

Some of us think so. For instance, scientists have examined our preference for pastoral, Arcadian landscapes (in the Netherlands for instance Freek Couterier). Our preference is explained by deeper biological motives. The landscapes fulfilled a primeval sense, a memory from the times that we were primitive hunters-gatherers. Such a landscape offered enough food and shelter for a worriless existence, and the inhabitants had more chance of survival. In the same way, our feelings of affection for small creatures with large, innocent baby-eyes contributed to the continued existence of future generations. Our love and lust preferences for large, symmetrical people aided to keep that offspring as healthy and strong as possible. Resentment and fear do fit into this idea: bitter tastes, fungus, dead or malformed creatures, poop and garbage promise most of all disease, death and misery. Beauty is oriented towards what supports human survival.

My colleague Edo Knegtering will obtain his PhD next week with a dissertation, The Featheries and the Furries, on the preferences for colourful, big and cute animals in Dutch nature conservation. Many organisations admit that they focus mainly on these animals. And the government joins in as their interest is with pleasing the voters. Protecting fluffy and colourful creatures is acceptable. But a government that protects unsightly snails smaller than 2 millimetres, even delaying road construction because of them, has a lot of explaining to do in our automobile Netherlands. International research on communication has discovered a lot of these preferences: size, colour, texture of skin, the possession of a spine, children-like faces, resemblance to people, predatorily behaviour, competition with humans, economic value, social way of life… and so forth.

Suppose now that you and your family are happily buttering your bread in the countryside and suddenly you see a cute little rabbit. What do you actually see? According to the philosopher Kant we only see our own thoughts. He states that we can only see the world around us because we have pre-imprinted ideas of what we expect to see. The continuous flow of signals from our senses only takes on meaning as we have learned to add meaning to it. In the way that a baby learns that these vague visual blurs and the tickling of the belly are parents with food. That is to say, of course they are not parents, but it is very convenient for the baby to think that they are. And is if appears to be convenient for a lifetime to think so, than in due time we will accept this as reality. We think that our parents exist.

Kant’s theory also explains why people perceive different things as beautiful. If you look at my picture of the beach, you’ll see a place where you would like to go to, preferably today. You think that this place will offer you some time off, relaxation and an escape from your hectic existence. If I look at the same picture, in my mind I see the poverty of the people in the village, the demolition of the coral reef under water by dynamite fishing, and the tourist hotels just around the corner of the bay. Our interpretation is different, and so is our appraisal.

And how exactly does this appraisal work? I think: through emotions or feelings. I don’t know whether research has been conducted in this area. It simply seems logical that evolution has invented a mechanism that triggers during perception, at the exact same time of the rational assignment of meaning, a parallel system that induces sense. A kind of reflex. In the way that you pull back your hand from a flame even before you discover that it hurts, and long before you have explained rationally the meaning of your melting skin. Likewise, your body is already in a state of euphoria even before you have considered that the landscape with flowers might be a suitable place to rest and look for food.

Sidetrack. Fear, fury and pure hate are emotions as well, gloomy emotions (I know, this is a normative adjective, but ethics and aesthetics are in line). Is it possible that gloomy emotions also form the basis of such a ‘beautiful’ feeling? Yes it is. In the beginnings of the last century, the art world lost itself in a panting sequence of innovative movements. Of course these renewals could not continue for ever, and when all new ideas had been thought of, the artists focused on shocking the public. At first, they started rather decent, with empty walls, empty stages and concerts without a sound. But in the end the search across the borderline generated into pictures of torture, the crushing of goldfish in a blender and a show of dissected bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. Horror and pulp have a cult status. It is allowed to indulge in gloomy emotions, in the beauty of evil.

But wait… Are our preferences really ours? Do we determine ourselves what is beautiful and what not? No, of course not. An overload of commercials tries to stress our individual freedom of choice, but the truth is that beauty is mainly the norm of a group. Bony cover girls, cubic paintings and the last performance of the National Ballet – the feelings that they rouse are mainly determined by the way we share our thoughts about them with others. Call it fashion, yes. Or a little more sophisticated: culture. This also offers an evolutionary advantage: a person who conforms to the norm of the group has a higher chance of survival than an outcast. In overblown language Nietsche has described how he sees the world as a collection of meanings that we have attributed, with behind it a kind of hidden force that wants to express itself (‘will’). And that is in a state of continuous conflict with other forces from other people. What we see, or what we think we see, is a result of power. Unconsciously, like children in a schoolyard who say that pink is so much prettier for girls. Consciously, when an inhabitant of the Dutch city of Leiden refers to those beautiful seagulls as ’shrieking crap machines’. So maybe our preference for Arcadian landscapes has nothing to do with memories of our times as hunter-gatherers. Maybe it just comes from a time that landscape paintings were a response of the dominant culture to certain social developments.

So this is how it works with nature. The beauty is in the ideas that we have already and that are imposed upon us. We regard nature as beautiful, because it is repeatedly confirmed from specific points of view with specific purposes. Holiday nature. Nature to wash your hair in. Nature to drive through, smoothly and fast.

I thought of a picture of a rose as an illustration. Ever since Shakespeare the ultimate symbol of beauty. And what surprise when I read Hans Achterhuis this week. In ‘Natuur tussen mythe en ethiek’ he describes the rose as a technological product, scentless but with exact the right colour, produced with great precision, in endless monotonous rows, connected to a drip with artificial food, on rock wool, in closed systems, free of bacteria and other nasty natural influences. Pseudo-nature that has nothing to do with what traditionally was referred to as nature. “The rose as the end of nature.”

It is beauty, but not as we know it.

From Toy Story to Bolt, animation has brought us an array of wonderful characters to cherish and enjoy. This roundup highlights a selection of simply awe inspiring 3D characters.

Stunning 3D Characters

Captain Jack Sparrow

Created using 3DSmax, Zbrush and Photoshop, the attention to detail and expression are fantastic.

Bobby, The Little Octopus

Textured using ZBrush and decorated with Blender, taking 5 days of work. Bobby is a unique and fascinating piece of work.

Harlequin

Hauntingly realistic, Harlequin is truly a spectacular piece of art. At first glance, one might think this was a well lit photo.

Science Doc

Modeled in maya and rendered in Mental Ray, Science is an excellent character, with matching production values.

Goblin Mechanic

Inspired by Max Cant’s soldiers when modeling the furnace on his back he is full of expression and crammed with an array of wonderful details.

Will Smith Caricature

Hilarious and superbly created using Cinema 4D, ZBrush and Photoshop. It has a warmth and charm that make it stand out.

Jelly Spider Friend

Realistic and a little creepy, this is beautifully crafted with amazing colors and textures. The lighting adds to the freakish feel of the piece.

Cloud Tribute

A tribute to the popular Final Fantasy character Cloud, the emotion behind the eyes is extremely powerful.

Beautiful Vanadisa

Created in Daz Studio with a rendering time of over 22 hours, this is a simply breathtaking 3D portrait.

Isabelle

Modeled using a combination of Poser, Vue, Cinema 4D and Photoshop CS, she has a real sense of mystery and magic.

Art Ventura

A wonderful caricature, Art Ventura solves mysterious CG cases. The behind the scenes of its creation is worth viewing.

Ogryn Stare

The artists first project using ZBrush with the entire piece taking over two days. It makes great use of textures.

Rose

A beautiful pose and composition, great use of light and a thoroughly captivating expression make Rose a compelling piece.

Emocionado

A funny and charming piece with great attention to detail on the cloth patterns and the stubble on the chin.

Aztec Priest

Inspired by Mel Gibson’s movie “Apocalypto”, this Aztec Priest is detailed, imaginative and original.

Cyber Goth

Created using a combination of Poser and Photoshop, the design on her scalp and the eye markings really draw the eye.

Samurai Troll

The texture work in the armor plates and skin are amazing given that the artist views this as a work in progress.

Smoking Creature

I don’t what’s more frightening, the hideous character or the amazing amount of realism he possesses.

Kai

This is Kai, Nariko’s dedicated friend (from Heavenly Sword). Created using Poser, Vue and Photoshop.

Shadow Conscious

Absolutely incredible detail, the artist really captured the emptiness in her eyes and created a character deep in thought.

Female Vampire

Inspired by the vampire film 30 Days of Nights, this female vampire looks really realistic and deliciously evil.

Arwen

Created using Cinema 4D, Poser, Vue and Photoshop with an obscene render time, Arwen is a pearlescent beauty.

Fries With That

Fantastic modelling, texturing and shading make this utterly realistic, you will think it’s a photograph. An amazing achievement in 3D realism.

Suspicious Minds

An incredibly striking, beautiful, realistic and moving portrait with an interesting story behind it.

The Worlds Enemy

A superb model of Sephiroth from Final Fantasy with the rendering taking 3 hours and the post production taking 6 hours.

Chris In 3D

An absolutely stunning combination of Poser and Photoshop work. Do yourself a favor and check out this render’s immaculate details.

Cyborg Head 01

The level of detail is nothing short of amazing, enhanced by the textures and lightning that give this 3D render superb qualities.

Ethereal

Artwork based on the W40k universe, it’s an Ethereal from the TAU empire, taking 2 days to complete using Cinema 4D, ZBrush, VRay and Photoshop.

Knight of the Temple

A lone knight of the Temple, standing guard. The chainmail and stone are particularly brilliant in detail and texture.

Grandma

Just awesome detail, amazing textures, superb blending and the befuddling expression on the woman’s face make this a wonderful piece of work.

Des belles rencontres comme celle ci, on devrait en faire tous les jours…………….. je me promenais tranquillou………et pof …………… je tombe nez à nez devant une superbe ROSE…………..whaou quel bonheur !!!!!!   Allez hop un pt’i coup de sécateur………… et je l’ai fait mienne !!!!!!

Merci ma belle pour ce pt’i moment ………..la semaine commence bien………..dommage que vous ne puissiez  sentir son parfum……..c’est un régal

Elle à tout de suite trouvée sa place………………….

La Rose

I read in Scott Kelby’s book “The Digital Photography Book” that the best time to shoot flowers was when the sky is grey and even better right after the rain. As I completed that part of the book the rain started, so I ran out with my camera to the rose bush outside our flat and shot this one.

Scott was right the colors come out best when taken right after the rain.

And the droplets of water make the rose look even fresher.

Details:  Aperture: f/5  –  Exposure: 1/80 sec  -  Focal lengths: 41mm  -  Iso: 100

Anybody know what this plant might be?

It was blooming in my mother’s garden and I’ve borrowed a few clumps… But I’m in the process of digging out roughly half a hundredweight of Crocosmia/montbretia corms, which are in the process of taking over, and this looks a little similar. I don’t want to find out I’ve adopted a monster, but on the other hand, anything that flowers in November has got to be worth tolerating.

And talking of things flowering in November…

… what do you think this rose thinks it’s up to?

Not that I’m complaining, mind, but do you think it knows something I don’t?

Sunday:

“”There is blood in my mouth because I was prying a soda bottle open.”

Monday:

“There is blood in my mouth because I fought with the cops.”

Tuesday:

“There is blood in my mouth because I was holding the knife while I was climbing up the wall.”

Wednesday:

“There is blood in my mouth because I pulled my wisdom teeth out to see what wisdom it beholds.”

Thursday:

“There is blood in my mouth because I ate a rose with a thorn.”

Friday:

“There is blood in my mouth because there was a needle in my lipstick.”

Saturday:

“There is blood in my mouth because I tried a fresh glass.”

Sunday:

“The truth is there is blood in my mouth because I’ve been biting my tongue all week.”

I know you know me … so much so well … still learning … still growing … not just some silly love spell … You shaped me … helped mould me … the secret I shall not tell … my darling … my everything …  I am here now for you are my life … when you’re not with me … you’re the air I breathe … gave me wings and let me fly … down for anything … you just call me … you know I’m here … anywhere and anytime … When you are distant … I know why it’s needed … it’s part of how I belong … if ever you must turn me away … I know it’s ok … Just knowing you makes me strong … I trust your judgment … no questions asked … for you water the soil for every song … when you treat me like a Queen … never judge for where I’ve been … shown me completely … total security … you cannot leave me lost in everything … understand me … being there for me … more than anyone in ways only you could show … I know you too well … why you do what you do … this journey together we both chose … right from the beginning … no pretense … passion like a whirlwind … all my fears you allowed me to let go … I’m so grateful for you my one and only … let them all continue to believe … we are meant to be … add to the mystery … they will run with whatever they are told!

All my love ~ forevermore xxx

I thought I would use this blog to show some of the pictures I have taken over the past 35 years. Let’s begin with a few macro pics of flowers. Today it’s so easy to switch on a digital camera, point and click. My camera is always in manual mode and I like to “Take a picture” so composition is very important. Anyway, enjoy the beauty of God’s creation in these pictures of flowers.

A rose in my mum's garden

the world of macro photography on digital cameras

depth of field in macro photography

the wonder and beauty on this scale is beyond words

such incredible design

an orchid inside the wonderful rain forest, science museum, Taichung

another beautiful rose

Middle of World

Der Charme hat seinen Sitz in der Seele.
Sigmund Graff

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]]> http://vinoquebec.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/brise-vignoble-la-bauge/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:32:22 +0000 sylvainhogue http://vinoquebec.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/brise-vignoble-la-bauge/

Vin rosé du Québec à 11.5% de teneur en alcool.  Vient du vignoble la Bauge à Brigham.  Je conseille particulièrement ce vin rosé.  Évidemment, il n’est pas très sec mais plutôt fruité.  Il goûte carréement les fraises et les framboises.  C’EST INCROYABLE, il est délicieux!!!

À conseiller avec des fruits de mer ou mets végétariens.  Également très bon sans accompagnement, je l’ai d’ailleurs débuté en entrée et vraiment apprécié.

www.labauge.com

cote: 9/10 (pour un rosé)

Last night at BullFish’s Thanksgiving Wine Tasting, our wine rep poured some of the most amazing rose we have ever tried, the 2008 Sophia Coppola Rose.

Everything about this wine is gorgeous, so let’s start with the packaging.  The clear bottle is beautifully shaped almost like a large bud vase and proudly displays the vibrant pink rose inside.   There is no foil around the cork but instead a simple, printed label over the top. 

Grapes for this Rosé were harvested at a lower brix to ensure a light wine that pairs elegantly with food. Immediately after being picked, the grapes are brought into the winery, crushed and destemmed. For color extraction, the grapes are cold soaked for 48 hours before the juice is separated from the skins. Then, the juice is fermented at a cool temperature in order to retain the crisp acidity that is critical for this style of wine.

The nose of this rose has an inviting perfume of crushed raspberries, rose petals, and tea leaves.  On the palate, this wine offers delicate flavors of strawberries, red cherries, ginger, ruby red grapefruit and candied orange peel.  We even picked up on a bit of hibiscus on the second sip.  Served chilled, this Rose is a perfect choice for Thanksgiving dinner.  This refreshing wine is reminiscent of the lovely dry rosés served in seaside café along the French Riviera.

We hope the Francis Coppola winery keeps producing this beauty.