Ice Required For Icewine!

Seems like a obvious concept right? You have to have ice in order to make icewine? Well, the strange thing is, counterfeiters are using a loophole to get into the icewine business, but Canada is striking back!

Some white wine producers have been adding artificial sweeteners to simulate icewine's very sugary taste. Other companies have been picking the grapes early and then freezing them inside of buildings. Doing so helps minimize a loss of the crops due to rot. However, by picking the grapes early and freezing them inside a building, and not naturally on the vine, this can cause the grape to to have inconsistent or incomplete fermentation.

"[These companies] can produce a fine wine, but that should not be allowed to be called icewine," explains Dan Paszkowski, the head of the Canadian Vinters Association.

Canada is hoping that by implementing new federal standards requiring that "the grapes must be naturally frozen on the vine", it will help prevent fraudsters. The Canadian province of Ontario already has these same rules, but now the changes will be mandated across the country effective January 1, 2014. 

So what exactly is icewine? Icewine is a very unique, yet risky to make, dessert wine. Weather plays a vital role in the making of icewine. In fact, it has to be grown in a very cool climate because the grapes cannot be harvested until the temperature has fallen to below 18°F (-8°C) in Canada, or below 19°F (-7°C) in Germany. In Canada specifically, the first hard freeze may not occur until after Christmas. Once the grapes have met that hard freeze point, the harvesters only have but a few hours to pick the grapes off the vine. Canada and Germany are the worlds top two producers of icewine, but other countries such as Denmark, Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria, Slovakia, United States (specifically in the Michigan, Washington, and Colorado), and China are also producers. It's the last of those countries that is causing the majority of the counterfeit problems.

Icewine has become rapidly popular in China, but not all of it is regulated, and that opens the door to counterfeits galore.

"It's very difficult to regulate greed," emphasizes Paszkowski. "We've identified counterfiet icewines even in five-star restaurants and hotels."

Sources: Reuters, Vancouver Sun, Lancette Arts Journal, The Telegraph, Niagara Wine Trail

 

 

First High Risk of 2013

The first High Risk for 2013 was issued today, and it stretched from eastern Iowa to northwestern Ohio.  That puts a total of 12 million people in the risk area for severe weather such as straigh-line wind damage and tornadoes.

The bullseye of this high risk is right over Chicago. In fact, this is the first high risk tat has been issued for Chicago since May 30, 2004, and only the third since 2000. The Storm Prediction Center issues these categories on a daily basis based off of the current/forecasted weather, and they have three categories: Slight, Moderate,and High. High risks are extremely rare, and are only issued prior to large outbreaks of severe weather.

So what do the different risk levels mean? Below is what the SPC uses to define their outlook categories:

 

Slight, moderate, and high risks represent progressively larger threat for organized severe storm episodes. These risks and their graphical labels (Slight, Moderate, High) are based directly on the numerical probabilities of severe weather that we provide with every outlook. The probability values represent the chance of severe weather within about 25 miles of a point, which is about the size of a major metropolitan area. Though severe storms tend to receive a large amount of media coverage, severe weather is uncommon at any one location. Your chance of getting a tornado on any random day are very small, climatologically speaking. Put in that context, even a 10% chance of a tornado within 25 miles of a point means a much bigger threat than usual, and should be taken seriously. Think of how often tornadoes normally happen close to you on any given day, and those small-looking probabilities start to seem large by comparison!

For a complete list of all the Risk Outlooks, Tornado Watches (formerly called “tornado forecasts”), you can use this link here.

This is a link to all of the times the SPC has issued a High Risk Day, use this link here. Notice that the only month that has never had a High Risk issued was September. Also, the last time a High Risk was never issued once during the year was back in 2000.

Sources: SPC, NOAA, NWS-Chicago

2013 Behind The Hurricane Name

Even though hurricane season technically started last Saturday, the tropics are just now starting to get going. Tropical Storm Andrea was just named late this afternoon. Every year I have always pulled up the list of the hurricane names for the Atlantic Ocean, and tried to determine what strength they will be and where they might hit based off of the names alone. There is nothing scientific about this process. Simply some fun.

Atlantic Names:

Andrea—this would be cheating if I answered this one, because it has already formed.
Barry--makes me think of Barry Manilow. Smooth and gentle. This one will be a Category 1.
Chantal--I worked with a Chantal, and she was the nicest lady ever. This will be a tropical storm
Dorian--this to be the first Cat 5 of the season, but will downgrade to Cat 2 when it hits Florida
Erin--this one sounds sweet and innocent, but will end up as a Category 4.
Fernand--the Bull? Just like in the book, he will be huge in size, but gentle. Only tropical storm.
Gabrielle--Gabrielle in ’89 killed 9 people, despite never making landfall. This one will be Cat 3
Humberto--this one will hit Cuba and fall apart. Category 2.
Ingrid--sounds exotic, but it will do damage. Category 3.
Jerry--Seinfeld. This one will be funny. It will have a crazy track, but not do much damage. Cat 1
Karen--Typhoon Karen did massive damage to Phillipines ('60) and Guam ('62). This year Cat 3
Lorenzo--I feel this one will be large, but will get lost and stay out in Atlantic Ocean only.
Melissa--I know too many Melissa’s. This is a no win forecast for this one :)
Nestor--this name just confuses me, so the storm will too. Erratic path, but benign. Category 1.
Olga--I think this will be the last named storm of season, and it goes out with a bang, Cat 4.
Pablo--we won't get this far down the list, but if we did, tropical storm.
Rebekah--we won’t get this far down the list, but if we did, Cat 2
Sebastien--crab from Little Mermaid anyone? Very tiny, but a fighter. Small sized Category 3.
Tanya--we won’t get this far down the list, but if we did, Cat 1
Van--I picture this to be big, like a real van, but not do much. Tropical storm.
Wendy--all I think about is the Wendy’s girl with red pigtails. Too sweet: tropical storm at best.

Hurricane Ivan     courtesy: NOAA