CALDERON SCHEDULED TO VISIT SONOMA WINERY

Mexican President Felipe Calderón is scheduled to visit a Sonoma winery Wednesday as part of his first official visit to California. Calderón plans to visit the Robledo Family Winery following a luncheon with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and before flying on to Los Angeles.Reynaldo Robledo, the patriarch of the winery family, is an immigrant from Calderón's home state, Michoacan.One of Calderón's goals on his U.S. tour, which began Sunday, is to reach out to the 12 million Mexican immigrants in the United States.Notimex, the Mexican news agency, said Calderón will meet with the Robledos and other immigrants who have opened their own businesses after working in the vineyards of California.After coming to the United States about four decades ago, Robledo worked his way from field worker to vineyard manager, then to vineyard owner and finally vintner.Neither Robledo nor his daughter, Vanessa, the winery president, could be reached for comment Monday, but they have talked in the past about their immigrant roots."Now that we've grown up, we all appreciate that my father was correct in being strict with us when we were kids and we now see that he was right when he told us that the business would keep the family together," Vanessa Robledo told Notimex in an article published MondayCalderón's visit hasn't been widely publicized.Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown, who represents the Sonoma Valley, said she wasn't aware of it. Sheriff Bill Cogbill said he couldn't comment on any possible visit or any role his department would have in providing security for a visiting chief of state.A spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will meet with Calderón today and Wednesday, said she wasn't aware of the Mexican president's schedule after he leaves Sacramento.Efforts to contact Mexican consular officials in San Francisco on Monday were unsuccessful.While he's in California, Calderón will address the state Legislature and attend a private lunch meeting with Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and other officials.He is scheduled to meet with migrant workers in Los Angeles after leaving Sonoma. His appearance in California culminates a tour that includes stops in Boston, New York and Chicago.Some say his first official visit to California is overdue."There has been a lot of criticism from Mexican leaders in the U.S., that he hasn't traveled to this country, he hasn't visited with them," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "And unlike (former President) Vicente Fox, he hasn't paid the kind of consistent attention to Mexican communities in the United States, and he's trying to address that."Fox made a similar trip to California in 2006.The acting Mexican Consul in San Jose, Jose Loreto, said Calderón, who took office in late 2006, after a close election against a liberal candidate, has been too busy dealing with internal matters to schedule a trip north."His main objective is to get close to community groups," Loreto acknowledged.Although he won't be meeting with President Bush, or going to Washington, D.C., Calderón is expected to speak consistently about the plight of Mexican immigrants. Calderón has publicly stated his concern for the "growing harassment" and "frank persecution" of Mexicans in the United States.His comments, made to the Mexican government's migrant assistance agency in November, were in apparent reference to U.S. presidential candidates who voiced their desire to curb illegal immigration; he's also expressed disappointment at Congress' inability to agree on an overhaul of immigration laws.Calderón, who holds a master's in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, told an audience of students and faculty there Monday: "It's important to change the perception that Mexicans are the enemy."Calderón is expected to share his sentiment about immigration when he addresses a joint session of the California Legislature.Fox used the same platform to push for an overhaul of immigration laws in a speech to the state Legislature in May 2006, a day when several Republicans in attendance silently protested Mexico's economic and education policies, which they said lead to illegal immigration, by wearing yellow buttons with the phrase "No mas," or, no more.On Wednesday morning, Calderón, 45, will meet privately with the Latino Legislative Caucus as well as Senate and Assembly leaders from both parties before addressing both houses.

Champage Sorbet

Serves 6 (or one tipsy Tartelette!)
300gr sugar
500 ml water
250 ml good quality Champagne
50 ml lemon juice

Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar, stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved.Let cool completely.Stir in the champagne and lemon juice.Process in your ice cream machine following the manufacturer's instructions or you can use your own method. I find that sticking it in the freezer and giving it a good stir a few times as it starts to solidify works fairly well, although a mixer (on low-medium) with wide blades/attachments would be the best way to go. If you have any suggestions of what has worked for you in the past, please feel free to e-mail us! We love getting recipes involving different wines and liquors!

Pomace May Fight Tooth Decay

Polyphenols in winegrapes could provide drugs against oral disease
by Jane Firstenfeld

Rochester, N.Y. -- Wine may be healthy for your heart, and help prevent other ailments, but chemicals in a common by-product of red wine production may "significantly reduce the ability of bacteria to cause cavities," according to a study recently released by a team of researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Cornell University. The research was funded by the USDA, and the findings published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.Led by Hyun Koo, DDS, Ph.D., the scientists found that specific polyphenols found in large amounts in fermented seeds and skins--pomace--normally discarded in the process of red winemaking, actually interfere with the potency of Streptococcus mutans, the microbial culprit behind dental caries; and glucans, the building blocks of plaque. "We thought grapes and pomace could be a potential source for these bioactives, especially considering that they are largely available," Koo told Wines & Vines.To prepare polyphenolic extracts, the team used pomace donated by wineries in New York's Finger Lakes region: Cabernet Franc from Cornell Orchards; Baco Noir from Pleasant Valley Winery and Noiret from Swedish Hill Winery. Cameron Hosmer, at Hosmer Winery, recalled contributing about 100 pounds of his vintage 2005 Pinot Noir pomace to the project. Varieties were pre-screened for their phenolic content. Red grapes have been shown to contain 40% more phenolic content than white. The researchers were most interested in examining the impact of grape polyphenols on two capabilities of S. mutans that enable it to survive in the human mouth. According to their report, "First, it secretes enzymes known as glucosyltransferases (GTFs) that produce the sugary, glue-like substances--glucans--that firmly attach bacteria to tooth surfaces and form a tough barrier around bacterial colonies." These barriers protect the bacterial colonies against environmental assaults--such as toothbrushing--and make them, in some cases, "hundreds of times more resistant to antibiotics."Another source of S. mutans damage is its ability to secrete acid and to survive that acid. "Having evolved to be 'acid durable,' S. mutans can survive and out-compete other bacteria in the mouth," the report continued. Results revealed that all of the grape varieties inhibited two bacterial GTFs by as much as 85%, unprecedented in Koo's experience. "Cabernet Franc extracts were more effective GTF inhibitors, with Pinot Noir a close second at concentrations that might be useful therapeutically," the report said. "Grape polyphenols were also found to cause S. mutans to produce significantly less acid....None of the extracts from any variety killed the bacteria outright."
Plenty of pomace at Pleasant Valley, which donated Baco Noir to the experiment.As winemakers and tasters are painfully aware, wine itself is acidic, and can cause severe erosion of tooth enamel. For that reason, Koo emphasized, "We make it clear that we used chemical fractions of grape extracts devoid of acids and naturally occurring sugars (another substance that can be detrimental to tooth integrity, since it can be fermented to acids by oral bacteria). So, do not run into the liquor store and start rinsing with wine." One application of the research, however, would be some type of mouthwash containing the beneficial polyphenols to protect the teeth. The project is continuing. "We are currently trying to identify the bioactive polyphenols. This is critical before planning any potential rinse formulation," Koo said. A recent web item written by Katrina vanden Heuvel for thenation.com stated that "Dental decay is now the most common chronic childhood disease in the U.S., affecting 20% of children 2-4; 50% of those aged 6 to 8 and nearly 60% of 15-year-olds." Using a common substance like pomace--available in industrial quantities and often discarded, or recycled as mulch--to prevent this always painful, sometimes disfiguring ailment, could be a positive step.