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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (164132)	7/24/2001 6:19:51 PM
From: Mr. Whist	Respond to of 769670

Watson: Another country heard from. You are the 9th person to butt in in JLA's behalf.

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (164132)	7/24/2001 7:54:52 PM
From: ColtonGang	Respond to of 769670

How's your tastebuds.............Days of Wine Amateur Taster Tests His Palate in Million-Dollar Contest By Catherine Valenti July 24 — Who needs to get paid to drink this much wine? Fifty different kinds of the grape was what Rick Cloud tasted today at a New York contest sponsored by winemaker Walnut Crest. The challenge? If he correctly picked a $5.99 Walnut Crest merlot out of a variety of 50 different merlots ranging in price from $6.99 to $24 a bottle, he would walk off with a million bucks. The 33-year Cushing, Okla. resident and manager for Huffy Bicycles was chosen for the contest out of 56,000 entries. He tasted wines for almost an hour and a half, selecting eight finalists. "It was very difficult," he said afterward. Needle in a Haystack Walnut Crest, a Long Island-based company that produces wines in Chile, held the contest to show consumers that the taste of its value-priced merlot is comparable to that of more expensive brands. The company is also sponsoring a similar contest in the fall using its cabernet sauvignon, which also retails for $5.99. "It's designed to show that a consumer need not spend a lot of money to get a great bottle of wine," says Walnut Crest's director of education Sharon McCarthy. But for those who think they're going to get rich taking this challenge, wine tasting experts say think again. Picking one brand of wine out of 50 is no small task — even for professionals. "It's almost impossible," says Mark Phillips, executive director of the Wine Tasting Association. "It should be easy to tell the Walnut Crest from more expensive merlots, but as it gets under $12 or $10, it gets even more difficult." Phillips says professional wine tasters can taste as many as 200 samples of wine a day if they're spitting them out between tastings, but notes that a person's sense of taste and smell start to diminish after drinking about 10. "For the average Joe, after about eight wines, especially if they're swallowing the samples, they'll be foggy on the nuances of the wine," says Phillips. Spit or Swallow? To prepare for the contest, Cloud, who said he has been a wine enthusiast for about 10 years, drank a lot of Walnut Crest merlot, along with similarly priced or more expensive brands. For the record, Cloud spit out each wine when he first tasted each of the 50, cleansing his mouth out after each taste with water and Matzoh crackers. Once he narrowed the wines down to the eight finalists, he said he actually drank them to get a better feel for the different brands. But in the end, none of it helped. Not only did Cloud mistakenly pick a $15.99 bottle of merlot as the Walnut Crest brand, but he failed to select Walnut Crest as any of the eight finalists. Cloud added that even after taking a sip of the Walnut Crest merlot when the contest was over, he realized that he still wouldn't have chosen it. Company officials would not say which brand he picked in the end. But he didn't walk away with an empty glass. His consolation prize, in addition to all that wine: $10,000 plus a two-night stay in New York. Cloud said he had a great time trying. And the experience definitely has not turned him off of his hobby. "I will drink wine tonight in fact," he said.