NEWSBITES : Muscadet Impressions

Sometimes all a wine needs is a gimmick, or at least that’s what the folks in the Loire are hoping. Muscadet sur Lie is an honorable white wine that heretofore was best known as the traditional companion for briny Belon oysters. Apparently, that was not enough of a sales pitch. This summer, Muscadet meets the Impressionists. Cashing in on the American public’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for romantic painters, France’s Nantes Wine Bureau is launching a 19th century sailing ship stocked with sailors in traditional straw boaters and black-striped jerseys dispensing Muscadet from the cask. Scheduled stops include New Orleans, New York and Montreal. We’ll skip the boat if they’ll just send us oysters.

Cinnamon Cure

Researchers at Kansas State University have found that cinnamon can kill E.coli 0157:H7 bacteria, one of the leading causes of food poisoning. They were working specifically with unpasteurized apple juice--the product linked to the last bad outbreak--and that’s probably a good thing. Mixing cinnamon and raw eggs or adding it to hamburgers is probably going to take a little more work.