Food and gourmet

Swiss researchers Philippe Masset and Jean-Philippe Weisskopf have a new paper out claiming to demonstrate that if you add wine to a portfolio of financial assets, that decreases your risk, increases your returns, and helps you out (if you care about such things) on the skewness and kurtosis fronts as well. Leslie Gevirtz writes up the results here, and Reuters graphics supremo Silvio DaSilva has even put together some pretty charts from the paper here.

New York (Reuters Life!) - Drinking wine is more fun than reading about it unless you have a book in one hand and a glass in the other.

Wine can be complex or simple but several books can help clear any confusion.

The global market for wine is similar to a waterbed -- when sales go down in one area, such as bottles costing over $30, they go up in another such as sales of $15 bottles.

For consumers looking for popular wines under $15, the latest edition of Robin Goldstein's and Alexis Herschkowitsch's "The Wine Trials for 2010" may help.

Is organic food really better for us or is it just a con? We take a closer look behind the label.

What is organic?

Organic agriculture is defined as a system of farming based on principles of human, animal and environmental health. At its core, organic farming is about avoiding the use of agro-chemicals to minimise damage to the environment and wildlife. But the jury's still out on whether it does the climate any good.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - No kick from Champagne? Sparkling wines from around the globe can be a cheaper alternative and better value, according to leading experts.

"We noticed a real trade down from Champagne to sparkling wines," said Chris Adams of New York's Sherry-Lehmann Wine and Spirits.

Shipments of Champagne worldwide plunged almost 35 percent for the first nine months of the year, according to the Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, the champagne producers' professional body.

PARIS (Reuters Life!) - Prestigious Paris restaurant La Tour d'Argent made over 1.5 million euros ($2.2 million) from auctioning off a selection of wines and liqueurs from its cellar, one of the finest in the world.

The sale of 18,000 bottles out of the 450,000 stored in a maze of dark alleys beneath the restaurant, located on the left bank of the River Seine, was meant to clear some space and raise funds for the purchase of new wines and for renovations.

MACHADO, Brazil (Reuters) - Some of the coffee world's most discerning palettes came together in the heart of Brazil's coffee belt on Friday to judge which brews in the world's top grower are best for an expanding specialty market.

After hours of painstaking swilling, spitting and note making this week, judges at the Brazilian round of the international Cup of Excellence competition whittled the field down to 11 finalists from 56 entries.

Wine and the Holidays: How to Achieve the Perfect Pairing Wine and the Holidays: How to Achieve the Perfect Pairing

(ARA) -When it comes to choosing wine to serve at your holiday celebration keep this in mind: the spirits you serve should complement the spirit of the occasion. You probably wouldn't serve whiskey shots at the family holiday dinner, nor fruit punch at your adults-only New Year's bash. Learning a little about wine can help you make the right choice for your party.

"Better for you" foods, including those that are light or lower in calories, will be among the fastest-growing food trends over the next decade, according to the NPD Group, a market-research company. Food staffers sampled several dozen relatively low-fat snacks from traditionally high-fat categories and judged those below tasty enough to try.
If you have a sweet tooth, our tasters suggest Jell-O Fat Free chocolate pudding or The Skinny Cow Low Fat Vanilla Chocolate Combo ice cream sandwiches. Nutrition information is from labels.

The Pomegranate, Punica granatum, is one of the oldest fruits known. It is also one of the healthiest foods on earth. These little ruby red seeds called arils are bursting with flavor, vitamin C, antioxidants and fiber. Don't be intimidated by their gorgeous outer husks. A deep bowl or sink of water makes quick work of separating membrane from aril as these glossy little gems rise to the top. They rise to the top in cooking too!

If you're like most Americans, you frequent one of the country's more than 72,000 fast-food restaurants at least once a week. After all, industry data show that fast-food accounts for 86 percent of meals taken home from restaurants.

Stick to double cheeseburgers, supersize your fries and sodas, and add a few high-fat breakfast items a couple times a month, and you could see your waistline and cholesterol levels grow like weeds in a summer garden.