The Rake Magazine

A couple months ago, I posted a piece about the health benefits of wine -- including the information that red wine had been found to have both cancer-enhancing and cancer-preventive effects on breast tumors in women. My hope -- quixotic, perhaps -- was that it was a wash: the antioxidants in wine would cancel out any damage done by the alcohol.

Well, a cautionary story published this week in the Scotsman and by the Associated Press says that's just not true. According to a study conducted by the European Institute of Oncology, wine drinkers are just as likely as drinkers of beer and other spirits to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Of more than 70,000 women surveyed during health examinations over a period of 7 years , those who reported drinking wine developed the disease at roughly the same rate as those who said they drank beer or hard liquor. But "light" drinkers (defined as less than one glass per day) and non-drinkers in the study suffered from breast cancer at a much lower rate.

I think this is worth knowing. But note a couple things: first, the study appears to have relied on self-reporting -- a notoriously inaccurate way to collect data. (It sounds a lot better to say to one's doctor, "I have a couple glasses of wine with dinner" than "I knock back three or four rum and Cokes every night.") Also, I can find no evidence that the wine drinkers in the study were exclusive about what they consumed; did a few of them, maybe, follow those couple of glasses with the rum? Finally, there are other factors to consider, such as the fact that drinkers tend to eat rich food and this was Italy, after all, where smoking is still de rigeur.

But enough rationalizing. It appears to be sadly, horribly true that alcohol promotes estrogen production and estrogen feeds breast tumors. Which is a problem for women prone to cancer -- or, for that matter, anyone with a set of breasts. So ladies, if you're going to drink wine, be careful. Follow a low-fat diet, exercise, try not to eat hormone-laden meat, avoid taking the birth control pill, and DON'T SMOKE. And if you have risk factors beyond your control -- such as a genetic predisposition -- you might want to limit yourself to one glass a day.

If you must do this, however, please, make it a good one.

I stopped at Zeno one afternoon last week to meet a friend for a glass of wine. A lot has changed since the new owners took over last year.

When Zeno first opened in late 2003, it had an aggressive "we're the coolest" culture: thrumming techno music, servers with multiple piercings, and two New York founders who were constantly circulating among the guests and slapping backs but -- rumor had it -- never paid their bills. But what irked me the most was the inconsistency: wine pours were sometimes five ounces, sometimes nine; the bottles would be freshly opened one time I visited, nearly vinegar the next. There seemed to be no standard.

I'm happy to say that the new and improved Zeno IS. The music has been turned down just a notch; the servers (at least the ones I've encountered) are friendly and knowledgeable; the wine menu is a little more refined and pours are a standard 7 ounces. But there is this oddity: Zeno now runs a "bottomless wine glass" special in the afternoons, from 3-7 p.m., serving customers as much wine as they can drink during that four-hour period. The cost is $10 for their bottom-of-the-barrel wines (Glass Mountain and Bella Sera) and $20 for the "premium" wines on their list.

A great deal? Well, yeah, it can be. . . .but that's exactly the problem, as I see it. In order to make the $20 glass pay, you have to drink the equivalent of three glasses of wine (priced, per glass, at 7-10 dollars) before the dinner hour. Not to mention, you can buy an entire bottle of Glass Mountain Chardonnay retail for about 7 bucks. My friend loved the special because it allowed her to taste (and discard) several different options. And maybe I'm just more fretful than most, but the whole thing made me nervous. A bottomless wine glass at 4 p.m. seems like an invitation to be blotto by 6. Much like those bottomless cups of cheap coffee restaurants used to serve: I can still remember leaving Perkins at 15 with a sour stomach and a nearly deafening caffeine buzz.

Here's a winery on Mt. Konocti in Napa Valley's Lake County that produces exactly ONE wine: a Sauvignon Blanc made of 100% Musque clone grapes.

"My husband believes in doing one thing well before he moves on to something else," said Barbara Snider, co-owner of Fortress Vineyards and -- by the way -- mother to Tim Snider, who happens to be vice president of the much larger Fess Parker Winery as well as the son-in-law of Fess himself. "We decided to focus on the Sauvignon Blanc until we got it just right."

I'd say the Sniders (senior) can start experimenting with Pinot Noir.

Their Sauvignon Blanc 2004 is almost startlingly clean, with a nose of cucumber, citrus, and minerals, and a full flavor like a lime that's been cut with a steel knife. The finish is bigger than you might expect; there's even a tiny hint of vanilla in the wine's wake. But the overall experience is one of clear, sparkling water, tart fruit, and flinty soil.

My husband and I split a bottle last night while sitting outside on what probably was the last sultry night of the year. A perfect way to punctuate the end of summer.

I'm not a traditional Jew.

My parents were mixed (one Jewish, one Catholic) and my upbringing was secular -- more intellectual than religious. I do not observe the eight days of Passover or go to Shul. But I believe in Yom Kippur, which began at sundown last night and extends until this evening.

This is the day of atonement. And while I neither fast nor abstain from the other prohibited activities (bathing, wearing leather shoes, anointing one's body with perfume, and engaging in marital relations), I do think about guilt, responsibility, and repentance. I try to let go of old grudges and right whatever wrongs I have committed. The list is long. . . .

On it are several things I'd like to forget: a particularly divisive conversation with my sister; an old friend ill, frustrated, and mired in anger; a mentor whom I no longer trust. It's thorny, this business of trying to figure out where the truth lies -- which grievances to forgive and which to hold onto because they make one aware.

And while thinking about all this last night, I drank a Minervois -- the Abbaye de Tholomies 2004 -- by the light of our sabbath candles. This is a wine I tried by chance and grew to love in a wary way. Every bottle is different: some fruity, some leathery, some astringent and dry. This last was full of saddle and plum. Cigar box, chalky soil, and ancient trees. It tasted to me the way musty oaken library stacks smell. An excellent wine for thinking by.

The label shows three men, intellectuals by appearance, deep in discussion over glasses of their own. And the wine's history goes deep as well. Abbayes de Tholomies was a monastery founded in 990 A.D. The monks grew wine grapes until the Inquisition, when their home -- a refuge for heretics -- was destroyed. In 1981, a dental surgeon named Lucien Roge bought the property and resumed winemaking there. Roge adheres to Ben Franklin-like philosophies: growing is coordinated with "biodynamic" law, such as the phases of the moon and stars. And he uses no chemicals on his crops.

This is not a wine for light occasions, afternoon barbecues or quick drinks with colleagues or casual friends. It is, however, perfect for those solemn moments when you are deep in thought. I like to imagine wisdom coming from that soil, from those monks, from the ruins of an abbey lying in pieces under the ground.

C'mon, isn't this every over-educated, artsy, navel-gazing intellectual's dream? Well, I know it's mine.

First, the New York Times announced on Monday it would stop charging for certain "select" (read: everything with wit, context, opinion, or Thomas Friedman's byline) articles. And today, they not only run a terrific piece on the legendary Alice Waters, there's also a column called Happiness for $10 or Less, all about great, high-quality but ridiculously inexpensive red wines.

You have to scroll all the way to the end of the second page to see the full list of top-rated 7, 8, 9, and 10-dollar wines. Of them, I heartily recommend the Ravenswood (though they cite the Merlot and I'm partial to the Zin). This label is a staple in my house, especially toward the end of the month when money is tight.

Check it out. And write in if you have any contenders to add.