For those who value their super-bright smile, it has always been the drink to avoid.

But red wine could actually be good for your teeth, scientists have claimed.

They have found it contains chemicals that could ward off decay by stopping harmful bacteria from sticking to teeth.

The findings, due to be published in the journal Food Chemistry, suggest a daily glass of red could help to keep teeth healthy and reduce the need for fillings.

In contrast, a recent study showed white wine could damage dental health because its high acid content erodes the enamel that coats the surface of a tooth.

Red wine, when drunk in moderation, is already thought to have a protective effect against heart disease and some forms of cancer.

But in recent years, scientists have also been investigating whether it could help to prevent dental decay. Last year, a team of U.S. researchers discovered that chemicals found in large quantities in the discarded seeds and skins of grapes pressed to make wine blocked the ability of corrosive bacteria to bind with tooth enamel.

The most damaging bacteria, called streptococcus mutans, live in the mouth and feed on sugar in the diet.

Once it sticks to the enamel, the organism triggers a process called demineralisation, where acid starts to punch holes in the teeth.

In the latest study, researchers at Pavia University in Italy exposed the bacteria to a small amount of red wine that had all its alcohol content removed.

This was so they could clarify if it was the alcohol, or something else in wine, that had a beneficial effect.

The results showed harmful organisms were unable to cling to teeth or saliva once exposed to red wine.

Read more: dailymail.co.uk

Arniston Bay Brand News

Arniston Bay Merlot 2008 is such an amazing wine, it’s guaranteed to put a smile on your face. It has a fine and compact aromatic portfolio and is a food-friendly red wine with a good structure and clean execution.

The Wine:

Steak is such a versatile dish and it can be prepared in numerous and interesting ways. This is a nice and easy and very delicious recipe. Ideal for the holidays

Serves:                         4

Total Time:                 20 minutes

Ingredients

• - 3 tablespoons olive oil
• - 700g sirloin steak
• - salt and black pepper
• - 1- 300g box couscous
• - 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• - 1/4 cup pine nuts
• - 2 cups baby spinach
• - 1/4 cup crumbled Feta
• - 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. - Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the steak with 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Cook to the desired doneness, 4 to 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Let rest before slicing.
2. - Cook the couscous according to the package directions; transfer to a large bowl.
3. - Wipe out the skillet. Cook the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, the garlic, and pine nuts over medium heat, stirring, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Fold into the couscous with the spinach, Feta, lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Serve with the steak.

Recommended wine

The Arniston Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 will complement this dish. This wine has a deep red colour with redcurrant and berry aromas and goes perfectly with steak.

The Wine:

Source: realsimple

Drinking and Driving over the Festive Season? Then it’s time to ask Goodfellas to the party.

Cathy Marston writes  “Sadly, I realise that this is not the norm here in SA. The drink-driving stats in this country are horrendous with alcohol being blamed for 50% of the 18,000 deaths on our roads every year – yes, that number is correct – 18,000 deaths a year. A massive sea-change is needed in people’s attitudes to drinking and driving, and one company which is providing a real alternative to this is Goodfellas. They offer a membership service which you can call after one too many drinks and they will come to wherever you are and drive you safely home in your own car.”

According to Alison Brussow, marketing manager for Goodfellas, all the drivers have to pass stringent background checks, driving tests on both manual and automatic cars and undergo regular training by the company. Both Morell and Mogamat had branded uniforms and ID cards and we were given their names by the call centre when we rang to book the service so there was no possibility of any mistakes. And we felt completely safe in their hands – much more so than when we pick up a random taxi from the rank, something which is an added boon for women going home on their own as well.

Drinking and driving is a complete social no-no in the UK – if ever I contemplated getting behind the wheel after a few drinks, then the thought of my friends’ total disgust and disapproval is always enough to change my mind. I have heard various excuses over the years such as “Well, we have to drink and drive in SA because we have no public transport!” or “I’m a really good driver so alcohol doesn’t affect me like other people” and really folks, enough is enough. The choices are simple -

• – Drink, but don’t drive
• – Drive, but don’t drink
• – Call Goodfellas or somebody like them.

and with the Festive season in full swing, there are plenty of opportunities to use a service like this and I fully intend to do so. After all, if it’s good enough for the Sharks, for South African Breweries and for Bob Skinstad, then it’s good enough for me too.”

www.gfellas.co.za Tel:   0861 433 552

Source: food24

Arniston Bay Brand News

Arniston Bay supports this initiative and urges consumers to make use of this service.

In the year to end-October South Africans have scaled down their wine and brandy consumption, but in export markets more South African wine has flowed from bottles than in the previous corresponding period.

A statement issued by Yvette van der Merwe, managing executive of SA Wine Industry Information & Systems (Sawis), reported that domestic sales of natural wine fell 5.7% over the 12 months, and those of brandy 8.8%. Bulk wine exports were 20% down.

Exports of packaged wine, however, increased 9.4% during the period.

The combination of the economic downturn, which caused a drop in sales, and the 2010 Fifa World Cup, which should boost sales, is expected to result in domestic sales of wine and brandy remaining more or less stable in 2010, the statement continued.

Van der Merwe said there are various factors affecting wine exports, and it is therefore impossible to make any forecasts. These factors included the strong exchange rate, the economic chaos in South Africa’s principal export markets, the non-profitability of South African wines in core markets such as Britain, and the availability of the product.

Arniston Bay Brand News

South African wine brands like Arniston Bay are doing exceptionally well in the UK market. The Arniston Bay wine brand has experienced a marked sales increase over the past year – latest figures reveal that off-trade sales are up 29% by value and 31% by volume (AC Nielsen: 52 weeks to 05 September 2009).

Source: fin24.com

Want to make your holidays greener? Here is a list of ideas and suggestions of how you can do your bid for the environment over the festive season .

Make Your Own Wrapping Paper

Most mass-produced wrapping paper you find in stores is not recyclable and ends up in landfills. Instead, here’s a great chance to get creative. Wrap presents with old maps, the comics section of a newspaper, or children’s artwork. Or use a scarf, attractive dish towel, bandana, or some other useful cloth item. If every family wrapped just three gifts this way, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.

Buy Energy-Saving Holiday Lights

Now you can decorate your house with LED lights that use 90 percent less energy than conventional holiday lights, and can save your family on electricity  bills during the holiday season.

Add Organic and Local Foods to Your Holiday Feast

Support local family farmers who grow sustainable meat and produce. Not only does it taste better, you’ll be doing your part for the planet too.

Get a Pesticide-Free Tree

Demand is on the rise for Christmas trees that are not covered in chemicals; some growers use 40 different pesticides, as well as chemical colorants. The good news is that there are now a number of tree-farms that sell pesticide-free trees.

Recycle Your Christmas Tree

Ninety-eight percent of Christmas trees were grown on farms, not in forests, so at least it’s not as if you’re cutting down an ancient tree. Each year, 10 million Christmas trees end up in the landfill. While your tree won’t fit in the recycling bin with your newspapers and bottles, you can recycle your tree: many cities offer programs to turn your tree to mulch or wood chips.

Donate Your Time or Money to an Environmental Group

Get into the holiday spirit by volunteering. There are countless ways to help improve your community – and the planet – from cleaning up a local river to helping inner city kids experience the outdoors for the first time.

Source: sierraclub.org

As a gift, wine has undeniable advantages. Compact and portable, it’s also fun, offering more immediate pleasure than, say, a set of drill bits. And unlike a box of chocolates, it’s fat free.

Apart from the obvious advantage the process of deciding on the right bottle is also part of the gift giving process.

Some people feel that older wines can add more significance to the gift while others feel that ‘pairing’ the right wine with the person is the significant part of the gift.

I believe that a great gift is something that the person would to like the have and that you had to think about the person while obtaining the gift. This implies that a great bottle of wine, which ‘pairs’ well with the person,  is a spot-on gift.

Arniston Bay Brand News

The Arniston Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 is a great Christmas gift. This wine as a nice cedar Cabernet Sauvignon notes on the nose. Smoky complexity on the palate with good concentration and well integrated soft tannins.

The Wine:

Source: nytimes

Pork is a very versatile and sometimes overlooked meat. It can be used in a wide array of dishes suitable for any season and taste. Here is a nice, easy and delicious recipe to treat your guests or family.

Serves:             4

Total Time:     25 minutes

Ingredients

• - 2 tablespoons olive oil
• - 1 pork tenderloin (500g)
• - salt and black pepper
• - 350g Brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
• - 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
• - 2 tablespoons roasted unsalted almonds, chopped

Directions

1. - Heat oven to 200º C. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Season the pork with 1⁄2 teaspoon salt and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper and cook, turning occasionally, until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the skillet to oven and roast until the pork is cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Let rest before slicing.
2. - Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a second large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the Brussels sprouts, apricots, almonds, 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, and 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper and cook, tossing, until the Brussels sprouts are just tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve with the pork.

Recommended wine: The Arniston Bay Pinotage Rosé will complement this dish. This is a light , fresh and fruity easy drinking wine which is perfect for this meal.

The wine:

Source: realsimple.com

Christmas is about excess and extravagance – the glittering decorations, mountain of gifts at the bottom of the dusty, plastic tree and numerous dishes of traditional Christmas fare are all part of what makes Christmas so divine and decadent.

Christmas is also made special by the fact that we actually stop to spend time with one another, wrapping gifts, cooking up a storm and taking a moment to appreciate our relationships. You might think that becoming more aware of the environment means skimping on what makes Christmas special. But going green this Christmas can only make the festive season that much more memorable.

Get the kids involved while you’re at it and teach them to be less wasteful and more considerate of the environment. This is a perfect way to make a difference during what is considered a time of giving.

Real or fake tree?

To reduce your impact on the environment this year, consider what type of Christmas tree you’ll be putting up. Though a fake tree is convenient and easy, it’s also made of substances that are harmful to the environment and therefore has a heavy carbon footprint.

Rather, consider going to your local garden nursery to buy a tree or bush that you can plant in your garden after the festive season. Using an indigenous plant as your Christmas tree and planting it afterwards is a really great idea that will mean doing your bit for the continuation of our local flora.

If you must have the branch of a real pine tree, make sure you get hold of an ‘organically grown’ one and when you’re finished, dispose of it properly by taking it to your local waste management area.

Christmas tree décor

Popcorn tinsel, twig stars and marshmallow angels are a great way to decorate the tree and they’re a lot more eco-friendly than tinsel and mass-produced plastic baubles. Be creative and recycle bottle tops or press flowers from the garden and string them up for a beautiful effect.

Gifts

Gifts that are handcrafted are always that much more special and unique, and you’ll be surprised at the choice and ingenuity of handcrafted products. An electric guitar made out of jerry cans or a beautiful wooden biltong slicer are some examples of finely handcrafted products. Do your Christmas shopping at the flea market this year to reduce your consumption of mass-produced products.

Give the gift of time to your friends and family. Make up vouchers that your loved ones can use that will involve time spent with you. ‘A picnic at the park’ or ‘a day out shopping’ or even an offer to babysit so parents can have some time to do their own thing are all ways of showing your appreciation of those you love.

Edible gifts – a bag of beautifully decorated cookies or yummy brandy snaps festively wrapped are fantastic gifts that will please the sweet-toothed.

Coloured lights are a big part of what makes Christmas so festive and by using LED lights – which use significantly less electricity, yet last at least 100 times longer than a normal bulb – you can reduce your impact on the environment. In fact, if we were to change all of our home lighting to LED, we’d save a lot of electricity. LED festive lighting should be readily available at your nearest convenience store.

It’s a wrap

Recycle old Christmas cards by cutting up the fronts and adding these to recycled paper backs to give them a new lease on life.

Wrapping paper – try novel ideas like old newspaper and brown paper with a home-made decoration attached…

Lastly… recycle.

All the packaging that you’ll be opening this festive season will go to good use if it’s recycled. Set up your recycle bins now and encourage the whole family to get used to the idea ahead of the big feast. Remember: glass, plastic, cans and paper are all recyclable.

There is so much that you can do that will ensure that your home is environmentally-friendly for the holidays. Be part of the change that needs to happen to ensure that we preserve our earth for many, many festive seasons more.

Source: iafrica.com

Arniston Bay Brand News

Arniston Bay believes in sustainable practices to protect our environment. This is reflected by initiatives like wine pouches (Astrapouch) and the Arniston Bay Tides Range which is being bottled in lighter weight glass (nearly 100g less in weight than the previous bottle).

With the eyes of the world on Cape Town for the 2010 World Cup draw it seems that FIFA is overwhelmed by the Mother City.

In an article on the official FIFA website , comments on the beauty of Cape Town and the surrounding attractions are stated . It states that “Cape Town’s popularity as a holiday destination has as much to do with the areas that thrive just outside its borders as the attractions that lie within the Mother City itself”

The Cape Winelands , Whale country and the bigger Cape Town attractions are indicated in this article.

They had the following to say about The Cape Winelands: “This is a place where elegance meets untamed nature, where immaculate vineyards are pressed against unruly mountains and in which small-town charm is combined with well-traveled sensibilities. Visitors to the Cape Winelands can easily spend anything from a single afternoon to a few days exploring the various wine estates and towns, the most famous of which are Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl.”

To read more visit  FIFA.com

Arniston Bay Brand News

Cape Town and it’s surroundings  is renowned for it beautiful beaches and scenery. Arniston Bay Wines is named after a beautiful little beach village, Arniston, which situated 150km from Cape Town.

Arniston:

Wine and food pairing has some semi-rigid guidelines and some aspects that is guided by individual preferences. It can be difficult to find a balance between the different pairing approaches but at the end of the day it must work for you.

The old rule of “White wine with white meat and red wine with red meat” can be such a  rigid way of pairing wine and food. The problem is that you only pair the wine with the meat and not with the sauce. The sauce must be taken into account when pairings are done because that is the main taste catalyst of the dish.

A steak with a garlic butter sauce can be complemented by a buttery Chardonnay. And spicy fish dishes can be complemented by peppery Shiraz wines.

On the other hand, food and wine connoisseurs sometimes goes a bit over the top when trying to pair wine with the slightest aspect of one of the ingredients. Like pairing wine with the sort of salt or a minor spice ingredient.

Another thing is;  Where does Rosé wines fit into the old “White with white and Red with red” rule?  Does this mean you only drink Rosé wine with well done steaks or with “pink” fish like salmon? No of course not. Rosé wines are fantastic food partners with lighter examples matching salads, chicken dishes and fish with denser, darker versions standing up to steak and game.

Do not over analyse and remember just enjoy whatever you end up eating and drinking – it’s not an ordeal, it’s an experience.

Arniston Bay Brand News:

The Arniston Bay Pinotage Rosé is an excellent and versatile wine. This wine has strawberry and violet aromas and a fresh fruity taste. This wine will complement many salads, sandwiches and even steaks.

The wine:

Source: food24