Last night, we invited over the family of Andrew's favorite playmate for
dinner and chaotic play. For dinner, we had roasted quails stuffed with
a blue cornbread-chorizo stuffing taken from Mark Miller's Coyote Café
cookbook. I felt that this called for a fairly robust red, so went
looking for a big Cotes du Rhone and came back with:

2001 Clos du Caillou "Bouquet des Garrigues" Cotes du Rhone
nose: herbs, meat, kirsch
palate: smooth, rich, deep fruit, modestly funky, balanced

Yup, just what the dish called for and a welcome alternative to the
corked Bdx our friends brought ;-) A very good match with the stuffing
and the quail wasn't overwhelmed. By the end of the evening, our house
was trashed, but we were all feeling good thanks to the food and wine.

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Mark, I barely remember those days of my kids being little. Oldest now out
of college almost 2 years and youngest at UNC-Chapel Hill. Off topic
follow.

Speaking of that, he took General Chemistry 102 last semester, Organic I.
this semester. And Next semester he is registering for Analytical Chemistry
I. He is a solid "A" at this point.

He is Pre-Med and is doing a dual major Bachlor of Arts in Chemistry and
Bachlor of Science in Bio. To avoid a particular math and a few Chem
requirements had the had the Bachlor of Science in Chem.

Mark, other than go for a PHD and teach, what can you do with Chem/Bio if
for any reason Pre-Med does not like him or he does not like it in a few
years? Career options? He is a really good student...but I have doubts
that he will remain premed forever.


"Mark Lipton" > wrote in message
...
> Last night, we invited over the family of Andrew's favorite playmate for
> dinner and chaotic play. For dinner, we had roasted quails stuffed with
> a blue cornbread-chorizo stuffing taken from Mark Miller's Coyote Café
> cookbook. I felt that this called for a fairly robust red, so went
> looking for a big Cotes du Rhone and came back with:
>
> 2001 Clos du Caillou "Bouquet des Garrigues" Cotes du Rhone
> nose: herbs, meat, kirsch
> palate: smooth, rich, deep fruit, modestly funky, balanced
>
> Yup, just what the dish called for and a welcome alternative to the
> corked Bdx our friends brought ;-) A very good match with the stuffing
> and the quail wasn't overwhelmed. By the end of the evening, our house
> was trashed, but we were all feeling good thanks to the food and wine.
>
> Mark Lipton
> --
> alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Richard Neidich wrote:

> Speaking of that, he took General Chemistry 102 last semester, Organic I.
> this semester. And Next semester he is registering for Analytical Chemistry
> I. He is a solid "A" at this point.

Congrats! Them's not pushover courses, especially the organic as a rule.

>
> He is Pre-Med and is doing a dual major Bachlor of Arts in Chemistry and
> Bachlor of Science in Bio. To avoid a particular math and a few Chem
> requirements had the had the Bachlor of Science in Chem.

Still not a bad double major, and the BA doesn't hurt a pre-med at all.

>
> Mark, other than go for a PHD and teach, what can you do with Chem/Bio if
> for any reason Pre-Med does not like him or he does not like it in a few
> years? Career options? He is a really good student...but I have doubts
> that he will remain premed forever.

Chem/Bio double majors are very employable, Dick. Both pharmaceutical
and biotech industries hire lots of bachelors-level chemists and
biologists (and in both areas, the double major is a big plus) as
laboratory researchers. Those two industries are also among the top in
job security and job satisfaction, though as always it depends on who
you work for.

Good luck to him in his upcoming studies. Selfishly, I hope that he
does decide to do something other than medicine, though we need good
doctors every bit as much as we need good scientists.

Mark Lipton
--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Mar 10, 10:08 am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> Congrats! Them's not pushover courses, especially the organic as a rule.

Yup. I still have nightmares of some of the things my organic chem I
course covered. Tell him though it'll get a bit better with II -
synthesis is a bit more fun than some of the pure theory.
(Although if he's taking physical chemistry in the next year, it may
not be any less painful...)

> > Mark, other than go for a PHD and teach, what can you do with Chem/Bio if
> > for any reason Pre-Med does not like him or he does not like it in a few
> > years? Career options? He is a really good student...but I have doubts
> > that he will remain premed forever.

Hope you don't mind me butting in as well Richard - but as a chem
student (formerly biochem), I'd say there's a lot of opportunity in
research outside the pre-med world. I'm presently doing some research
in nanotechnology (application in biosensors) and there's a lot of
scope in that area - as Mark said, the pharmaceutical world is also a
very good option. And if your son's interested in other areas of
chemistry, there's always the opportunity to do some post-grad work
(or even at the undergrad level as a minor/elective courses) in
chemical engineering, which also pays quite well.

- Salil

On Mar 10, 3:38 am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
> 2001 Clos du Caillou "Bouquet des Garrigues" Cotes du Rhone
> nose: herbs, meat, kirsch
> palate: smooth, rich, deep fruit, modestly funky, balanced

Sounds great, Mark. I've seen a few other wines from this producer
around in stores recently - any thoughts on their Chateauneuf?

Salil wrote:

>
> Sounds great, Mark. I've seen a few other wines from this producer
> around in stores recently - any thoughts on their Chateauneuf?

Their CdP is more toward the modern end of the spectrum than my
preferences lie, somewhere close to Dom de Cailloux (no relation) and
Dom de Morderee, if either of those names mean anything to you. There
was also the untimely death of the winemaker/owner about 5 years ago,
and I'm not sure how well they've recovered from that tragic event.
Given your fondness for Pegau, you might find the wine a bit tame by
comparison.

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

On Mar 9, 10:30 pm, Salil > wrote:

> Yup. I still have nightmares of some of the things my organic chem I
> course covered. Tell him though it'll get a bit better with II -
> synthesis is a bit more fun than some of the pure theory.
> (Although if he's taking physical chemistry in the next year, it may
> not be any less painful...)

I was a physical chemistry major. I will never forget my basic organic
chemistry course. The one I had to take, for chemistry and chemical
engineering majors, was 5 semester hours for two semesters. My course
was taught by an old gentleman who was about to retire and at one time
was the head of the chemistry department. He wrote the very long
organic chemistry text we used. He was a legend at the university. He
received his PhD from a top German university, because in the days
when he was educated you nearly had to have a PhD from a German
university to get a job teaching organic chemistry in a major US
university. I believe he came from the NYC area.

He had a near photographic memory. If you asked him a question, likely
as not he would say something of the sort: footnote 95, page 567,
didn't you read the book? He gave tests in which the top grade often
was in the 30s on a scale of 100. He would not give partial credit. He
said that if a step was left out or wrong in a chemical synthesis
path, then the reaction would give no results and you deserved no
credit. He had make up classes for the Christmas vacation. He said you
were not required to attend these. But if you did not you might not do
well on the next test, so most attended. At one time he apparently had
dreams of being an actor. Once every year, without any warning, he
would stop in the middle of a lecture and recite "Casey at the bat"
from memory. He would tell some of his best students that, if they
really wanted to learn organic chemistry well, then he could flunk
them and allow them to repeat his course. It was sometimes very
difficult to tell when he was serious and when he was making a very
dry joke. Of course one could not get away with this sort of teaching
in most US universities these days. If the university allowed it, then
the students likely would riot.

On Mar 9, 3:38�pm, Mark Lipton > wrote:
�By the end of the evening, our house
> was trashed, but we were all feeling good thanks to the food and wine.
>
Similar to our house last night. No kids, but our friends brought over
their standard poodle. She and Lucy chased each other for 30 minutes,
and then we gave them each a marrow bone. Mostly calmed them, though
Lucy decided halfway through she wanted Jaja's bone. Would be
interesting to see if 2 3 year olds or 2 dogs make more noise.

Thanks for notes. I have liked Clos du Caillou, though it's not very
common around here.

DaleW wrote:

> Similar to our house last night. No kids, but our friends brought over
> their standard poodle. She and Lucy chased each other for 30 minutes,
> and then we gave them each a marrow bone. Mostly calmed them, though
> Lucy decided halfway through she wanted Jaja's bone. Would be
> interesting to see if 2 3 year olds or 2 dogs make more noise.

Oh, the 3 year olds were very quiet (even the 18-month old younger
brother who was with them) -- that's what should have warned us that
they were up to no good: the upstairs playroom's walls were "decorated"
with markers, one of which turned out to be indelible (don't ask) and
our living room was turned into a beach when they dumped out colored
sand onto the floor and the rug. Nothing that 45 minutes of determined
cleaning couldn't cure, though (my neighbors might have thought that I
was deranged, shaking out 6' x 8' rugs on the front stoop at 11 pm in
20° weather). There's still some ink on the playroom walls, but I have
yet to try all of the solvents I have at hand


>
> Thanks for notes. I have liked Clos du Caillou, though it's not very
> common around here.

All of mine are North Berkeley imports, which might explain the lack of
an East Coast presence. Unlike David Hinkle's Burg imports, though,
these don't show any evidence of a "barrel program" even when labeled as
"Cuvée Unique."

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Mark, I just shared this with my son and he was appreciative.

I told him we can buy a winery and he can be my winemaker...but it did not
thrill him. :-(
"Mark Lipton" > wrote in message
...
> Richard Neidich wrote:
>
>> Speaking of that, he took General Chemistry 102 last semester, Organic I.
>> this semester. And Next semester he is registering for Analytical
>> Chemistry
>> I. He is a solid "A" at this point.
>
> Congrats! Them's not pushover courses, especially the organic as a rule.
>
>>
>> He is Pre-Med and is doing a dual major Bachlor of Arts in Chemistry and
>> Bachlor of Science in Bio. To avoid a particular math and a few Chem
>> requirements had the had the Bachlor of Science in Chem.
>
> Still not a bad double major, and the BA doesn't hurt a pre-med at all.
>
>>
>> Mark, other than go for a PHD and teach, what can you do with Chem/Bio if
>> for any reason Pre-Med does not like him or he does not like it in a few
>> years? Career options? He is a really good student...but I have doubts
>> that he will remain premed forever.
>
> Chem/Bio double majors are very employable, Dick. Both pharmaceutical
> and biotech industries hire lots of bachelors-level chemists and
> biologists (and in both areas, the double major is a big plus) as
> laboratory researchers. Those two industries are also among the top in
> job security and job satisfaction, though as always it depends on who
> you work for.
>
> Good luck to him in his upcoming studies. Selfishly, I hope that he
> does decide to do something other than medicine, though we need good
> doctors every bit as much as we need good scientists.
>
> Mark Lipton
> --
> alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

Thanks, will share with him in AM.
"Salil" > wrote in message
...
> On Mar 10, 10:08 am, Mark Lipton > wrote:
>> Congrats! Them's not pushover courses, especially the organic as a rule.
>
> Yup. I still have nightmares of some of the things my organic chem I
> course covered. Tell him though it'll get a bit better with II -
> synthesis is a bit more fun than some of the pure theory.
> (Although if he's taking physical chemistry in the next year, it may
> not be any less painful...)
>
>> > Mark, other than go for a PHD and teach, what can you do with Chem/Bio
>> > if
>> > for any reason Pre-Med does not like him or he does not like it in a
>> > few
>> > years? Career options? He is a really good student...but I have
>> > doubts
>> > that he will remain premed forever.
>
> Hope you don't mind me butting in as well Richard - but as a chem
> student (formerly biochem), I'd say there's a lot of opportunity in
> research outside the pre-med world. I'm presently doing some research
> in nanotechnology (application in biosensors) and there's a lot of
> scope in that area - as Mark said, the pharmaceutical world is also a
> very good option. And if your son's interested in other areas of
> chemistry, there's always the opportunity to do some post-grad work
> (or even at the undergrad level as a minor/elective courses) in
> chemical engineering, which also pays quite well.
>
> - Salil

On Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:38:45 -0400, Mark Lipton >
wrote:

>Last night, we invited over the family of Andrew's favorite playmate for
>dinner and chaotic play. For dinner, we had roasted quails stuffed with
>a blue cornbread-chorizo stuffing taken from Mark Miller's Coyote Café
>cookbook. I felt that this called for a fairly robust red, so went
>looking for a big Cotes du Rhone and came back with:
>
>2001 Clos du Caillou "Bouquet des Garrigues" Cotes du Rhone
>nose: herbs, meat, kirsch
>palate: smooth, rich, deep fruit, modestly funky, balanced
>
>Yup, just what the dish called for and a welcome alternative to the
>corked Bdx our friends brought ;-) A very good match with the stuffing
>and the quail wasn't overwhelmed. By the end of the evening, our house
>was trashed, but we were all feeling good thanks to the food and wine.

That's good news. (About the wine, I mean -- not the trashed house,
LOL!) I have a bottle of the '98 Caillou/Garrigues ready to go.

Er, you may have noticed I'm working my way through the last of my '98
CdR's.

JJ