Wednesday, April 22, 2009

What LaLaWines?

They are wines from E. Gugal in Côte-Rôtie which produces wines that are mind blowing - the famous growths of the Côte-Rôtie ‘La Mouline’, ‘La Turque’ and ‘La Landonne’

It should be LaLaLa wines :)

We had a chance to participate in a tasting event that brought vinatges of these wines all the way to the 1960s - it was an amazing & unforgettable experience.

We have yet to purchase any bottle yet. Maybe with the recession and less demand, prices will be more realistic. Let's see!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Bordeaux En Primeur 2008 - Recession??

Is there really a recession?

No doubt en primeur prices are down, I think still a little higher than 2001 prices, Chateau Latour was sold out in hours (for 2 tranches)!! I just was thinking I finally can afford a few bottles for drinking in maybe 20 YEARS - SOLD OUT!! And between 1st tranche and 2nd tranche, the price went from S$285 (US$1 ~ S$1.5 Singapore dollar) to S$338 (almost 20%) - Are these people seriously going to drink them or just another speculative move! I am no longer much interested in anything higher priced than this. People have to be reminded wines are perishables and will not last forever (though 20-30 years is a LONG time)

Read some news here

Leoville Barton is priced at about S$60 a bottle, I think very good price (+S$20 shipping & tax = $80) I would say and hope I will manage to get some - I will drink them

There are quite a few interesting wines this year - I will to keep an active lookout for them.

Seems like the good stuff goes very fast! Is there really a recession I really wonder!!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tone Curve in Photoshop/Lightroom

Managed to buy a legal copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom recently after a free trial download from the internet. It was a very neat piece of software to organize a big collection of pictures and able to do some touch up on the pictures. It is pricey (USD$250) though and if you don't take tons of pictures, I honestly think it is an overkill

Why lightroom for me?
- Non-destructive, the original image is always untouched even with all sorts of adjustments applied
- workflow, import - touchup - upload to flickr + watermark + bordering - different export presets
- backup catalog, and easy to move directory and update the catalog accordingly
- integration with CS/Photoshop Element

One thing I find most lacking is ability to export a video slideshow to a DVD. It export to a pdf slideshow OMG!! I don't understand

Anyway some interesting youtube tutorial
- tone curve adjustment
- adjustment brush