The politics of pesticides and growing French wine grapes in 5 paragraphs...awesome. This was a very informative article about growing organic wine grapes...wait, no it wasn't. You know, one could post about 5-10 types of articles like this every day. It doesn't help anyone here with their garden, though.

I buy a cheap bottle of vodka every fall, just for my bulbs that I am going to force. When they start to put up their foliage, I give each a tablespoon or so of the vodka, poured in the water. The vodka keeps the flower stalks from getting so tall that they fall over and look ugly. You do need to be careful and engineer when you add the vodka, lest you have no flower stalk, but it is valuable knowledge! I am a tee-totaler, so my plants know by default that the vodka is not to be enjoyed. For Medicinal Purposes Only! LOLOLOL Janie

When it gets really cold out I mix up orange or other juices, cinnamon stix, spices and heat it up with whatever liquour is opened. That is usually a leftover bottle of wine, maybe peach shnapps. I wouldn't do it with scotch of course. Heating burns off most of the alcohol but it seems like a nice fireside drink late at night during the winter, especially if you have a cold. If I am microwaving asparagus I might add 2 tablespoons of sherry to the water. I use leftover bourbon in BBQ sauce maybe 1/2 cup ; by the time you boil the sauce and then put it over the spareribs, there isn't much alcohol left but it cuts the sweet taste. My husband adds dried red peppers to a bottle of sherry, lets it sit a week or two; and a tablespoon or two of that in a frittata or omelet will curl your hair. I have a recipe for 2 lbs. of chicken wings that you boil with 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1/2 cup sake, bourbon or gin and 2 T of brown sugar, 1 tsp 5 spice blend, a piece of ginger; Cook it slowly and that gives you a terayaki glaze thats amazing. The wings cook in the liquid and gradually it boils off leaving the glaze. You can skip the 5 spice blend if you can't find it. We do have leftovers of other liquour because I don't think people drink as much as they used to. Bottled water sparkling and plain was surprisingly popular at our last party.

Wow, I'm really surprised how many people have Chambord. In my group of friends/family I think I'm the only one who even knows what it is! pillog mentioned Stella Artois. Although I don't buy it for the house, whenever I see the Stella Cidre in a restaurant I order it. It's very good. The only hard cider I've liked better is the Pomme Aurea from Spain, made champenois style and dynamite with any kind of cuisine. We discovered the latter at a unique wine shop/restaurant in our area that changes both menu and wines on a regular basis through the year. When we went in September it was Spain/Portugal. For the next couple of months it's French, so we're returning with my family next week. bob_cville, that is a gorgeous cabinet! Very smart to have a recycling cab. Ours is hidden in the DR closet (used to be a bedroom, so the closets are very handy, LOL). Our liquor is in wall cab units in the DR. Wine downstairs in the basement where it's always cool. Cooking wine stays in half a base cab in the kitchen where it's easily at hand.