At Home: Wine Fake

Imagine settling down one evening with a bottle of fine wine from an established winery. Setting out the glasses. Uncorking the bottle. Pouring the wine. Taking a sip, and discovering that its quality is appalling?and that It’s a fake.

Recently, That’s what happened to several Ontario wine connoisseurs. As the Toronto Star reports, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is investigating a rash of fake bottles of 2006 Negrar Amarone Classico, a ?highly-praised style of wine made from partly-dried grapes.? The bottle retails for $35.

The fraud was discovered when dissatisfied customers returned the counterfeit wine to the LCBO, where ?staff noticed the bottles looked slightly different than legitimate versions.? Besides the taste and texture, there are visible clues that the wine’s a fake. The counterfeit bottle is noticeably smaller, and the identifying number on the bottom is the same for all the fake bottles, rather than different for each one.

The legitimate winery has been operating for over 40 years, and its owners were ?devastated? by the discovery, as Stephen Campbell, president of Lifford-Schiralli Agency (which is licensed to import Negrar to Ontario) told reporters. However, they may feel confident that their reputation for quality will not diminish among true connoisseurs. As LCBO spokesperson Chris Layton told reporters, ?Anyone who knows Amarone would know this wasn’t it.?

Around the World: Moon Storm

Rain is an essential part of the earth’s water cycle?and of many of the planet’s ecosystems. And although sloshing through the wet can sometimes seem like a pain, we recognize that a rainfall is usually a harbinger of new life, of refreshment.

But not all spring showers are as life-giving as gentle (or torrential) rain. As the National Geographic‘s Daily News site reports, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, recently experienced some showers of its own?and they were ?made of liquid methane, a substance found on Earth . . . in natural gas.?

In fact, It’s believed that ?Titan has a ?methane cycle? similar to Earth’s water cycle.?

While scientists had previously discovered ?methane lakes? at the moon’s poles and ?fog over th[ose] lakes and lake effect clouds,? they hadn’t seen rainclouds and the after-effects of showers in areas distant from the poles. But recently, a ?massive cloud form[ed] near Titan’s equator,? and subsequent darkening and lightening of the dunes below indicate that rain may have fallen and then begun to evaporate.

More studies are needed to determine the volume of the rainfall.