Saturday, May 5, 2007

VWSI at Zero Again; Another Rhone White Blend to Pass the Time

Not much has changed on the VIX front between last week and this week, with the result that the VIX Weekly Sentiment Indicator (VWSI) is holding steady at zero. The one recent development in the VIX that I am watching most closely is the correlation with the SPX. I summarized my current thinking on this yesterday in “Predictive Value of SPX and VIX Correlation – First Pass.”

(Note that in the above temperature gauge, the "bullish" and "bearish" labels apply to the VIX, not to the broader markets, which are usually negatively correlated with the VIX.)

Wine pairing: This week I would like to highlight a recent find, “The Stump Jump,” a refreshing, food-friendly white Rhone-ish blend of from South Australia’s d’Arenberg. I say “ish” because the 2006 vintage consists of 63% riesling, 16% sauvignon blanc, and for Rhone purists, ‘only’ 13% rousanne and 7% marsanne. Frankly, I was surprised to see the high riesling content, as my taste buds were convinced that this was a more traditional Rhone blend – and an excellent one at that, particularly for the $8.99 price tag. There is also a red Stump Jump that I have not yet tried; the red is a more traditional Rhone blend, consisting of 46% grenache, 34% syrah and 20% mourvedre in the 2005 vintage. For those that are interested in these things, Robert Parker rated the 2005 white an 87 and the red an 88.

Previous inexpensive Rhone blend recommendations include Robert Hall’s Rhone de Robles and Tablas Creek’s Cote de Tablas Blanc, the contrarian favorite, Wrongo Dongo, and Cline CellarsOakley Five Reds.

1 comment:

  1. Other separate tests were also conducted, and in one of these tests, Stewart Gulian, a resident of Palm Beach Florida, lost 80lbs using a Hoodia Gordonii diet, and was featured on both CNN and CBS. There is speculation that many of the so-called hoodia plants on the market today do not actually have any active hoodia, because of the rarity of the active compound and the difficulty of synthesizing it artificially. The Bushmen of South African are known to take the stem of Hoodia to suppress their hunger and thirst during their hunting expedition. The Hoodia gordonii plant contains an active ingredient that fools your brain into believing that you have had enough to eat. It is not necessary to try a product or a variety of products, before the best product for a specific individual is found.

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