Jul 28 2012

Wine tasting review – 28 July 2012

The five wines that were on the tasting table today were all from Barnett Vineyards, atop Spring Mountain in California. Barnett is comprised of many smaller vineyards in the area, and as such, the wines are all tied to the particular sub-vineyard where they are grown.

HV Bottle Shop tasting - 28 July 2012
Wines are discussed from right to left

The first wine of the day was the 2010 Savoy Vineyard Chardonnay, which was aged for 10 months in new French oak (20%) and once-used French oak (80%). It had a vibrant yellow colour, with thick, very slow-paced legs. Though it had a grapefruit aroma, the primary taste I experienced was a delicate lemon (maybe even Meyer lemon). It had a wonderful citrus finish, and great acidity.

The second offering was also a 2010 Chardonnay, but from the Sangiacomo Vineyard. It had a softer scent of cream, along with the more delicate taste. The finish maintained a nice acidity, but was tamed by a mild honeysuckle flavour. I can’t say which Chardonnay was better, as they were both quite different.

The third pour was a 2010 Pinot Noir from the Tina Marie Vineyard, which was aged for 10 months in new French oak (50%) and once-used (50%). This sub-vineyard is in the Green Valley of the Russian River Valley, which is a cooler microclimate. It had a light ruby colour with medium contrast between the centre and edge, as well as very thick, slow-moving legs. It was incredibly fragrant, with white pepper and lush, juicy fruit up front. It had a peppery mid-palette and finish, but there was a very nice raspberry nuance to it. Interestingly, it had a lighter mouth feel than I’m used to with Pinot Noir.

The fourth wine was also a 2010 Pinot Noir, but this time from the Savoy Vineyard. It had a deeper ruby colour and lower contrast from centre to edge than did the Tina Marie Pinot. It also had slightly thinner legs, but they were still slow-moving. I noticed spiced scents of pepper and some clove, and the taste was primarily black cherry. It had an outstanding spiced finish with a medium body. I couldn’t let this one go, so I purchased a bottle (which I will likely age for the next few years).

The final selection of the day was the 2010 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the flagship varietal of Spring Mountain. It had an incredibly deep garnet colour at the centre, with a medium ruby colour at its very thin edge. It was very pure in its display of blackcurrant and spice, but I noticed some mild vanilla in the background. It was a very well-rounded Cab, and one that I would have liked to have taken home with me.

Though I’m a much bigger fan of “Old World” wines, these were some exquisitely made wines from California. Chardonnays are not generally my favourites, but even they were wonderful in their fruit expression. Overall, a great selection today, and one that will force me to remember Barnett Vineyards.

Cheers,
Zach

Jul 26 2012

Kashi soft cereal bars – cherry vanilla

I am continuously on the lookout for new products that are healthy, yet still have some type of taste. Seeing as I generally watch my fat intake (especially saturated fat) more than anything else, I look for foods that are low in fat, even if they are a bit higher in carbohydrates, calories, sugars, et cetera. One of my favourite brands of healthier snacks is Kashi, and I particularly like their snacks (as opposed to their cereals or other meals).

At the same time that I purchased the Banana Chocolate Chip Soft n’ Chewy bars, I picked up a few boxes of their soft cereal bars (in different flavours). One of the flavours that’s currently available is Cherry Vanilla, and I hope that it is one they decide to keep making for a long time!

Kashi Cherry Vanilla soft cereal bar

These bars have a great flavour combination with the prominent cherry, and a subtle vanilla taste. Normally, an after taste has a somewhat negative connotation, but in this case, I think that the vanilla after taste is very nice. The two flavours go together very nicely, and it’s not a combination that I’ve seen in cereal bars from other companies. The bars are a little bit dry by themselves (but I find most cereal bars to be that way), but that is easily overcome with either a glass of milk or by putting the bars in the microwave for ten seconds or so.

The bars are 35g, have 120 calories (30 from fat), and 3g of total fat (0 saturated / 0 trans). There are 3g of fibre per bar, but it is all insoluble fibre (though that is great for digestion). They also have 23g of carbs, 9g of sugars 2g of protein. For those watching carbs, they might not be the best choice, but then again, cereal bars in general are relatively high in carbs. Overall, I find them to be a fairly nutritious way for me to snack, and to have something that satiates my need for something sweet at the same time. 🙂

Cheers,
Zach

Jul 25 2012

Revisiting screen lockers and patching a security risk

Recently, I posted about two screen lockers that I’ve used in the past (xtrlock and slock). There has been some great discussion about these lockers, and some potential security problems that come along with using them. One very prominent issue regarding using screen lockers without login managers was raised by a reader, and I want to address it in this separate post.

Just as some background information, many people prefer to use login managers (also known as display managers) in order to be greeted by a graphical login prompt. To use these managers, the X Window System must be started as one of the final steps of the boot process (either by setting the default runlevel to 5 in inittab, setting the display manager to start via the rc system / a daemon, or another method). Some people don’t like the idea of a login manager starting automatically at the end of the boot process, and would prefer to simply be greeted with a terminal login prompt. For those users, it is obviously still necessary to log in as a valid user, but then to start an X session (for their respective graphic environment), one must issue the startx command.

The problem with screen lockers and the startx method of starting Xorg is that it presents a large security flaw. I mentioned in the previous post that one can switch to a different virtual terminal (by using the CTRL+ALT+F# key combination) and log in as a different user. Unless that user can become root and kill the screen locker, though, there’s no problem. However, when Xorg is started using startx, a person can switch to the virtual terminal that issued the startx command, and just hit CTRL+C to kill it. They will then be at the prompt for the user that issued the command, and won’t have to log in. Oops…

A good workaround for this problem is to start Xorg and make sure that the terminal is locked if X is killed. This workaround relies on the package vlock, which is a terminal locking application. For it to work properly, instead of issuing the standard startx command, one needs to issue startx ; vlock. That way, if a person switches to the virtual terminal that started the X session, and hits CTRL+C, it will kill X, but that will automatically start vlock, and subsequently, present the person with nothing more than a login prompt. What’s more, that person will have to enter the password for the user that started the X session.

There might be more elegant methods for fixing this problem, including a script to disable virtual terminal switching when the screen locker is called, and I’ve been looking into such methods. If anyone has further suggestions regarding workarounds, or more permanent solutions, please feel free to comment.

Cheers,
Zach