Wines of the week: At Galvin’s Café a Vin, a splendid dinner to introduce a range of organic, biodynamic, and "natural" (unfiltered, etc.) wines was really brightened by a 2008 Roussette de Savoie “Cru Frangy” from Domaine Bruno Lupin. Most white wines from Haut-Savoie are benumbingly boring, but Roussette (which has its own appellation) can be enormously charming; this one certainly is, quietly pear-like fruit, gingerbread spice, restrained but very fresh acidity. Then, 2009 Vin de Table Raisins Gaulois, from the irrepressible Marcel Lapierre, who was often inclined to organic, mostly hands-off winemaking long before it was fashionable; this one’s organic Gamay, quietly carbonic-macerated, in the accurate words of the sommelier, “a redcurrant-jam jamboree.” Lovely. http://www.galvinrestaurants.com/

Watered down

Here’s a victory for common sense: A new YouGov survey reveals that 60 percent of UK adults think bottled water is a waste of money, with almost three-quarters of respondents (71percent) agreeing that tap water is as clean as bottled water. The results echo the findings of a survey carried out by the charity WaterAid in 2009, which found that around two-thirds of consumers are now opting for tap water when they visit restaurants.
       Only 27 percent of respondents drink bottled mineral water in any average day. Interestingly, those better off are most likely to choose tap water--62 percent of the more affluent drink it.