Cinco Hot Tamales

Cinco de Mayo is not over until the end of June at a web site operated by the vegetable marketer Melissa’s. You can download Latin-inspired dishes by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, the Too Hot Tamales of cable TV fame. The address:

https://www.melissas.com

How Old Is Old?

Buena Vista Winery has had a number of owners since it was founded by Agoston Haraszthy in 1857 and, on top of that, its cellars were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. So the winery’s current owners have no idea what’s the oldest existing bottle of Buena Vista wine.

They’re calling on private collectors to find out. The holder will be the winery’s guest at a private all-day celebration Sept. 13, which will be Buena Vista’s 140th anniversary. Holders of the next 10 oldest bottles will receive complete samplings of current releases of Buena Vista wines.

If you have an imposingly old Buena Vista, write to “Oldest Bottle,” Buena Vista, P.O. Box 182, Sonoma, CA 95476 by Aug. 15.

Rosso Is Bosso

Last month’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry published a study of the antioxidant properties of 13 typical Italian wines.

The findings: Red wines averaged more than seven times richer in antioxidants than whites (a Gewurtztraminer providing only 1/18th as much as the top red), and a Cabernet Sauvignon outranked a Chianti, showing that the researchers at the University of Milan’s food science department were not prejudiced in favor of Italian grape varieties.

Semicentennials of 1997

Fifty years old this year: the Tropicana company, though it didn’t start marketing orange juice until 1949 or its trademark not-from-concentrate juice until 1954; and Philadelphia Cream Cheese cheesecake (not Philadelphia Cream Cheese itself, which has been made since 1880, but the famous recipe).