Wednesday, January 19, 2011

German vintner discovers World War Two wine cache

Andreas Neymeyer discovered 500 bottles under a cellar staircase while clearing out a burned-out building on his 38 hectare (94 acre) vineyard in southern Germany shortly before Christmas.

"It was my uncle's idea," Neymeyer told Reuters. "I was preparing the building to be torn down and he knew that wine had been hidden sometime before the end of World War II.

"It was springtime 1945 and the French were about to invade. My family wanted to secure some wine if there was any looting by troops."

It was not the first reserve of wine that Neymeyer has found on the vineyard, which produces some 350,000 bottles of wine each year.

"The wine is still drinkable; in fact some is quite good," the fifth generation vintner said. "The dark conditions were ideal for storage."

Some of the bottles were not from the vineyard but were sweet wines thought to be from Spain or Greece. Brandy, schnapps and sacramental wine was also found in the collection.

Neymeyer plans to rebottle the wine and put it up for auction when the new building is ready to open next year.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Elle Fanning & Vera Farmiga in ‘Pure Life’

A new indie film looks like it’s hoping to become a heavy-hitter by adding some impressive names to the cast, according to IndieWire

Pure Life, a drama that follows 13-year-old Maya Donovan as she escapes her hard-working and short-tempered mother in search of romance. Her quest leads her to ‘bad boy’ that she feels is worthy of taking her virginity.

Up-and-coming star Ella Fanning (sister of the Twilight saga’s Dakota Fanning) will play 13-year-old Maya and Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga has signed on as Maya’s mom, Trisch. Omar Hardwick (Kick-Ass, The A-Team) also stars in the film.

Pure Life is being directed by Van Fischer and produced by GigaPix, Blue Raven Films and Manolin Entertainment. Production is expected to start this spring.

While Elle’s road to fame began by portraying younger versions of her sister in Taken and I am Sam, she did manage to break out and land a few roles of her own, including parts in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Déjà vu.

Vera Farmiga received an Academy Award nomination for Up in the Air and will appear in the upcoming sc-fi thriller, Source Code. Take a look at the trailer to see what Groundhog Day would have looked like if it had been an action movie.