Last week I posted a two-part series on red wines.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I will make it a five-part series with a visit I made in 2019 to France, where we tasted champagne and Bordeaux wine and cognac.  Parts 4 and 5 will be posted on subsequent Tuesdays. But first, a few newsworthy items. As my  blog expressed yesterday , President Donald Trump has transformed himself from dud to hero. Looks like that  fragile ceasefire for the Israel-USA vs Iran War is holding.   Lot of questions about where those 880 pounds of enriched uranium might be  to  future role on how the International Atomic Energy Agency can check on Iran  to  how long the ailing 85-year old Ayatollah can hang in there  to  a million others.  However, give Trump credit for solving this war in less than two weeks.  Israel still has that Gaza Strip problem, and there continues the Ukraine-Russia war, but the world today is in a safer place than yesterday. ...

The wine world knows that France, Italy and California produce the best red wines.  The top two wine producers switch between Italy and France, with Italy now #1.  #'s 3 and 4 also change, with Spain today producing more than the USA.  Australia is #5.  China is rapidly rising, and is  affecting wine prices in other ways,  too.  Interestingly enough, though  world wine production is dropping , and  is lower than 1961.  Some blame climate warming. Today I will focus on the best red wines.  Some day I'll talk about the finest white wines. France:  Bordeaux and Burgandy. More specifically, there are two blends of Bordeaux, the left bank uses mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and right mostly Merlot. Burgandy is almost always Pinot Noir, although White Burgandy is Chardonnay. Italy:  Piedmont for Barolo and Tuscany for Brunello de Montalcino. California:  Napa Valley and parallel Sonoma Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon and red blends. ...

   At sea Day 15.  Lunch of oxtail stew. Bones. Raspberry sherbert and coconut ice cream cone. Tomorrow we arrive in Panama City, and on day 17 transit the Panama Canal.  So we went to the Theater to watch a 56-minute documentary released in 1987:    A Man, A Plan A Canal, Panama , a Nova program. While the French started this all in the 1880's, they failed for being too early.  The technology and science were on the verge of being being developed. When President Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1901, he took on this effort as his main crusade. The  Panama Canal made the U.S. a world power . Certainly, it is in the  top ten of all construction projects , along with the Great Pyramids of Ghiza, Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal, Hoover Dam and Eiffel Tower. The Story of the Panama Canal. What is it? 51-mile waterway in Panama connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Locks lift ships up to Gatun Lake, the  largest man-made...