The 2008 edition of Beaujolais Nouveau wine is here, and vintners hope it will lift spirits despite the financial crisis and a dismal crop.

“The Beaujolais Nouveau is not expensive, you can buy a bottle for four to six euros ($5-7.50). It’s profitable in times of crisis,” said Daniel Bulliat, a vintner and president of Beaujolais-Beaujolais Village winemakers association.

Vintners hope the festive atmosphere surrounding Beaujolais Nouveau’s release will bring some joy after a soggy summer that saw some of them lose their entire harvest. It was the smallest crop since 1975.

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For 12 years, Loren Shanle worked as an independent insurance agent out of a small office on Walnut Street in Rochester, just south of Rochester Station.

By spring, Shanle hopes to have the roughly 1,000-square-foot space converted into a winery that doubles as an infrared sauna retailer. He plans to make the wine on-site, using juices and concentrates from vineyards across the world, and will offer wine-tasting as well as winemaking equipment.

“Our motto is, ‘Take in the good, sweat out the bad,’” Shanle said. “Our goal is to get people to learn how to make their own wines at home.”

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Researchers at UCLA say they have discovered the reason why people who drink red wine largely avoid heart disease, and may have come up with a naturally-occurring substance that can partly-reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

UCLA neurology professor David Teplow said the discovery will now be tested in human subjects, and could be the first disease-modifying treatment of Alzheimer’s. “We believe this is an important next step,” he said.

The findings may explain why the typical diet in France, which is rich in bad cholesterol and saturated fats and copious amounts of red wine, does not lead to correspondingly-high levels of heart disease or Alzheimer’s there.

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Winemakers and grape growers surveyed for a recent study indicated they see an increasing need for assistant vineyard managers, viticulturists, lab technicians, field workers and others with industry training.

“It just reconfirmed some assumptions we had about what the outlook was for the industry in terms of employment,” said Robin Pollard, executive director of the Washington Wine Commission.

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What’s yellow and has eight fingers?

If you have the cash, it could be you.

Bidders at next year’s annual Naples Winter Wine Festival auction will vie for all sorts of one-of-a-kind lots — including the chance to appear as a yellow-skinned, eight-fingered character on the TV cartoon “The Simpsons.”

“That’s going to be a big one,” said Dawn Montecalvo, executive director for the Naples Children and Education Foundation, the charitable arm of the festival. “You’ll get to be a part of pop culture. So that’s going to be exciting.”

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